At one time, the world had gender parity among computer programmers. And the female half of the
first two coders, Ada Lovelace, in
1843 ushered in the age of the
general-purpose computers by putting
these prophetic words into print
Hi Special Author in Charge of Wolf 🐺 O'Rourc here
with his trusty time-traveling recorder to
bring you the story of Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada Byron, daughter of poet Lord Byron, recognized her friend Charles Babbage’s
Analytical Engine as the first
programmable general-purpose computer
capable of more than just math.
Numbers could represent other things
By including detailed steps to program the Engine to solve a number of problems
she became the first person in history
to publish a computer algorithm
why does the word for a finite sequence of well-defined, unambiguous computer-implementable
instructions derive from Latinizing the name
of Iranian mathematician al-Khwarizmi?
Yes, his translated books were widely
read in Europe in the late Middle Ages
One of them, Algoritmi de Numero Indorum
Latin for Algoritmi on the Numbers of the Indians
made “Algorism,” his name in English
the word for performing arithmetic
with decimal numbers
Very different from computing by machine, though
Why don't we call it an Adarithm?
Did her gender deprive Ada of this honor?
Let’s look at the path this early
inspirational woman in tech took to become
the first published computer scientist
As a woman far ahead of her time, Ada’s private life packed enough drama for her own reality TV show
In 1815, Lord Byron expected a “glorious boy” and
showed his disappointment about a girl
Readers of Cyberspiracy know a similar story
He didn't love his kid, although he did name her
Augusta after his half-sister and supposed lover
His Lordship separated from his wife within months
Illnesses haunted Ada from early childhood on
Headaches affected her vision
Measles left her paralyzed
Despite her ailments, she developed her
mathematical and technological skills in a time
that barred women from higher education
Her main tutor, another noted woman in tech,
researcher and author Mary Somerville
Like any twelve years old with dreams
Ada reached for the stars
She wanted to fly and methodically pursued her passion
To construct wings, she investigated various
materials like paper, oilsilk, and feathers
She examined the anatomy of birds, memorializing
her efforts in an illustrated book, Flyology
A steam-driven flying horse, anyone?
With her talents, a teenage Ada befriended other noted British thinkers
Scientist Michael Faraday
who researched electromagnetism
Author Charles Dickens, who wrote classics
like A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist
And, most important, the
father of computers Charles Babbage
who bestowed upon her the titles
“Lady Fairy” and “Enchantress of Number.”
Popular at Court, Ada flirted with scandals
You can just see how far ahead of her time she was
Her liberal views of extra-marital relationships led to rumors of affairs worthy of a modern-day soap opera
1835 she married William, 8th Baron King
Herself a descendant of the Barons Lovelace
her title was revived three years later
when they were made Earl and Countess of Lovelace
Like most programmers, she loved games
And like any hacker worth her random salt
she looked for cheats
But disastrous results from her
mathematical model to bet on horses
left her thousands of pounds in debt to the gambling syndicate she'd formed with male friends
Fortunately for her, mob-ruled Las Vegas
came along 100 years past her time
She only suffered the embarrassment
of admitting her losses to her husband
Ada deeply believed that intuition and
imagination were critical to effectively
applying mathematical and scientific concepts
She wove together an imaginative mix of different
fields into what she called “poetical science”
It led her to examine how individuals
and society relate to technology
Italian engineer and future Prime Minister Luigi Menabrea's description of the Analytical Engine
led to her article
To womansplain her insights to other scientists
who had yet to grasp or care for the complicated technology, she spent nine months on a translation
More familiar with the machine, she corrected
some errors and expanded on the design
Her own appended notes, including the algorithms
quadrupled the length of the text
The bigger picture that Babbage failed to see
excited Ada, the potential of a computing
machine beyond pure calculations
She pursued the relationship of math
and music until the end of her short life
What would she say today now that artificial intelligence
finished a composition based on Beethoven’s draft of a tenth symphony?
Particularly, since another of
her notes seems to dismiss AI
Why didn’t Ada’s pioneering work in computing immortalize her instead of al-Khwarizmi?
A number of conspiracy theories spring to mind
First, Lady Lovelace’s name doesn't appear
at all in the September 1843 edition of
Taylor's Scientific Memoirs. She called
herself “Translator” on the title page and
signed her notes with her initials “A.A.L.”
Female authors continue this
gender-neutral practice to this day
Can you say 50 Shades of Coding?
So the boys got all the credit, but let’s face it, “Menabrithm” and “Babbagrithm” are mouthfuls
Babbage wrote most of the algorithms she published
as evidenced by his personal notes and letters
Technically, Ada is the world’s second programmer.
But yours truly has uncovered a much more fanciful tale
For Ada met Doc Brown during his time travels and
borrowed his DeLorean to make her own trip Back to the Future
While flying over Washington, DC, she found its most mathematical building, the Pentagon, irresistible
The programmers there fell for her charm and intellect
named their new object-oriented programming language after her
They also added one of the earliest government Easter eggs, a message hidden in an electronic medium
The number of the Department of Defense Military Standard for ADAMIL-STD-1815, matches her birth year
Such honors so flattered Lady Lovelace
that upon returning to her time
she rejected any use of her name for other programming terms to not bias them toward her language
As an aside and shameless plug for my novels
on her trip Ada also became an avid reader of Cyberspiracy
Don't belief me?
I have incontrovertible proof
Why else would she call her daughter
Anne Isabella by the nickname Annabella?
Don't give me the lame excuse that she got it from her mother Annabella Milbanke Byron
when my explanation is so much more fun and exciting
That’s my story and I'm sticking to it
At least until the next Ada Lovelace Day
The second Tuesday in October has become a
celebration of the contributions of women to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
If you want more inspiration (and fun and excitement)
check out www.Cyberspiracy.com
like cyberpiracy with an S and less stress
SAC Wolf over and out
