On the sea, a steam-powered ship with a smoking chimney is sailing.
At the bow, a Difference Machine is ticking away, continuously spitting out sheets of paper filled with data such as wind speed, speed of travel, and route distance. In front of the Difference Machine, a scribe is diligently copying down these figures, which will be sent to the Difference Machines located throughout the ship, allowing the vessel to adjust its course automatically.
Even though it is a steamboat, it is an autonomously navigating steamboat—aside from the hundreds of scribes on board, there are no other crew members.
This scene, although wondrous and steampunk in style, does not astonish the passengers, for after the first steampunk revolution, such steamboats have appeared across the seas, and even as far away as the Far East, there are imitations of it.
