Everything about The Difference Engine totally explained
The Difference Engine is an
alternate history novel by
William Gibson and
Bruce Sterling. It is a prime example of the
steampunk sub-genre.
The novel was nominated for the
Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1991 and the
John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1992.
Plot setting
The novel posits a
Victorian Britain in which the
Industrial Radical Party, a political party led by a longer-lived
Lord Byron (who never died in the
Greek War of Independence, as he did within our world), has won power after the changes that occurred in British society when entrepreneurial inventor
Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical
computer (actually his
analytical engine rather than the
difference engine).
Before that occurred, the
Duke of Wellington tried to prevent the acceleration of
technological change and social upheaval, leading to a
coup d'etat in
1830 AD, and his assassination in
1831 AD. After that event, the Industrial Radical Party proved to have the best prospect of government in the political vacuum that emerged, and the eclipse of the nineteenth century
Tory Party and
hereditary peerage ensued as a result. Insofar as radical social reform occurred, British
trade unions were co-opted to assist the ascendancy of the Industrial Radical Party, much as the
Labour Party of Great Britain did in the late
nineteenth century in our own world. However,
Luddite anti-industrialist
working class revolutionaries were ruthlessly suppressed.
Following this success, the Babbage computers become mass-produced and ubiquitous, and their use emulates the innovations which actually occurred during our
information technology and
Internet revolutions. The novel explores the social consequences of an "information technology" revolution in the nineteenth century, such as the emergence of "clackers" (a reference to
hackers), technically proficient people skilled at programming the Engines through the use of punch-cards, such as
Théophile Gautier.
In the novel, the
British Empire is more powerful than it was in our world, thanks to the development and use of extremely advanced
steam driven technology in industry. In addition, similar military technology has enhanced the capabilities of the armed forces (airships, dreadnoughts, and artillery); and the Babbage computers themselves. Britain, rather than the
United States opened
Japan to Western trade, in part because the United States became fragmented, due to interference from a Britain which foresaw the implications of a truly United States on the world stage. Counterpart successor states to our world's United States include: a (truncated) United States; the
Confederate States of America; the
Republic of Texas; the
Republic of California; a
Communist Manhattan Island commune (with
Karl Marx as a leading light); British North America (analogous to
Canada, albeit slightly larger in this world); Russian America (
Alaska); and
terra nullius. Additionally, all land in the
Americas are colloquially referred to as America (Viz: Sybil:
Do you know anything about Texas, Hetty? Hetty:
A country in America. French own it, don't they?).
Napoleon III's
French Empire holds an
entente with the British and Napoleon is even married to a British woman. In the world of
The Difference Engine, it occupies
Mexico. Like Great Britain, it has its own analytical/difference engines, especially used in the context of domestic
surveillance within its
police force and
intelligence agencies.
As for the other world powers,
Germany remains fragmented, with no suggestion that
Prussia will eventually form the core of a unified nation as it did in our own world in
1871 AD, which may be due to French subterfuge analogous to that pursued in the case of the fragmentation of the United States noted above. As also noted above,
Japan is awakening after the British ended its isolation, and look set to become one of this world's leading industrial and economic powers from the twentieth century onward, as they did in our world. In some respects, though, this alternate Victorian era is more humane than our own world's equivalent was. For example, due to Lord Byron and Lord Babbage's intervention, the
Irish potato famine never occurred here, and there's no mention of agitation for
Irish home rule or
Irish independence from this British Empire as a result.
Among other historical characters, the novel features "
Texian" President
Sam Houston, as an exile after a political coup in
Texas, a reference to
Percy Bysshe Shelley (as a
Luddite),
John Keats as a
kinotropist (an operator of mechanical
pixelated screens), and
Benjamin Disraeli as a publicist and tabloid writer.
Under the
Industrial Radical Party, Britain shows the utmost respect for leading scientific and industrial figures such as
Isambard Kingdom Brunel and
Charles Darwin. Indeed, they're collectively called "savants" and often raised to the
peerage on their merits, causing a break with the past as regards social prestige and class distinction. These new patterns are also reflected in the educational sphere; classical studies have lost importance, and are replaced by more practical concerns (such as engineering, accountancy, etc).
Plot summary
The action of the story follows Sybil Gerard, a political courtesan and daughter of an executed
Luddite leader (she is borrowed from
Disraeli's novel
Sybil); Edward "Leviathan" Mallory, a
paleontologist and explorer; and
Laurence Oliphant, a historical figure with a real career, as portrayed in the book, as a travel writer whose work was a cover for espionage activities "
undertaken in the service of Her Majesty". Linking all their stories is the trail of a mysterious set of reportedly very powerful computer
punch cards and the individuals fighting to obtain them.
As is the case with special objects in several novels by Gibson, the punch cards are to some extent a
MacGuffin.
During the story, many characters come to believe that the punch cards are a
gambling "modus," a program that would, theoretically, always allow the user to place reliable bets. This is in line with
Ada Lovelace's penchant for gambling (in both the novel and actuality). Only in the last chapter is it revealed that the punched cards represent a program which prove
two theorems which in reality wouldn't be discovered until 1931 by
Kurt Gödel.
Ada Lovelace delivers a lecture on the subject in France.
Defending the cards, Mallory gathers his brothers and a policeman to fight the revolutionary
Captain Swing who leads a London riot during "
the Stink", a major episode of pollution in which London swelters under an
inversion layer (comparable to
the London Smog of December 1952).
After the abortive uprising, Oliphant and the pseudonymous former Sybil Gerard meet at a cafe in
Chablis. Oliphant informs her that he's aware of her true identity, but won't pursue it, although he does want information that would compromise her seducer, Charles Egremont MP, now regarded as an obstacle to the strategies and political ambitions of Lords Brunel and Babbage. Sybil has longed for the opportunity for vengeance against Egremont, and the resultant political scandal destroys his parliamentary career and aspirations for a merit lordship. Oliphant also encounters a Manhattan-based group of feminist pantomime artists, uncannily similar to contemporary
feminist performance artists involved in debates over US
National Endowment for the Arts funding in the late eighties and early nineties in our world.
After several vignettes that elaborate on the alternate historical origins of the world of
The Difference Engine, Ada Lovelace delivers the aforementioned lecture on Godels Theorem, as its counterpart is known in our world. She is chaperoned by Fraser, and castigated by Sybil Gerard, who is still unable to forgive Ada's own father, the late Lord Byron, for his role in her own father's death.
At the very end of the novel, there's a
dystopian depiction of an alternate
1901 AD from the vantage point of Ada Lovelace. Throughout the novel's latter sections, there are references to an "Eye", which appears to be a
metaphor for
Jeremy Bentham's
Panopticon- the concept of omnipresent
surveillance technology initially mooted for nineteenth century
prison architecture, and the subject of contemporary concern about its intrusions against
human rights and
civil liberties from authoritarian western societies who use the development of information technology to monitor, regulate and police their populations, as
Michel Foucault noted in his
Discipline and Punish (1977).
Human beings appear to have become digitised ephemeral
ciphers at the mercy of a sentient
artificial intelligence, implied to be as a consequence of this world's accelerated development of information technology.
Character names
- The character Michael Godwin was named after attorney Mike Godwin as thanks for his technical assistance in linking Sterling and Gibson's computers to allow them to collaborate between Austin and Vancouver.
- The character Captain Swing was named after the fictitious leader of the Swing Riots of 1830.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Difference Engine'.
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