In the previous episode, we looked at the birth of industry - large-scale mechanized production, as part of the story of the Industrial Revolution that began in Britain in the late 1700s. Towards the latter part of the Industrial Revolution, some erudite and expansive mind surveying and chronicling the breadth and scale of change and progress this movement had wrought could be forgiven for proclaiming that ‘all technological progress as might be conceived by the wit of man has already so been definitively implemented by his ken. We are the peak of civilization!’

But of course, those words would turn out to be rather vain, even look foolish in time. Let’s explore why.

Imagine a time-travel scene in which somehow Charles Babbage is transported, perhaps along with the admirable Ada Lovelace, a hundred years in time, to meet fellow-Briton Alan Turing.

Turing, with great flourish...

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