[Leica] Steampunk

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

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