Essay Questions

What is the significance of the novel’s title?

The title of the novel is a reference to Charles Babbage’s difference engine, a very early form of mechanical calculating device. Although this is the title given to the novel, the actual device in question is the Analytical Engine--an early form of a general purpose computer--that is used as a plot device and plot driver in the novel. The successful implementation of these devices in many daily functions in early Victorian England is what catapults the nation into a digital revolution a century earlier than our own timeline.

What is the significance of the revelation of the narrator’s identity at the end of the novel?

The narrator’s identity is revealed at the end of the novel to be a computer A.I. achieving self-awareness. This is significant because the author is surmising that this is the “natural” end result of all mechanical computing/calculating devices as they become progressively more complex and capable of processing more massive inputs of information is sentience, real sentience on par with a human mind. More than this however is the more important, and perhaps more chilling implications of the obliquely hinted question that is this: when machines are achieve the ability to reason and think like humans do, what’s to stop them from actually surpassing the human mind and set out to achieve its own agenda?

Is the novel a work of speculative fiction or can it be considered a social commentary? Support your answer.

The novel can be considered as both an example of speculative fiction as well as a social commentary. The novel takes a playful, creative look into how events in history might have turned out had certain events happened differently or had failed to occur altogether. In using this inventive approach to historical and technological developments it also asks poignant questions concerning the ethics of technology use, especially in the field of political expansion through the application of military technology, police enforcement, and economic development.