Small by Design? Acting, Being, and Feeling Small in the History of Quantum and Mechanical Computation

Abstract Accounts of the relationship between eighteenth century artisanal practice and the development of modern scientific practice and culture have produced an influential range of concepts that have aided historical and sociological accounts of contemporary scientific practice: invisible technicians, tacit knowledge and artisanal thriftiness have all served as tools to understanding the integration, processes and development of more contemporary scientific practice. However, despite the seemingly apparent evocation of artisanal practice as something related to—but eventually “less than”—scientific practice in terms of authority, resources and geographical reach, concepts alluding to smallness has been frequently evoked but received little attention as an analytical category tool in its right. This paper will offer two case studies to interrogate the relationship between “smallness” and practice with an emphasis on counterposing actor’s categories with the social relations of knowledge/technical production. The first case explores the relations between the London clock and watch making community and the (human) computers and calculators employed by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The second traces and analyses the development of quantum technologies in Europe in the twenty-first century. By analysing the different uses and meanings of “smallness” in these two contexts, this paper will highlight the strategies, intentions and debates within techno-scientific and artisanal groups and point to the different ways in which “smallness” operates. This paper will suggest that through paying attention to “smallness,” concepts such as experience and feeling may offer a useful way into thinking about issues of scale and development in contemporary science.