The Difference Engine

By William Gibson, 1990

A short summary...

The book imagines what would have happened if Charles Babbage's "computer" was completed and was widely used in the UK since 1830 , leading to an information society a hundred years before it really happened. The story is set twenty years later and focuses on a plot about a stack of punchcards.

My opinion...

I didn't really like the pure literary part of the book. I found the main plot too much complicated, and the descriptions too much precise sometime for a fluid reading. However the ideas developed are brilliant.

1. At the era of Big Data, the book is still relevant, as it tackles the issue of gathering data (about criminals for example).

2. It also tackles the issue of socialism and revolution, as in the novel the governement seems to invest rather on this whole new Engines that on social issues, which will to lead to troubles.

3. The reader does not see Babbage as much in the book (except at very end): it would have been interesting to have his opinion on the coming era, and the way things have change, in a positive way or not.

4. We do not see actually see how Babbage's engines can influence global economy and finance. Maybe, would the "1873 panic" (one of the first financial crisis) have occured earlier?

Charles Babbage, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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