76 lines
4.3 KiB
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76 lines
4.3 KiB
Org Mode
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* Ada Lovelace Contribution Notes [2024-01-31 Wed 15:17]
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- For a group project detailing an important person in Computer Science history
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- Based upon Stephen Wolfram's writing found [[https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/][here]]
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** Analytical Engine while she was alive
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- Babbage never published serious account of Difference Engine or the Analytical Engine
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- Babbage talked about the Analytical Engine in Turin in 1840 and a man named Luigi Menabrea took
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notes of his lecture
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- Menabrea went on to publish the paper in French in 1842
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- Ada saw the paper and chose to translate it to English and submit it to a British publication
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in 1843
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- Ada took extensive notes of her own to add to the translation, the notes ended up being longer
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than the translation itself
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- Ada exchanged /many/ letters with Babbage, she felt she was explaining Babbage's work, not
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discovering something
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- She only wanted to validate things with Babbage, got annoyed when Babbage tried to make his
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own corrections to her manuscript
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- She originally wasn't going to sign the translation or notes, she was convinced to do so by
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William King (her husband)
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- Signed it "AAL"
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- Saw herself primarily as an interpreter of Babbage's work
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- Finished notes and translation at the end of July 1843
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- Wrote to Babbage asking for him to join in bringing the Analytical Engine to fruition with her
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as a sort of CEO after writing her translation — she seemingly became wholly enraptured by the
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machine
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- Unfortunately for Ada her health began failing her and the Analytical Engine had to be
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sidelined
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- She died of cancer in November 27, 1852 at the age of 36
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** Rediscovery of Her Work After Death
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- In 1953 Bertram Bowden rediscovered Ada's work
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- Researching for his book /Faster than Thought/ about computer he came across Ada's
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granddaughter who told him about Ada and showed him some of Ada's papers
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- As more research was done difference engines and mechanical computer's were researched and
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inevitably so too was Babbage's Analytical Engine
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- Remember, Babbage's Analytical Engine's primary source was Ada's translation and notes she
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wrote about it
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** Why is Ada important?
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- Ada had some thoughts of what the Analytical Engine should be capable of — namely general
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computation
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- She asked Babbage many times on how to achieve this general computation and distilled his
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likely extremely detailed answers to a clear explanation of the operation of the Analytical
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Machine
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- She actually published and simplified ideas about the Analytical Engine — something that
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Babbage never did
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- If you scream and nothing hears it, did you really scream?
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- Ada had a more developed abstract understanding of the Analytical Machine than Babbage
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possessed due to her work in creating her notes and translation about the Analytical Engine
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- Due to this more developed abstract understanding, she had ideas of general/universal
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computation which are the hallmark of modern day computers
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- Babbage only saw the Analytical Engine as a more efficient way of producing mathematical
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tables and just so happened to design a universal computer
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- When writing about the Analytical Engine, Ada was trying to explain it as clearly as possible
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- To do this she had to look at the machine in a more abstract sense and this resulted in her
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seeing the machine as a gateway to universal computation
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- She was seemingly the first recorded person to have ideas of universal computation in regards
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to machines
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- This is the most important element, the entirety of the modern world are built on the back
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of universal computation
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** Is it possible Ada could have discovered modern computing had her health not failed?
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- It's not far-fetched to say that if Ada had not died so early of cancer she likely would have
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played a major role in a mechanical machine capable of universal computation
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- After creating the machine it's not a stretch at all that she might then create a new
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machine (or perhaps even the first machine) as an electromechanical device and thus being
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much closer to modern computers
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- She and had a friend working with electronic communications, Charles Wheatstone who was
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involved with the creation of the electric telegraph
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- Ideas around Binary were beginning to show up around Ada's time, but it wasn't well known
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