The precarity engine: An alternative, incomplete history of British computing
Soundings - Print ISSN 1362-6620 - Online ISSN 1741-0797
Volume 2025 Number 89
The precarity engine: An alternative, incomplete history of British computing
Carl Rowlands pages 137‑154
DOI: 10.3898/SOUN:89.09.2025
Abstract
This abridged history of the British computer industry is an attempt to revise some of the prevailing narratives that have surrounded the growth of electronics and computing power since the 1940s. Whilst research into computer technology has resulted in some remarkable innovations, it is important to consider these within the continuum of UK imperial and post-imperial network construction, initiated in the nineteenth century and intensified during the world wars and Cold War of the twentieth century. Despite its current subservient role in relation to the United States, the UK has never been an underdog in this process - it has always been one of the leading powers in driving quantitative assessment of the physical and social environment. There are more benign aspects of technological development - for example, within the education sector, within medical and environmental sciences and within the pioneering games industry; but this should not distract from the physical realities of overproduction and profit-driven expansion, compounded by the discourse around rollout of Machine Learning (ML) and Large Language Models (LLMs) in what is now usually described as Artificial Intelligence (AI). There is a lack of political and social mechanisms to mediate the impacts of technology. Human life in its complexity is therefore increasingly posed as a ‘problem’ in search of a ‘solution’. The conclusion makes the case for an assertive conception of the public good, and ways to realign the tech workforce so that it interacts with a public sphere, and empowers consideration of impact for each and every technology-related decision.
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To cite this article
Carl Rowlands (2025) The precarity engine: An alternative, incomplete history of British computing, Soundings, 2025(89), 137-154 . https://doi.org/10.3898/SOUN:89.09.2025