Mostly American

We headed in to London today for the Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination exhibition at the Science Museum. The exhibition begins in a style reminiscent of the Doctor Who Experience, with an introduction by the AI agent, ALANN. Most of the exhibition comprises costumes and props from various sci-fi films and programmes over the years, from Frankenstein and Metropolis through Doctor Who, Star Trek and Star Wars, to more recent films. These are tied - sometimes tenuously - to scientific questions, such as the question of faster-than-light travel, cybernetics, the way we imagine other life forms, and the way we endanger ourselves and the only planet known to host life. A wall of NASA-sponsored travel posters based on Kepler and other exoplanet searches was also an enjoyable component. Mostly the exhibition steered clear of political questions - other than that of the environment - avoiding, for example, whether Daleks, Klingons, or other totalitarian aliens are just a representation of Nazis in our imagination. Thinking of Doctor Who specifically, questions about dimensional transcendentality or regeneration also have valid scientific lines of enquiry. Overall, it was a fun exhibition, and good to get out.

We also briefly took in the mathematical and information science sections in the main museum. I'd seen the fragment of Babbage's Analytical Engine before, but Scheutz's Difference Engine of 1859 was new. How typical of the Germans (it turns out that Scheutz was Swedish - ed) to steal our ideas and actually implement them.