1 00:00:12,403 --> 00:00:15,239 I'm Sally [INAUDIBLE]. 2 00:00:15,239 --> 00:00:18,990 I'm professor in the English faculty here. 3 00:00:18,990 --> 00:00:21,130 But perhaps more pertinently, for 4 00:00:21,130 --> 00:00:25,920 the conference, I'm the PI on NHRC funded project, 5 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:30,180 Constructing Scientific Communities, Citizen Science in the 19th and 6 00:00:30,180 --> 00:00:33,690 21st Centuries, to something I think that Ada would very much have approved of. 7 00:00:33,690 --> 00:00:37,990 Seeing as what we're hoping to do is to unveil the hidden history of all those who 8 00:00:37,990 --> 00:00:43,140 were working in science in the 19th century outside the professional domain. 9 00:00:43,140 --> 00:00:45,150 Also, currently, 10 00:00:45,150 --> 00:00:49,820 we're working with the wonderful online citizen science program Zooniverse, 11 00:00:49,820 --> 00:00:55,410 which is extending science participation to over 1.3 million people at the moment. 12 00:00:55,410 --> 00:00:58,020 So wonderful legacy, I think, of Ada. 13 00:00:58,020 --> 00:01:00,590 I'd now like to introduce our first speaker, Dr. 14 00:01:00,590 --> 00:01:03,639 Elizabeth Bruton who is a researcher in history of science, 15 00:01:03,639 --> 00:01:06,830 based at the History of Science Museum in Oxford. 16 00:01:06,830 --> 00:01:07,610 Thank you, Elizabeth. 17 00:01:07,610 --> 00:01:11,270 >> Thank you very much. 18 00:01:11,270 --> 00:01:14,130 Thank you very much for the invitation to speak here today. 19 00:01:14,130 --> 00:01:17,375 And I'm really delighted to be part of this very exciting two day event and 20 00:01:17,375 --> 00:01:21,524 I very much enjoyed the papers this morning, as well. 21 00:01:21,524 --> 00:01:26,820 In this paper, the recently 22 00:01:26,820 --> 00:01:30,065 published comic by Sydney Padra who is in the audience around here somewhere. 23 00:01:30,065 --> 00:01:32,159 The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and 24 00:01:32,159 --> 00:01:36,570 Babbage features a fictionalized version of the two historic characters. 25 00:01:36,570 --> 00:01:41,338 One based on contemporary material and is the latest popular cultural representation 26 00:01:41,338 --> 00:01:44,300 of Ada Lovelace, as well as Charles Babbage. 27 00:01:44,300 --> 00:01:49,140 To mark the 200th anniversary of Lovelace's birth today, I will review and 28 00:01:49,140 --> 00:01:53,040 explore academic and popular representations of Ada Lovelace, and 29 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:54,470 engage with controversy and 30 00:01:54,470 --> 00:01:59,010 debate about Lovelace's claims as the first computer programmer. 31 00:01:59,010 --> 00:02:04,050 Just to note before I begin, I'm aware that she has three different titles 32 00:02:04,050 --> 00:02:08,450 throughout her lifetime, Ada Byron, the Lady King, the Countess of Lovelace. 33 00:02:08,450 --> 00:02:12,350 But I've chosen, throughout her life, to refer to her as the modern term, 34 00:02:12,350 --> 00:02:14,820 Ada Lovelace, even when perhaps she is, in fact, Ada Byron. 35 00:02:14,820 --> 00:02:19,940 Just to clarify that, so I'm going to begin with the writings on and 36 00:02:19,940 --> 00:02:22,580 about Ada Lovelace during her lifetime 37 00:02:22,580 --> 00:02:26,720 as sort of a baseline to understand the contemporary understandings of her work. 38 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,170 Including her working relationship with Babbage, and 39 00:02:29,170 --> 00:02:32,040 her contribution to the translations and notes. 40 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:37,770 Then I will move forwards just over 100 years to the mid-20th century, and locate 41 00:02:37,770 --> 00:02:43,360 her work within the early histories of computer programming and computer science. 42 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:49,650 And how it was viewed and indeed, used by pioneers in the field 43 00:02:49,650 --> 00:02:54,770 who mapped some of the work by Babbage and Lovelace in mathematics and calculation 44 00:02:54,770 --> 00:02:58,820 onto the early computer programming and systems that they were using. 45 00:02:58,820 --> 00:03:03,320 I'll then move on to the 1970s through to the present day to show how academic 46 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:08,250 interest and ideas about Babbage but more importantly, 47 00:03:08,250 --> 00:03:13,195 Lovelace developed from the 1970s through to the present day. 48 00:03:13,195 --> 00:03:17,480 To discuss the debate about her contributions and 49 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:19,460 whether we could consider her a computer programmer, 50 00:03:19,460 --> 00:03:21,290 a debugger or maybe something completely different. 51 00:03:21,290 --> 00:03:26,020 I will then show how Lovelace became, as a result of sort of academic and 52 00:03:26,020 --> 00:03:30,940 popular interest, became a figure in popular culture, more generally. 53 00:03:30,940 --> 00:03:35,420 Particularly, in the steam [INAUDIBLE] genre, particularly interested in her role 54 00:03:35,420 --> 00:03:40,110 in the difference engine novel as well as Sydney [INAUDIBLE] work, and 55 00:03:40,110 --> 00:03:41,050 indeed others. 56 00:03:41,050 --> 00:03:43,627 How she came, at least, in popular culture, 57 00:03:43,627 --> 00:03:47,857 to be understood as a figurehead and a role model and icon for women in STEM and 58 00:03:47,857 --> 00:03:52,021 indeed, women in the history of STEM, which is something I believe will be 59 00:03:52,021 --> 00:03:59,259 discussed in more detail later this afternoon. 60 00:03:59,259 --> 00:04:02,300 In her lifetime, Ada Lovelace was probably best known for 61 00:04:02,300 --> 00:04:06,395 her parentage, in particular being the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, 62 00:04:06,395 --> 00:04:10,902 as much as for her intellectual activities and interest in mathematics and science. 63 00:04:10,902 --> 00:04:16,500 Lovelace only knew her father in the first month of her life, 64 00:04:16,500 --> 00:04:18,550 as we heard earlier this morning. 65 00:04:18,550 --> 00:04:23,610 He separated from her mother a month after Lovelace was born, and left 66 00:04:23,610 --> 00:04:32,270 England forever four months later, just around a year after they'd been married. 67 00:04:32,270 --> 00:04:36,830 Lovelace had an early and natural interest in machines, in mathematics and 68 00:04:36,830 --> 00:04:39,090 science, as we've heard earlier this morning. 69 00:04:39,090 --> 00:04:41,229 Her somewhat distant but intellectually and 70 00:04:41,229 --> 00:04:44,990 educationally progressive mother encouraged her interests by arranging for 71 00:04:44,990 --> 00:04:51,820 her to receive a first class education even in science, mathematics, and logic. 72 00:04:51,820 --> 00:04:56,310 Her mother also remained concerned about the influence of Byron's romantic nature 73 00:04:56,310 --> 00:04:58,820 and mental instability upon her daughter and 74 00:04:58,820 --> 00:05:02,640 believed her education might be one way to overcome this. 75 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,830 However, in many ways, Lovelace embodied what might later come 76 00:05:05,830 --> 00:05:09,930 to be known as two cultures of science and humanities. 77 00:05:09,930 --> 00:05:10,630 As we've heard earlier, 78 00:05:10,630 --> 00:05:15,040 this is also a tension between her relationship with her mother and father. 79 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:18,250 With Lovelace describing her approach as poetical science and 80 00:05:18,250 --> 00:05:21,520 herself as an analyst and metaphysician. 81 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:23,470 Babbage also acknowledged this dichotomy, 82 00:05:23,470 --> 00:05:28,060 describing her in 1843 as the enchantress of numbers. 83 00:05:28,060 --> 00:05:31,575 Quoting, forget this world and all its troubles, and if possible its 84 00:05:31,575 --> 00:05:35,566 multitudinous charlatans, everything in short but the enchantress of numbers. 85 00:05:35,566 --> 00:05:40,532 In her lifetime, the most substantial material relation to her contribution to 86 00:05:40,532 --> 00:05:43,100 Babbage's difference engine are her translations of and 87 00:05:43,100 --> 00:05:46,960 notes relating to Italian military engineer Menabrea's French 88 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:51,460 language memoir, sketch of the analytical engine, invented by Charles Babbage, 89 00:05:51,460 --> 00:05:56,510 deposited at the Biblioteca Universal de Geneva in October 1842. 90 00:05:56,510 --> 00:05:58,560 Lovelace's translations and notes, 91 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,950 the notes being approximately three times the length of the original text, 92 00:06:01,950 --> 00:06:06,000 which she worked on for nine months between 1842 and 1843 and regularly 93 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:10,670 discussed with Babbage were published in 1843 in Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, 94 00:06:10,670 --> 00:06:16,700 credited as notes by AAL, that is Augusta Ada Lovelace. 95 00:06:16,700 --> 00:06:21,500 Lovelace's piece added far more detail giving the reading public 96 00:06:21,500 --> 00:06:25,330 a clear description of what we would now call computer programming, as well as 97 00:06:25,330 --> 00:06:32,360 an elegant account of the new field's inquiry which the machine would open up. 98 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:36,520 In his 1864 biography, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 99 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:41,200 published over a decade after Lovelace's early death in 1852, Babbage 100 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:45,730 described Lovelace's contribution to and authorship of the translations and notes. 101 00:06:45,730 --> 00:06:50,920 We've got the the full description here but the key would be the notes of Countess 102 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:54,320 of Lovelace extended to about three times the length of the original memoir. 103 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:58,630 The author has entered fully into almost the very difficult and 104 00:06:58,630 --> 00:07:01,730 abstract questions connected with the subject. 105 00:07:01,730 --> 00:07:05,060 The two memoirs of [INAUDIBLE] and Lovelace's taken together, 106 00:07:05,060 --> 00:07:08,340 furnished to those who are capable of understanding the reasoning, 107 00:07:08,340 --> 00:07:12,760 a complete demonstration that the whole of the developments in operations of analysis 108 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:17,288 are now capable of being executed by machinery. 109 00:07:17,288 --> 00:07:22,530 He also describes how she essentially, to use modern terminology, 110 00:07:22,530 --> 00:07:26,370 debugged what might be considered the first computer bug. 111 00:07:26,370 --> 00:07:31,370 This important distinction in her work between the calculation operation 112 00:07:31,370 --> 00:07:36,320 of Babbage's difference engine and the wider programmable application of his 113 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:41,220 analytical engine was perhaps the most important aspect of Lovelace's notes. 114 00:07:41,220 --> 00:07:45,874 But one that went largely unnoticed and ignored by the British scientific elites 115 00:07:45,874 --> 00:07:50,938 of the mid-19th century and was not fully appreciated until the advent of electronic 116 00:07:50,938 --> 00:07:58,799 programmable computer over 100 years later, in the mid-20th century. 117 00:07:58,799 --> 00:08:03,548 In the 1940s, the development of electronic programmable computers on both 118 00:08:03,548 --> 00:08:08,295 sides of the Atlantic let early pioneers writing a history of this embryonic field 119 00:08:08,295 --> 00:08:13,177 of computer science, on a revived interest in the works of Babbage, Lovelace, and 120 00:08:13,177 --> 00:08:17,788 others whose work in calculation and mathematics had applicability in terms of 121 00:08:17,788 --> 00:08:22,230 the new field of computer science over 100 years later. 122 00:08:22,230 --> 00:08:25,850 Early computing pioneers shown here, such as Alan Turing in the UK and 123 00:08:25,850 --> 00:08:30,030 Howard Aiken in the U.S. would claim inspiration and to a certain degree, 124 00:08:30,030 --> 00:08:33,890 inheritance from the work of Babbage and Lovelace. 125 00:08:33,890 --> 00:08:35,930 While Babbage's difference engine project, 126 00:08:35,930 --> 00:08:38,950 as well as Lovelace's translation notes on the same, 127 00:08:38,950 --> 00:08:42,790 had never been entirely forgotten, there is little or no evidence of the direct 128 00:08:42,790 --> 00:08:46,570 influence of their work on the design of early computers until afterwards. 129 00:08:46,570 --> 00:08:50,610 When these early pioneers wrote their own histories of computer science. 130 00:08:50,610 --> 00:08:53,980 The somewhat Whiggish histories claimed Babbage's difference engine and 131 00:08:53,980 --> 00:08:58,010 analytical engine as their intellectual precursors, creating a narrative 132 00:08:58,010 --> 00:09:02,830 of computer science founded by Babbage and to a much lesser degree Lovelace and 133 00:09:02,830 --> 00:09:07,620 continued through to electronic computing in the mid-20th century. 134 00:09:07,620 --> 00:09:10,900 Nonetheless, as smaller, faster, and cheaper machines reached into 135 00:09:10,900 --> 00:09:14,800 every area of 20th century life, first Babbage and then Lovelace gained 136 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:19,050 new prominence as early visionaries of the computer revolution. 137 00:09:19,050 --> 00:09:24,170 First to the developments in the U.S. Howard Aiken, the original 138 00:09:24,170 --> 00:09:29,490 conceptual designer behind IBM's automatic sequence controller calculator, 139 00:09:29,490 --> 00:09:34,270 later known as the Harvard Mark I computer, built between 1940 and 1943, 140 00:09:34,270 --> 00:09:38,150 claimed inspiration from Charles Babbage and his difference engine. 141 00:09:38,150 --> 00:09:43,090 He cited Babbage's work in his proposal for the computer written for 142 00:09:43,090 --> 00:09:47,700 IBM in 1937, and continually expressed his admiration for Babbage's work. 143 00:09:47,700 --> 00:09:51,800 Further to this, an early article on the Harvard Mark I computer, written for 144 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:56,870 Nature in 1946, was entitled, Babbage's Dream Come True. 145 00:09:56,870 --> 00:10:02,080 However, the 1937 proposal contained a misunderstanding of Babbage and 146 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:06,760 his work and little influence of Babbage's work can be found in the architecture and 147 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:10,910 design of the Mark I, as well as many other publications and 148 00:10:10,910 --> 00:10:12,630 presentations by Akin. 149 00:10:12,630 --> 00:10:16,490 Further to this, Aiken arranged for a set of original computing 150 00:10:16,490 --> 00:10:21,210 wheels that had once been intended to form part of Babbage's difference engine. 151 00:10:21,210 --> 00:10:23,710 Originally, presented to Harvard by Babbage's son, 152 00:10:23,710 --> 00:10:28,510 Major General Henry Prevost Babbage in 1886 were put on display 153 00:10:28,510 --> 00:10:30,700 at the Harvard computer laboratory where Aiken worked. 154 00:10:30,700 --> 00:10:33,540 So he's making very explicit his inheritance 155 00:10:33,540 --> 00:10:36,090 from Babbage in a sort of visual presentation, 156 00:10:36,090 --> 00:10:39,970 as well as part of the content that he develops, despite the fact that the actual 157 00:10:39,970 --> 00:10:46,250 design of the computer does not seem to have any direct inheritance. 158 00:10:46,250 --> 00:10:49,600 To summarize, Babbage's influence on Aiken seems to have been 159 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,500 perhaps more spiritual than practical. 160 00:10:52,500 --> 00:10:55,240 It would seem that by connecting his work with that of Babbage, 161 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:57,460 Akin was promoting his own work and 162 00:10:57,460 --> 00:11:01,420 reputation rather than declaring a concrete inheritance from Babbage. 163 00:11:01,420 --> 00:11:04,520 Despite interesting parallels between Babbage and 164 00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:07,710 Lovelace and Akin and Grace Hopper, one of those early programmers, 165 00:11:07,710 --> 00:11:11,380 including that of their hardware software delineations, 166 00:11:11,380 --> 00:11:17,420 Lovelace was notably absent from Aiken's ruminations on the origins of computing. 167 00:11:17,420 --> 00:11:21,930 Across the pond, Alan Turing and his work on machine learning and 168 00:11:21,930 --> 00:11:26,110 artificial intelligence has perhaps a little bit more applicability. 169 00:11:26,110 --> 00:11:29,950 Lovelace was not, however, absent from the work of British computing pioneer 170 00:11:29,950 --> 00:11:33,940 Alan Turing who in a seminal paper on artificial intelligence and 171 00:11:33,940 --> 00:11:39,088 machine learning, computer machinery and intelligence published in Mind in 1950, 172 00:11:39,088 --> 00:11:43,470 referenced to Lovelace's work, in a section on Lady Lovelace's objection. 173 00:11:43,470 --> 00:11:48,140 Which quotes Lovelace's 1843 notes, specifically her statement, 174 00:11:48,140 --> 00:11:52,030 the analytical engine has no pretensions to originate anything. 175 00:11:52,030 --> 00:11:56,010 It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. 176 00:11:56,010 --> 00:11:59,540 A strong argument indeed against machine learning but one which Turing 177 00:11:59,540 --> 00:12:03,220 acknowledged was the principle of the equipment Lovelace was working with, or 178 00:12:03,220 --> 00:12:06,020 rather the design of the equipment she could have been working with 179 00:12:06,020 --> 00:12:10,650 in the mid-19th century, and not a general principle, and one unsurprisingly, 180 00:12:10,650 --> 00:12:14,540 he argued quite strongly against. 181 00:12:14,540 --> 00:12:17,970 By the early 1950s, Babbage, and to a lesser degree Lovelace, 182 00:12:17,970 --> 00:12:22,230 were starting to become an accepted part of the canon of early computing history. 183 00:12:22,230 --> 00:12:26,555 With notable examples including, B.V. Bowden's classic, Faster than 184 00:12:26,555 --> 00:12:31,180 Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing History, first published in 1953 and 185 00:12:31,180 --> 00:12:34,170 Morrison and Morrison's Charles Babbage And His Calculation Engines, 186 00:12:34,170 --> 00:12:38,340 Selected Writings by Charles Babbage and others, published in 1961. 187 00:12:38,340 --> 00:12:42,890 Both included Lovelace's translations and notes on the Menabrea paper and 188 00:12:42,890 --> 00:12:46,600 their appendices, probably the first time that these had been published in the 20th 189 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:48,930 century, and quite so prominently. 190 00:12:48,930 --> 00:12:52,320 However, both publications very much put Babbage front and center, 191 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:57,540 acknowledging his perceived importance in early programmable electronic computing. 192 00:12:57,540 --> 00:13:00,420 In particular, Bowden remarked that, quote, 193 00:13:00,420 --> 00:13:04,558 Babbage's ideas have only been properly appreciated in the last ten years. 194 00:13:04,558 --> 00:13:07,650 We now realize that he understood clearly all the fundamental 195 00:13:07,650 --> 00:13:11,808 principles which are embodied in modern digital computers. 196 00:13:11,808 --> 00:13:15,380 More generally, Bowden noted that the whole book, which is a symposium on 197 00:13:15,380 --> 00:13:19,710 digital computing machines, was in fact devoted to an account of the construction 198 00:13:19,710 --> 00:13:22,800 and use of the machine which Babbage's vision inspired. 199 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:27,041 So, like Aiken he's very much claiming an inheritance as much to promote his 200 00:13:27,041 --> 00:13:30,372 own work and the work other computer programming pioneers as 201 00:13:30,372 --> 00:13:34,594 it is to sort of inflate of the importance Babbage's work. 202 00:13:34,594 --> 00:13:38,842 These publications are representative of other publications in computing around 203 00:13:38,842 --> 00:13:43,089 this time would situate Lovelace as but a minor footnote in the overall narrative of 204 00:13:43,089 --> 00:13:46,450 Babbage's development of calculation and computing. 205 00:13:46,450 --> 00:13:51,130 But accepted unquestioningly her authorship of translation and notes. 206 00:13:51,130 --> 00:13:53,570 With these publications, the work of Babbage and 207 00:13:53,570 --> 00:13:57,670 Lovelace attracted the attention of academic historians in the 1960s and 208 00:13:57,670 --> 00:14:00,940 beyond, who began to examine their work in more detail. 209 00:14:00,940 --> 00:14:03,770 And to some degree, question and 210 00:14:03,770 --> 00:14:07,820 debate Lovelace's role in the production and authorship of translations and notes, 211 00:14:07,820 --> 00:14:15,640 as well as the potential development, at least, of the analytical engine. 212 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:18,870 The early to mid-1970s saw a renewed and 213 00:14:18,870 --> 00:14:21,000 popular academic interest in Lord Byron and 214 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:27,040 his family both legitimate, illegitimate, and apparently, also incestuous. 215 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:31,220 We've got a number here of publications published in the early to mid-1970s. 216 00:14:31,220 --> 00:14:35,650 But it was not until 1976, when Lovelace was the subject of 217 00:14:35,650 --> 00:14:39,810 individual attention with the publication of a short article in the Association for 218 00:14:39,810 --> 00:14:45,620 Women in Mathematics letter by Dee Anglin, I think is how you pronounce her surname. 219 00:14:45,620 --> 00:14:49,860 This was followed shortly the year after by Doris Moore's biography, and 220 00:14:49,860 --> 00:14:53,930 the first monograph on Lovelace, that is Ada Countess of Lovelace, 221 00:14:53,930 --> 00:14:57,200 Byron's legitimate daughter, published in 1977. 222 00:14:57,200 --> 00:14:59,880 Now Morris, as I'm sure most of you know, 223 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:02,780 was the first person to have full access to, and indeed to make a full study 224 00:15:02,780 --> 00:15:08,780 of the Lovelace papers, which are now held here in Oxford. 225 00:15:08,780 --> 00:15:13,570 From the 1980s through to the present day, Lovelace became the subject of scholarly 226 00:15:13,570 --> 00:15:15,560 attention with a number of key publications, 227 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:19,420 including those published and reissued over the past few years, and 228 00:15:19,420 --> 00:15:23,620 lead up to the bicentennial of her birth that we are celebrating here today. 229 00:15:23,620 --> 00:15:25,770 These include a number of publications, 230 00:15:25,770 --> 00:15:34,620 got a rather long list of what I consider to be the key publications in the field. 231 00:15:34,620 --> 00:15:38,280 Academic interest also led to a more critical approach 232 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:41,940 to Lovelace's contribution with some debates centered upon her authorship 233 00:15:41,940 --> 00:15:43,570 of translations and notes. 234 00:15:43,570 --> 00:15:46,790 In particular, her contribution to the sections now considered 235 00:15:46,790 --> 00:15:50,380 to be part of the cannon in relation to computer programming. 236 00:15:50,380 --> 00:15:54,335 Criticism centered upon how much work Babbage had put into the programs, 237 00:15:54,335 --> 00:15:57,210 cited prior to Lovelace's involvement and 238 00:15:57,210 --> 00:16:00,660 whether she was indeed capable of authoring the notes. 239 00:16:00,660 --> 00:16:04,980 In particular, two publications which came out around 1919 included strong critiques 240 00:16:04,980 --> 00:16:08,390 of Lovelace's contribution. 241 00:16:08,390 --> 00:16:10,970 I am sure there are others. 242 00:16:10,970 --> 00:16:14,550 Collier's 1990 publication, which is a significantly revised and 243 00:16:14,550 --> 00:16:19,030 updated version of his 1970s Harvard PHD thesis, 244 00:16:19,030 --> 00:16:24,380 argued strongly against Lovelace's claims to be the world's first programmer, thus. 245 00:16:24,380 --> 00:16:28,535 It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that Babbage wrote the notes to 246 00:16:28,535 --> 00:16:32,360 Menabrea's paper but for reasons of his own, encouraged the illusion 247 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:35,830 in the mind of Ada and the public that they were authored by her. 248 00:16:35,830 --> 00:16:38,890 It is no exaggeration to say that she was a manic depressive, 249 00:16:38,890 --> 00:16:41,850 with the most amazing delusions about her own talents, and 250 00:16:41,850 --> 00:16:45,800 a rather shallow understanding of both Charles Babbage and the analytical engine. 251 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:47,433 So quite a strong critique there. 252 00:16:47,433 --> 00:16:52,150 >> [LAUGH] >> He did follow this up about 253 00:16:52,150 --> 00:16:56,430 ten years later with a similarly expressed strong critique of Ada Lovelace that he 254 00:16:56,430 --> 00:17:02,240 published in The Economist, so he clearly hasn't moved on from that position. 255 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:05,840 Many other scholars, however, noted that Lovelace had a broad and 256 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:08,630 natural interest and an aptitude for mathematics and science, 257 00:17:08,630 --> 00:17:12,210 as we heard this morning, indeed yesterday, and had been educated and 258 00:17:12,210 --> 00:17:15,830 tutored by some of the finest mathematicians in England. 259 00:17:15,830 --> 00:17:20,730 In this regard, she was no ordinary aristocratic women, as Collier claims, and 260 00:17:20,730 --> 00:17:25,420 did indeed spend nine months working on the article in consultation with Babbage. 261 00:17:25,420 --> 00:17:29,070 Further to this, her contribution is acknowledged in Babbage's 262 00:17:29,070 --> 00:17:33,260 biography Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, which I quoted earlier. 263 00:17:33,260 --> 00:17:38,410 This is published in 1864, so over a decade after Lovelace's death when her 264 00:17:38,410 --> 00:17:43,130 patronage was clearly no longer available, so it might've been the case that if 265 00:17:43,130 --> 00:17:47,960 he was gonna tell that story and prove his reputation and standing. 266 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:51,150 Again, patronage, she's dead now. 267 00:17:51,150 --> 00:17:54,470 So there's not really much she can do to help them in that regard. 268 00:17:54,470 --> 00:17:59,420 Her correction of the bug in his equations, relation to the calculation of 269 00:17:59,420 --> 00:18:04,470 the Bernoulli numbers, those quite probably make her the first debugger. 270 00:18:04,470 --> 00:18:09,650 I believe that her status as the first computer programmer rests more on whether 271 00:18:09,650 --> 00:18:12,920 the material contained in the notes constitutes a computer program or not. 272 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:17,510 I guess, obviously, with the usual caveats about using the term computer program is 273 00:18:17,510 --> 00:18:22,660 something that is not what we necessarily think of as a computer program today, 274 00:18:22,660 --> 00:18:26,700 or indeed in the 1950s, rather than Lovelace's authorship. 275 00:18:26,700 --> 00:18:31,790 Perhaps it was computer expert, Henry Ledgard, an author of the 1980 manual for 276 00:18:31,790 --> 00:18:34,980 Ada, a high level of computing language developed by the U.S. 277 00:18:34,980 --> 00:18:39,110 Department of Defense and renamed Ada in Lovelace's honor, who presents 278 00:18:39,110 --> 00:18:44,750 a more neutral view in his introduction, thus, to this introduction of the manual. 279 00:18:44,750 --> 00:18:48,650 If Charles Babbage is to be regarded as the father of modern day computer 280 00:18:48,650 --> 00:18:53,520 technology, then surely the Countess Augusta Ada Lovelace, Ada Lovelace 281 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:57,930 after whom his new language is named must be remembered as its midwife. 282 00:18:57,930 --> 00:19:03,590 It's as Christopher Hollings said before, this is not arguing that 283 00:19:03,590 --> 00:19:07,300 she's a computer programmer per say or indeed a mathematical genius or 284 00:19:07,300 --> 00:19:11,870 indeed an idiot, but somewhere in-between but showing that she had a clear sense of 285 00:19:11,870 --> 00:19:16,750 vision and something that maps quite interestingly onto computer programming. 286 00:19:16,750 --> 00:19:19,410 Increased academic interest and 287 00:19:19,410 --> 00:19:22,290 popular interest lead to Lovelace becoming a figure in popular culture, 288 00:19:22,290 --> 00:19:27,840 as well as an icon for increased involvement for the women in STEM. 289 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,020 I've got some examples here. 290 00:19:31,020 --> 00:19:33,280 Ada Lovelace has been the subject of much attention, 291 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:36,770 popular culture from the 1970s through to the modern day. 292 00:19:36,770 --> 00:19:39,870 She has appeared on stage and on screen but it is her appearance 293 00:19:39,870 --> 00:19:43,280 in the genre of steampunk which is perhaps of most interest. 294 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,520 Lovelace was featured in William Gibson and 295 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,780 Bruce Sterling's 1990 steampunk novel The Difference Engine. 296 00:19:48,780 --> 00:19:52,280 Which is widely acknowledged as a science fiction classic as well as one of 297 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:57,417 the first populizers of the science fiction sub-genre of steampunk. 298 00:19:57,417 --> 00:19:59,255 The authors imagine an alternative and 299 00:19:59,255 --> 00:20:01,245 counter-factual history where Charles Babbage and 300 00:20:01,245 --> 00:20:05,300 Ada Lovelace succeeded in making Babbage's difference engine a practical reality. 301 00:20:05,300 --> 00:20:08,710 Thereby, dramatically changing the course of history, in particular, 302 00:20:08,710 --> 00:20:10,720 the history of technology. 303 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,980 In this alternative history or alternative universe to acknowledge 304 00:20:13,980 --> 00:20:16,930 a popular science fiction term, there are notable technological and 305 00:20:16,930 --> 00:20:21,290 timeline differences in comparison to the Victorian age, as it was. 306 00:20:21,290 --> 00:20:24,850 A network of difference engines connected by the telegraph network act 307 00:20:24,850 --> 00:20:28,930 quite literally like a Victorian internet, operated by clackers, 308 00:20:28,930 --> 00:20:32,120 that is technologically proficient individuals who are skilled at 309 00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:35,445 programming the difference engines through the use of punch cards. 310 00:20:35,445 --> 00:20:39,360 In the novel, many characters are concerned that the punch cards 311 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:43,950 are a gambling modus which would allow users to place consistently winning bets, 312 00:20:43,950 --> 00:20:47,590 a reference to Lovelace's problems with gambling. 313 00:20:47,590 --> 00:20:52,730 But one where perhaps she more successfully realized her 314 00:20:52,730 --> 00:20:54,700 perfection of the gambling system. 315 00:20:54,700 --> 00:20:57,960 A more recent steampunk publication featuring Lovelace and 316 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:02,510 one I can highly recommend is Sydney Padua's rather wonderful graphic novel, 317 00:21:02,510 --> 00:21:07,360 The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage published earlier this year. 318 00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:10,890 This is based on her webcomic, which I believe was published 319 00:21:10,890 --> 00:21:15,920 first as part of the Ada Lovelace Day and became just a cult favorite online 320 00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:19,480 in the subsequent years and is now available in print. 321 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:25,196 It features Lovelace and Babbage, essentially, solving crime and 322 00:21:25,196 --> 00:21:29,150 their thrilling adventures and other historical characters. 323 00:21:29,150 --> 00:21:32,800 It includes, also, extensive footnotes on the history of Lovelace and indeed, 324 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:37,775 many of the lines of dialogue are gathered from actual correspondence. 325 00:21:37,775 --> 00:21:42,720 Lovelace has also become a role model, an icon for calls for increased involvement 326 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:48,150 in women in STEM and indeed, the improved study of women in the history of STEM. 327 00:21:48,150 --> 00:21:52,910 From 1998, the British Computer Society has awarded the Lovelace Medal 328 00:21:52,910 --> 00:21:55,700 presented to individuals who have made an outstanding 329 00:21:55,700 --> 00:22:00,150 contribution to the understanding or advancement of computing. 330 00:22:00,150 --> 00:22:04,220 In 2008, the society also initiated an annual competition for 331 00:22:04,220 --> 00:22:06,660 women students of computer science. 332 00:22:06,660 --> 00:22:11,466 Perhaps better known is Ada Lovelace Day, established by Suw Charman-Anderson, 333 00:22:11,466 --> 00:22:15,910 who I believe is in the audience and is also on the last panel here today. 334 00:22:15,910 --> 00:22:19,400 This is an annual event, a celebration in mid-October, 335 00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:22,830 with the goal of raising the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, 336 00:22:22,830 --> 00:22:30,340 and math and to create new role models for girls and women in these fields. 337 00:22:30,340 --> 00:22:34,570 In conclusion, I hope I have shown how academic and popular understandings and 338 00:22:34,570 --> 00:22:39,130 representations of Ada Lovelace have evolved over the past 200 years. 339 00:22:39,130 --> 00:22:42,770 Beginning with contemporary understandings of her working relationship with Babbage 340 00:22:42,770 --> 00:22:47,400 and his difference engine in the mid-19th century through the claims about Babbage's 341 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,320 and Lovelace's influence on the development 342 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:54,910 of electronic programmable computing in the mid-20th century. 343 00:22:54,910 --> 00:22:59,170 And how they became incorporated into early histories of computer programming, 344 00:22:59,170 --> 00:23:02,780 as well as associated rhetoric. 345 00:23:02,780 --> 00:23:08,820 This perhaps being about promoting the achievements of early programmers, 346 00:23:08,820 --> 00:23:10,370 and indeed their status as it was, 347 00:23:10,370 --> 00:23:13,720 about considering or celebrating those of Babbage and Lovelace. 348 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:17,140 I've also then shown how there's increased popular, 349 00:23:17,140 --> 00:23:21,410 and indeed, scholarly interest in Lovelace, increasingly in her own right. 350 00:23:21,410 --> 00:23:25,570 This has led to some debate about the nature of the authorship of 351 00:23:25,570 --> 00:23:27,930 the translations and notes and hence, 352 00:23:27,930 --> 00:23:31,750 her contribution to concepts which relate to modern computing. 353 00:23:31,750 --> 00:23:35,430 I've concluded my paper with a discussion of Lovelace as a figure of popular 354 00:23:35,430 --> 00:23:39,950 culture, most importantly, her role in steampunk, the genre of science-fiction, 355 00:23:39,950 --> 00:23:45,160 as well as her status as an icon for increased calls for women in STEM. 356 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:50,100 I suppose perhaps the overall arching theme is that each age has 357 00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:51,660 its own Ada Lovelace. 358 00:23:51,660 --> 00:23:58,340 So I'm interested to see where she goes from here. 359 00:23:58,340 --> 00:24:00,085 Thank you very much. 360 00:24:00,085 --> 00:24:00,240 [APPLAUSE]