Challenge 10

Top Secret: For your eyes only

Address by Mary Boole, at the opening of the Massourie Headquarters of the Herschel Foundation I have been asked, and it is my pleasure, to address you all at the opening of our new facility at Massourie. I must start by thanking my friends and colleagues for this opportunity to serve. When I first saw the foundation machine producing the results of its calculations, I was a little underwhelmed. The brass and steel, wires and lamps seemed less like a machine and more like the skeleton and nervous system of a relatively simple beast which, it seemed to me in my ignorance, could merely speed up what we could already do. In this I was profoundly wrong. The machine was not a calculating engine, it was a microscope and a telescope combined, that offered us an entirely new way of examining society. Its speed was impressive, but its ability to absorb vast quantities of information, to sort it and find patterns within it were of far greater consequence. It was our founder Caroline Herschel who first realised the importance of the dawning of the machine age, and who recruited Ada Lovelace to her cause. Together they worked with Babbage, Wheatstone, and others, to shape and make full use of the new technologies that were becoming available to them. Compared to the devices we now have available, those early machines seem feeble, but they foreshadowed the engines that now form the backbone of our work, harvesting, deciphering and analysing the vast flow of information across the telegraphic network and allowing us to see where and when we can have the greatest influence. It is no accident that our founders were women. Forced by convention to exert power by subtle persuasion rather than force, they recognized the power of that modus operandi to change society for good, and they worked tirelessly with that aim. We are the fortunate heirs of that tradition, with this new facility providing us with power beyond their hopes, if not beyond their dreams. With this power comes a warning. Our ability to see what may come would be of enormous value to our enemies. The damage that could be done by those whose aim is the control of nations and wealth if they had access to our machines and knowledge is unthinkable. This power must remain hidden, even from those we work to serve. Following the example of our founders, we will exert our influence by stealth, taking positions in society where we can best shape it, using our ability to forecast diplomatic, economic, and social storms in order to help our nations to weather them. At no time can we afford to tell them what we are doing, nor how we are doing it. There are those within our government who would see our capability in terms of warfare. While we are dedicated to the prevention of conflict, they would turn it instead into a weapon. With that weapon they would build a world in their own image, poisoned by violence and greed. Of course, there is a risk in what we do. Without revealing the machines and their workings it can be difficult, and sometimes impossible, to convince our governments of impending danger. We are all guilty of refusing to face the truth at times when it does not suit us, but we must never yield to the temptation to reveal our secret. Where we can reshape destiny, we must. Where we cannot do so without risk of discovery, we cannot. It has been the greatest joy to bring this project to its conclusion here at the heart of beauty, where we are awed by the thunder of the falls that drive our machines. We are like the sun, whose heat releases the torrent of meltwater that carves its way down through rocks and onto the blades which drive our generators. Our power is indirect but irresistible, and capable of changing things forever. But we also stand humbled by those who built the knowledge enabling our machines, from the elders of Greek mathematics, Euclid and Hypatia, through to Babbage and Lovelace. That knowledge does not belong to us but is entrusted to our generation by those who went before. As we stand here in Massourie, it seems more than appropriate to acknowledge that there are others, less celebrated, who have trodden the path we are on. I speak of the Hindu mathematicians whose work had such an influence on my uncle, George Everest, and my husband George Boole. We have still much to learn from India about the psychology of mathematical study generally. And there are many other branches of learning in which our powers are still latent, waiting the touch of India to thaw them into life, releasing our frozen, dormant faculties. From Trinity Wharf to Souter Point, we see the power of new electrically powered technologies to shine a light on mariners’ journeys and to warn them away from the rocks. Our organisation was founded to play the same role in society, to enlighten and to warn, and we are the lighthouse keepers whose job it is to keep the lamp lit and turning. As the generators begin to turn, powering the next stage in our development, I must issue a reminder to you all. The machines are just one part of an enormous enterprise. Without your work all the calculations in the world would have no impact. But now it is time for me to finish and stand aside. Unlike the machines, we are mortal, and the time will come for you, as it has for me, to step down from your roles. With that in mind you must forever be alert to those who might take your place in the lighthouse. Without new members our mission will die and so will many innocents whose lives may be saved by our ceaseless work. For all its power the machine has been unable to tell us the future of our organisation; instead, we must continue to build it for ourselves, one day at a time. I wish you all every fortune in that crucial work.