Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Kyle writes: I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the literary genre of "steampunk" - sometimes called "modern Victorian" - an offshoot of science fiction whose premise is (vaguely) that Charles Babbage was successful in getting his steam powered difference engine working and the computer revolution began in the 1800's - albeit mechanically powered. I'm tickled pink that the 10th issue of Semaphore magazine is using one of my steampunk images on this month's cover. You can download the whole thingie here: http://www.semaphoremagazine.com/Semaphore%20March%202010.pdf It's a photo I'm quite happy with. One light behind a medium shoot-thru umbrella to camera left and one with a cardboard snoot behind the models aimed up at the locomotive. - - - - - - - - And it is a nice image indeed. But the whole premise of "steampunk" fascinates me. Most of us imagine that the computer revolution began with IBM in the early 50s but, in fact, mechanical devices for calculation had been used for at least two centuries before. I still cherish a handful of slide rules and did calculations for a thesis using a hand cranked Curta calculator. When teaching a graduate course in labor policy twenty years ago I often asked students to write term papers exploring the impact on current work values if the computer had been invented before the steam engine. Indeed there is a history of "calculating engines" and technologies that predate the harnessing of either steam or electrical power. What I was looking for was the concept that intellectual skills would than have a lessened value compared to human manual skills. Parenthetically, it is more of less true today in entertainment and athletics where movie stars and star baseball and soccer players make considerably more money than computer programmers and college professors. Larry Z