Suppose Babbage had succeeded in creating a general?purpose mechanical computer that could operate at, say, one operation per second. What effect, if any, do you think it might have had on Babbage's Victorian society?

What will be an ideal response?

Technology is often interlinked. A development in one area is made because there is a need for that development. Technology often develops across a broad front (chemistry, materials science, engineering, electronics and so on). Had Victorian society developed mechanical computers (of the form envisaged by Babbage), engineering and scientific calculations may have been improved, but I doubt whether there would have been a major impact on society. It was the development of the chemical industries and the beginning of electronics that led to our modern society.