1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. If you 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 1: are a seasoned listener of this podcast, you might remember 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,439 Speaker 1: our episode on Villa Diodati and its inhabitants, One Fateful Summer, 5 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron. If you're an 6 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 1: even more seasoned listener of this podcast, you might remember 7 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 1: our very early episode on Lady Caroline Lamb and the 8 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:45,560 Speaker 1: quite literally fiery vengeance she orchestrated against her ex lover, 9 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 1: Lord Byron. This is another episode that is not actually 10 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: about Lord Byron himself, but I'm sure he would be 11 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: pleased to know we're going to begin by talking about 12 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:02,680 Speaker 1: him yet again. Bye. In eighteen fifteen, the sixth Baron 13 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,760 Speaker 1: Byron had made quite the name for himself. Outside of 14 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:12,039 Speaker 1: his inherited title, he was famous in England and across 15 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 1: the continent for both his literary and romantic exploits. It 16 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:24,399 Speaker 1: was Byromania, as dubbed by Caroline Lamb's cousin, Annabella Millbank. 17 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: Annabella was the daughter of a baronet and a poet herself. 18 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: She asked her cousin to pass along some of her 19 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:38,839 Speaker 1: work to Caroline's famous Fling, and when she did, Caroline 20 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:43,559 Speaker 1: suggested to Byron that Annabella might actually make a good 21 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 1: wife for him. Despite Byron's passion and reputation for sleeping 22 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: his way through the men and women of London society, 23 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:58,440 Speaker 1: Byron needed to settle down ideally with an heiress to 24 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: remedy his growing debt, and so he courted Annabella. Annabella 25 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:09,640 Speaker 1: had a reputation for being strict, chilly, and moral, which 26 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: made her a very odd match for the loose, sociable, 27 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: and decidedly less moral poet. He is a very bad, 28 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: very good man, Annabella once allegedly told her mother. When 29 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: Byron proposed, she first said no, writing him a summary 30 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:35,959 Speaker 1: of his character to dictate exactly why. But eventually Annabella's 31 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: mind was changed and she said yes. Unfortunately, her first 32 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,960 Speaker 1: instinct was the correct one. The marriage was doomed from 33 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: the start. In Annabella's twelve months married to Byron, she 34 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 1: endured abuse from her husband, constant harassment from his creditors, 35 00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: and to top it all off, she would suffer the 36 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:03,400 Speaker 1: human aliation of hearing that Byron was cheating on her 37 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:09,400 Speaker 1: with his own half sister, Augusta Lee. Despite their problems, 38 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: the couple managed to have one child together. Byron had 39 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:19,160 Speaker 1: expected a quote glorious boy and was initially disappointed when 40 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: Annabella gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Aida, named after yes, 41 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 1: exactly the half sister you might be thinking of. Ada 42 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: was born on December tenth, eighteen fifteen, and about a 43 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:38,600 Speaker 1: month later, in the early hours of January sixteenth, Annabella 44 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: took her infant daughter from the home she shared with 45 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:47,280 Speaker 1: Byron and left the marriage. Byron would never see his 46 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: wife or his daughter again. As Annabella raised her daughter 47 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: on her own, she was worried that Aida would inherit 48 00:03:56,040 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: her father's poetic madness, and so she did discouraged imaginative 49 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:08,800 Speaker 1: and literary pursuits, instead fostering a discipline for arithmetic and logic. 50 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: Ada would grow up to work with the mathematician Charles 51 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:19,920 Speaker 1: Babbage on his proposed automatic computer, the Analytical Engine, and 52 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:24,159 Speaker 1: she understood the potential of the project in ways even 53 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:29,120 Speaker 1: her mentor did not. Ada wrote, quote, A new, a 54 00:04:29,279 --> 00:04:33,679 Speaker 1: vast and a powerful language is developed for the future 55 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: use of analysis in which to wield its truths, so 56 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,839 Speaker 1: that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical 57 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: application for the purposes of mankind than the means throw 58 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,520 Speaker 1: in our possession have rendered possible. Thus, not only the 59 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:55,159 Speaker 1: mental and the material, but the theoretical and the practical 60 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:59,279 Speaker 1: in the mathematical world, are brought into more intimate and 61 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:04,680 Speaker 1: effective connection with each other. What Ada was recognizing was 62 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:10,320 Speaker 1: the language and application of a computer beyond basic computing, 63 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: and today she is recognized by the scientific community as 64 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:21,080 Speaker 1: the first computer programmer. It was, as she called it, 65 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 1: her approach of quote poetical science that allowed her to 66 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:32,960 Speaker 1: recognize the potential of the relationship and communication between humans 67 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:39,039 Speaker 1: and machines. In the end, Ada Lovelace's father's imagination and 68 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: her mother's logic would produce a pioneer. I'm Danish Schwartz 69 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:53,919 Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. Is the girl imaginative? Is 70 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 1: she social or solitary? Taciturn or talkative? Fond of reading 71 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 1: or otherwise? And what is her tick? I mean her foible? 72 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:06,600 Speaker 1: Is she passionate? I hope that Gods have made her 73 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:11,119 Speaker 1: anything save poetical? It is enough to have one such 74 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: fool in the family. These are the words of Byron 75 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:18,359 Speaker 1: in a letter to his half sister, asking about his 76 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: daughter Ada back in England while he was self exiled abroad. 77 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: Before Byron departed, he signed the deed of separation that 78 00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: both effectively ended his marriage and gave Annabella full custody 79 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,599 Speaker 1: of their daughter Ada, a rarity for the time. The 80 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:41,480 Speaker 1: accusations against Byron of both sodomy and incest that were 81 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: spreading through England put Byron in no position to argue 82 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,839 Speaker 1: for his parental rights. His only request was that Augusta, 83 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: his half sister, be allowed to keep him informed of 84 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:57,720 Speaker 1: Ada's well being after he left the continent through Augusta. 85 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:03,720 Speaker 1: Annabella replied to her stranged husband, quote her prevailing characteristic 86 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: is cheerfulness and good temper. Observation not devoid of imagination, 87 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: but it is chiefly exercised in connection with her mechanical ingenuity, 88 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:19,160 Speaker 1: the manufacture of ships and boats, et cetera, prefers prose 89 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: to verse. These letters were written between the end of 90 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:26,560 Speaker 1: eighteen twenty three and the beginning of eighteen twenty four, 91 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 1: when Ada was seven and eight. Annabella's letter would never 92 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: receive a reply because Lord Byron died in Greece in 93 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:40,440 Speaker 1: April of eighteen twenty four. He never saw his daughter or, 94 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,880 Speaker 1: as he once called her, the Electra of my Mycenaea. 95 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: Ever again, Aida only knew of her father's passing vaguely, 96 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:51,680 Speaker 1: and she knew next to nothing about him as a 97 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 1: man or historical figure until much later in life. Back 98 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,080 Speaker 1: when Annabella had separated from Byron in early eighteen te 99 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,680 Speaker 1: teen sixteen, she had taken Aida to her parents' home 100 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: in Leicestershire, which was where she would be raised. Annabella's 101 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,239 Speaker 1: parents had recognized their daughter's intelligence at a young age, 102 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,360 Speaker 1: and they had hired a Cambridge professor to tutor her. 103 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: In turn, Annabella began her own daughter's education when she 104 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:24,200 Speaker 1: was four years old. Annabella apparently possessed an Emily Gilmore 105 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 1: like tendency to fire tutors and governesses often if they 106 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: did not meet her expectations for her daughter's education, and 107 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 1: in the interim stretches between employees, she took charge of 108 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 1: AIDA's education herself. A system was applied to AIDA's education 109 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:46,319 Speaker 1: that is not totally dissimilar from something you might see 110 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:51,280 Speaker 1: in a children's school today. AIDA's good behavior, like paying attention, 111 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:55,800 Speaker 1: applying herself to her lessons, and sitting still, was rewarded 112 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: with a ticket. Sitting still was the trickiest part for 113 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:03,240 Speaker 1: young AGNs Aida. One of her early governesses, Miss Lamont, 114 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: wrote that her young charge reminded her of a reindeer 115 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:11,560 Speaker 1: dashing about tickets could be confiscated when Aida did not 116 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 1: meet her mother's expectations. When that same governess ultimately left 117 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 1: her posts, she reflected quote, no person can be more rational, companionable, 118 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:27,560 Speaker 1: and endearing than this rare child, before adding that Aida 119 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:32,440 Speaker 1: would do almost anything to win her mother's praise. However, 120 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:36,439 Speaker 1: AIDA's eagerness for praise didn't mean that her mother's pressure 121 00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:41,080 Speaker 1: was never met with resistance. Ada's rebellions could often prove 122 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:45,520 Speaker 1: to be volatile. Once, when Aida couldn't stop fidgeting, a 123 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:50,280 Speaker 1: housemaid was ordered to confine her fingers with black cotton bags. 124 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:55,400 Speaker 1: The housemaid's attempt was met with a bite from the 125 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:58,880 Speaker 1: then five year old young lady of the house. Ada 126 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:01,320 Speaker 1: was sent to the corner to think about what she did, 127 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:05,240 Speaker 1: and she spent that time angrily biting down on the 128 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: molding on the walls. At tea time, Ada was allowed 129 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:13,640 Speaker 1: to return, and Annabella comforted her daughter by reading to her, 130 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:18,319 Speaker 1: rather ironically, based on what we know some soothing poetry. 131 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,880 Speaker 1: Ada was becoming prone to violent bouts like that, and 132 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: Annabella forebodingly sought as a sign of her separated husband's 133 00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:33,120 Speaker 1: cursed temperament coming through, Ada was becoming more like her 134 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:37,240 Speaker 1: father in other ways. When she was eight, she invented 135 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: the word gobble book to describe her newly developed appetite 136 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: for reading. Around this time, her resistance to her schooling lessened. 137 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:51,240 Speaker 1: She became a passionate student across her subjects, from arithmetic 138 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:54,720 Speaker 1: to French to violin, the latter of which she often 139 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:59,160 Speaker 1: played while circling the billiard's table as her daily exercise. 140 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:04,680 Speaker 1: Her book about Aida and Annabella, the historian Miranda Seymour 141 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: recounts that Ada thought outside the box when it came 142 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:13,200 Speaker 1: to her mother's rigid lessons. Aida quote built cities of 143 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: colored bricks and turned geography lessons into flights of fancy. 144 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:21,760 Speaker 1: Could the waves in Norway really surge higher than her 145 00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:26,760 Speaker 1: own tall house? End quote. AIDA's relationship with her mother 146 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:31,720 Speaker 1: continued to be a complicated one. Many historians view Annabella 147 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:37,440 Speaker 1: as both overbearing and neglectful, while a smaller portion of 148 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:42,800 Speaker 1: historians find her behavior unremarkable compared to other upperclass mothers 149 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:48,319 Speaker 1: of the era. Ada was certainly isolated and undersocialized as 150 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,199 Speaker 1: a child. Her mother was both obsessive about her daughter's 151 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:58,200 Speaker 1: education and anxious about any potential exposure to illness. Ada 152 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:02,520 Speaker 1: was also notably celebrity in her own right in England, 153 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 1: thanks to her father's fame and notoriety and his very 154 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:12,240 Speaker 1: public separation from AIDA's mother, which only furthered the apparent 155 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:16,840 Speaker 1: need for Aida to stay out of public view. AIDA's 156 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:21,760 Speaker 1: dearest and arguably only friend was her beloved cat Puff, 157 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,160 Speaker 1: though she also held a deep affection for her young 158 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: cousin George and promised him Puff's kittens. The accusations of 159 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:36,960 Speaker 1: Annabella's neglectfulness come from the fact that as Aida got older, 160 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: Annabella began to spend more and more time away from 161 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:46,680 Speaker 1: her daughter, visiting friends or taking rest cures for various 162 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:50,880 Speaker 1: health complications. During these periods, Ada was left in the 163 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:55,280 Speaker 1: care of her governess's tutors. And of course Puff, I 164 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 1: would be remiss if I didn't read you one of 165 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: the letters twelve year old Ada wrote about the varied 166 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 1: adventures of miss Puff. This one is to her mother 167 00:13:04,679 --> 00:13:08,880 Speaker 1: while her mother was away. Quote, your granddaughter Puff has 168 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,560 Speaker 1: taken up all her kittens into a very nasty, dirty 169 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:15,160 Speaker 1: hole in the roof of the house where nobody can 170 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:17,640 Speaker 1: get at them. She stays with them all day long 171 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: and only comes down for her meals. I suppose their 172 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:23,520 Speaker 1: bed is made of cobwebs, and I think that Puff 173 00:13:23,679 --> 00:13:28,760 Speaker 1: cannot have very refined taste. Around this time, something interesting 174 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 1: begins to appear in Ada's letters. Beyond Puff's living habits. 175 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:36,800 Speaker 1: We first see it show up in a diary entry 176 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:41,280 Speaker 1: from February eighteen, twenty eight quote, I am going to 177 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:44,760 Speaker 1: begin my paper wings tomorrow, and the more I think 178 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:48,160 Speaker 1: about it, the more I feel almost convinced that with 179 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:50,959 Speaker 1: a year or so's experience in practice, I shall be 180 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:54,360 Speaker 1: able to bring the art of flying to very great perfection. 181 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: I think of writing a book on flyology, illustrated with plates. 182 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:04,000 Speaker 1: After giving her mother updates on Puff, AIDA's letters would 183 00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 1: provide updates on her attempts to build wings and fly. 184 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:12,640 Speaker 1: As you might imagine, progress was slow. Ada began to 185 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: sign her letters your affectionate young turkey or your carrier pigeon. 186 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 1: And it's not a stretch to wonder how much of 187 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: her desire to fly was spurred on by intellectual curiosity 188 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:29,280 Speaker 1: and how much of it was connected to being isolated 189 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:33,520 Speaker 1: and alone far from her mother. In a letter from 190 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:37,640 Speaker 1: March that same year, Ada wrote, quote, since last night, 191 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,560 Speaker 1: I've been thinking more about the flying, and I can 192 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:44,520 Speaker 1: find no difficulty in the motion or distension of the wings. 193 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,240 Speaker 1: I've already thought of a way of fixing them to 194 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:49,880 Speaker 1: the shoulder, and I think that they might perhaps be 195 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,920 Speaker 1: made of oil silk. And if that does not answer, 196 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:56,040 Speaker 1: I must try to do what I can with feathers. 197 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:58,400 Speaker 1: I know you will laugh at what I'm going to say, 198 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,160 Speaker 1: but I'm going to take the exact patterns of a 199 00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 1: bird's wing in proportion to the size of its body, 200 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: and then I am immediately going to set about making 201 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: a pair of paperwings of exactly the same size as 202 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:14,480 Speaker 1: a bird's in proportion to my size. Aida goes on 203 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: to admit that she lacks information regarding bird anatomy, but 204 00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:22,760 Speaker 1: she has no interest in dissecting a bird to learn more, 205 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: and so she prevails upon her mother to send a 206 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:29,960 Speaker 1: book on the subject. AIDA's dreams of flying were put 207 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,840 Speaker 1: on pause not by her mother's disapproval, but by a 208 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:39,200 Speaker 1: serious illness she came down with in eighteen twenty nine, Ultimately, 209 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:44,400 Speaker 1: Ada was bedridden until mid eighteen thirty two. Save for 210 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:48,840 Speaker 1: the occasional brief expedition in a wheelchair or on crutches, 211 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,240 Speaker 1: that was AIDA's life from ages fourteen to seventeen, an 212 00:15:54,280 --> 00:16:00,160 Speaker 1: exceptionally key period in any adolescence development. During this period, 213 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 1: Annabella and Ada relocated to a home just outside of 214 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:08,680 Speaker 1: London to be closer to the best doctors and eventually 215 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: closer to society. Aida seems to have often been in 216 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:17,520 Speaker 1: great pain, even finding sitting up to be difficult at times. 217 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: Her letters became less frequent during that period, and the 218 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: ones that were written are difficult to read because of 219 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:29,880 Speaker 1: shaky penmanship. Quote this has been a sad irregular week, 220 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:34,120 Speaker 1: reads one note to her tutor Monday. I missed nothing, 221 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:37,760 Speaker 1: but was so desponding and despairing that I could have 222 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:42,280 Speaker 1: cried with very great pleasure. It was during this time 223 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:48,640 Speaker 1: that Annabella first introduced Ada to Lord Byron's poetry. Annabella's 224 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 1: choice for her daughter was a poem called fare the Well, 225 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: a poem in which Byron was directly addressing Annabella after 226 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: their separation. The poem includes the line when our child's 227 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:06,200 Speaker 1: first accents flow, wilt thou teach her to say father. 228 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:11,760 Speaker 1: Annabella also gave Aida selections from Byron's epic The Jiaur, 229 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:15,760 Speaker 1: hopefully excluding the darker bits about being drowned in the 230 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:21,760 Speaker 1: sea for infidelity. Ada's reaction was apparently lukewarm. On a 231 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:26,040 Speaker 1: larger scale, the bedridden teen was given much more leeway 232 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:29,119 Speaker 1: than she had ever been in regards to her reading, 233 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:34,160 Speaker 1: and her imagination continued to grow. But shortly after Ada 234 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: was back in good health, her mother hired a new 235 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:42,479 Speaker 1: tutor to refocus the now nearly adult AIDA's education on 236 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:47,040 Speaker 1: arithmetic and religion. I should also note that this decision 237 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:50,720 Speaker 1: was influenced by a brief stint in eighteen thirty three 238 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:55,480 Speaker 1: in which Aida unsuccessfully attempted to elope with a young 239 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:59,639 Speaker 1: man historians believe was her shorthand tutor due to a 240 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:04,480 Speaker 1: record of his swift termination, although there is no definitive 241 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:08,679 Speaker 1: proof about who the young man's identity actually was. The 242 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 1: young couple did not get very far. When Aida showed 243 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:17,240 Speaker 1: up at her lover's family home, his parents swiftly returned 244 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: her to her mother, fearing the wrath of the famous Annabella. 245 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:25,919 Speaker 1: Hence the addition of a heavy emphasis on religion in 246 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 1: the new curriculum. Ada was a dutiful student, but tried 247 00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:33,000 Speaker 1: to explain to her tutor that she was not interested 248 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:36,640 Speaker 1: in arithmetic for its own sake, but rather for its 249 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:41,919 Speaker 1: broader applications in capacities like physics. For those sorts of questions, 250 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:46,720 Speaker 1: she found a supportive mentor in her mother's friend, Mary Somerville, 251 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,280 Speaker 1: who just so happened to be one of nineteenth century 252 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:56,000 Speaker 1: England's most brilliant scientific minds. It was Mary who that 253 00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 1: same year would bring Ada to a party hosted by 254 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:09,960 Speaker 1: one of her closest friends, Charles Babbage. Mary Somerville and 255 00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:15,160 Speaker 1: another Mary, Mary Mountgomery would prove to be great influences 256 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: on AIDA's intellectual growth. Two of her mother's closest friends 257 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:23,040 Speaker 1: had taken the eighteen year old Ada under their wings 258 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: and encouraged her love of science. Mary Montgomery brought Aida 259 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:32,560 Speaker 1: to lectures at intellectual hotspots like the Royal Institution, where 260 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:36,600 Speaker 1: Ada learned of the latest development in geology, chemistry, and 261 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:41,640 Speaker 1: natural philosophy, and the friendship of the Marys also allowed 262 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: Ada to attend one of the famous Saturday soires hosted 263 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:50,680 Speaker 1: by Charles Babbage, for which in order to get an 264 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: invitation you needed to possess quote beauty, rank, or intellect, 265 00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: at least as described by the wife of one science. 266 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:04,919 Speaker 1: Ada had met the mathematician before through Mary Somerville, but 267 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: it was at one of his soires that the two 268 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:13,440 Speaker 1: would form the beginnings of their ultimately history making working relationship. 269 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:17,159 Speaker 1: Despite Babbage being a year older than AIDA's mother, the 270 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:20,040 Speaker 1: two had a number of things in common. They had 271 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:23,280 Speaker 1: both dealt with periods of intense illness in their youth, 272 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:27,120 Speaker 1: and where Aida had attempted to craft wings to fly, 273 00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:31,600 Speaker 1: Charles had attempted to craft shoes to walk on water. 274 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:35,159 Speaker 1: Both of those are very Leonardo da Vinci in the 275 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 1: movie Ever After, if you've seen it. When Aida and 276 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:43,000 Speaker 1: Babbage met, he attempted to delight his young guest with 277 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: his Silver Lady automaton, but to his surprise, Aida was 278 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:53,360 Speaker 1: instead interested in another invention. On display a small portion 279 00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 1: of the steam powered computing machine Babbage had been ambitiously 280 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,520 Speaker 1: trying to build four years. Another guest remarked how miss 281 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: Byron young as she was, understood its working and saw 282 00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:11,680 Speaker 1: the great beauty of the invention, Ada was consumed by 283 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:15,320 Speaker 1: the idea of it. Quote, I'm afraid that when a 284 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:18,879 Speaker 1: machine or a lecture, or anything of the kind comes 285 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:22,520 Speaker 1: my way. I have no regard for time, space or 286 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:27,280 Speaker 1: any other ordinary obstacle, Ada wrote to Somerville. Some months later. 287 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:31,199 Speaker 1: Annabella saw some value in the machine, but she was 288 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:36,080 Speaker 1: weary of her daughter's intense passion for it. Around this time, 289 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:39,960 Speaker 1: Annabella had a friend provide her with a one hundred 290 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: percent scientifically sound nothing to question here phrenology reading of 291 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:50,640 Speaker 1: AIDA's skull. As noted by Seymour, the reading quote confirmed 292 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:55,840 Speaker 1: Lady Byron's fears. Her daughter's intelligence was considerable, but it 293 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,760 Speaker 1: was of an impetuous and willful kind. Don't you hate 294 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:03,520 Speaker 1: when the bumps on your skull reveal that? While Aida 295 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,359 Speaker 1: continued to be under the tutelage of her mother's tutor, 296 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 1: Somerville and Babbage took on Aida as an unofficial pupil 297 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:15,919 Speaker 1: as well. It was during this time that Babbage began 298 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:20,159 Speaker 1: to conceptualize the machine that would ultimately come to be 299 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:25,760 Speaker 1: known as Babbage's Analytical Engine. However, it was also during 300 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:30,320 Speaker 1: this time that Aida began to show signs of extreme fatigue, 301 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:34,919 Speaker 1: and she ultimately listened to Somerville's advice to take a 302 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,199 Speaker 1: step back from her studies. What was a woman to 303 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:43,680 Speaker 1: do with newfound free time, Why, of course, get married. 304 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: The match was set up by Somerville. Lord William King, 305 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,880 Speaker 1: was a friend of her son from Trinity College, Cambridge, 306 00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:57,520 Speaker 1: ironically Byron's alma mater, and Lord William King fancied himself 307 00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:01,400 Speaker 1: something of a byronic figure. When he and Ada were 308 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:05,600 Speaker 1: introduced at a ball, he found himself not just infatuated 309 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:09,639 Speaker 1: with the legend of AIDA's late father, but with Ada herself. 310 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:12,960 Speaker 1: They danced all night, and a few months later they 311 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,959 Speaker 1: were engaged. The couple married in eighteen thirty five, and 312 00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:19,800 Speaker 1: while I don't want to dive too deeply into their 313 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,840 Speaker 1: married life for the sake of time, I would once 314 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:25,479 Speaker 1: again be remiss if I didn't share a portion of 315 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,520 Speaker 1: AIDA's writing with you. Early in their relationship, the couple 316 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: apparently referred to each other with Avian nicknames, which I 317 00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:38,320 Speaker 1: find very sweet given AIDA's history with wings. William was 318 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:42,119 Speaker 1: the crow, Ada was the bird, and they often called 319 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:46,840 Speaker 1: AIDA's mother Annabella the hen. When a newly pregnant Aida 320 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:50,240 Speaker 1: spent some time visiting her mother away from her husband, 321 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,640 Speaker 1: she wrote to him with a new ornithological nickname, her 322 00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:59,320 Speaker 1: dear cock, I want my cock at night to keep 323 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:04,440 Speaker 1: me warm. Absolutely no notes, Ada beautiful work. Your father 324 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,879 Speaker 1: wishes he could have written something so beautiful and so poetic. 325 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,360 Speaker 1: The kings were apparently a very good looking couple, and 326 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,680 Speaker 1: very much not afraid to show how much they thought 327 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,159 Speaker 1: that of each other. When Aida and William gave the 328 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:23,240 Speaker 1: hen the honor of choosing the name of their newborn son, 329 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:29,040 Speaker 1: it may surprise you to hear what Annabella answered Byron. 330 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,640 Speaker 1: Grace had come with the passage of time. Annabella held 331 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,159 Speaker 1: more affection for her late husband as she aged, and 332 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:41,119 Speaker 1: with Ada grown and married, it seems she feared less 333 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:46,800 Speaker 1: and less the risk of Byron's madness ruining her. A 334 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: few years into the marriage, namely, when Princess Victoria became 335 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,520 Speaker 1: Queen Victoria in eighteen thirty seven, William and Ada became 336 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:59,880 Speaker 1: the Earl and Countess of Lovelace, reviving a title from 337 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,320 Speaker 1: Iron's side of the family that had become extinct a 338 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:08,760 Speaker 1: century prior. Ada was not particularly interested in being a countess, however, 339 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:13,679 Speaker 1: and by eighteen forty she sought to resume her intellectual pursuits, 340 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:18,400 Speaker 1: something she found her husband didn't quite share her passion for. 341 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 1: Quote I hope you are bearing me in mind, she 342 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,879 Speaker 1: wrote in a letter to Charles Babbage that year, I 343 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:29,000 Speaker 1: mean my mathematical interests. You know this is the greatest 344 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,360 Speaker 1: favor anyone can do me. Perhaps none of us can 345 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:36,480 Speaker 1: estimate how great. Who can calculate to what it might lead? 346 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:41,040 Speaker 1: Am I too imaginative for you? I think not. AIDA's 347 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 1: dear mentor Mary Somerville, had recently relocated to Italy with 348 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:48,959 Speaker 1: her family as her health declined, and Ada was seeking 349 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,840 Speaker 1: a new tutor to guide her curiosity. Babbage connected her 350 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:58,919 Speaker 1: with Augustus de Morgan, the English mathematician now remembered for 351 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:03,040 Speaker 1: his formulation known as de Morgan's Laws. It was de 352 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,040 Speaker 1: Morgan who refined the now twenty four year old AIDA's 353 00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 1: mathematical potential. As an older student a married mother, Ada 354 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,760 Speaker 1: was learning how to dedicate herself to her improvement in 355 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:21,840 Speaker 1: practical ways, grasping, in her own words, quote the importance 356 00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:27,840 Speaker 1: of not being in a hurry. Despite AIDA's newfound groundedness, 357 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:32,160 Speaker 1: she still couldn't shake her fascination with the analytical engine 358 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:36,800 Speaker 1: Babbage had been working on. In January of eighteen forty one, 359 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,000 Speaker 1: she wrote to Babbage, quote, you have always been a 360 00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:43,800 Speaker 1: kind and real and most invaluable friend to me, and 361 00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:46,440 Speaker 1: I would that I could in any way repay it, 362 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: though I scarcely dare to exalt myself as to hope, 363 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:54,119 Speaker 1: however humbly, that I can ever be intellectually worthy of 364 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:58,520 Speaker 1: attempting to serve you. It was around this time that 365 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,000 Speaker 1: AIDA's mood began to show again, back within the realms 366 00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:07,120 Speaker 1: of the mad and the poetical. She told de Morgan 367 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:11,560 Speaker 1: that the mathematical forms they were studying reminded her of 368 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,880 Speaker 1: the fairies she had read about in fiction. She wrote 369 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,560 Speaker 1: a letter to her mother that sounded not unlike those 370 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,320 Speaker 1: about flying as a youth, Only this time the letter 371 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:26,359 Speaker 1: was detailing her belief that she had intuited that in 372 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,720 Speaker 1: the future she would be able to build an apparatus 373 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:33,239 Speaker 1: that would allow her to see quote anything that a 374 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:39,160 Speaker 1: being not actually dead can see and know. It's possible 375 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:42,919 Speaker 1: that this bout of slightly delusional thinking was brought on 376 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: by learning that her cousin Medora Lee was in fact 377 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,680 Speaker 1: her half sister, likely the product of Lord Byron and 378 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:57,480 Speaker 1: his half sister Augusta, and their incestuous relationship. Quote. I 379 00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:01,160 Speaker 1: am not in the least astonished, wrote to her mother 380 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: after the revelation quote in fact, you merely confirm what 381 00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:09,399 Speaker 1: I have for years and years felt scarcely a doubt about. 382 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:12,879 Speaker 1: But should have considered it most improper in me to 383 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: hint to you that I in any way suspected. Despite 384 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: that cool reaction, in other writings, we can see that 385 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:24,480 Speaker 1: for Ada, learning that she was not in fact the 386 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,320 Speaker 1: Great Lord Byron's only heir, spurred in her a great 387 00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 1: need to prove herself, perhaps to surpass her father's achievements. 388 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: She even considered turning to poetry quote it will be 389 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: poetry of a unique kind, far more philosophical and higher 390 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: in its nature than aught the world has perhaps yet seen. 391 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:50,000 Speaker 1: End quote In regards to the incest of it all, 392 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: Ada blamed Augusta more than her own father, imagining that 393 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:59,360 Speaker 1: she had been the instigator. Ada did find a way 394 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: to publish poetry of a unique kind. In eighteen forty two, 395 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 1: Luigi Frederico Menebrea, a professor of mechanics who ultimately became 396 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,400 Speaker 1: the seventh Prime Minister of Italy, published a paper on 397 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:17,080 Speaker 1: Babbage's analytical engine in French. The editor of a London 398 00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:21,440 Speaker 1: based journal approached one of Babbage's friends regarding his want 399 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:25,560 Speaker 1: for a translation, and Aida was immediately referred to for 400 00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,080 Speaker 1: the job. Despite being in bad health at the time. 401 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:34,600 Speaker 1: As she increasingly was in adulthood, Ada eagerly accepted, finally 402 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,560 Speaker 1: getting her chance to be involved in any capacity with 403 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:43,400 Speaker 1: the project. In addition to writing an excellent translation, Babbage 404 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:47,400 Speaker 1: himself apparently proposed that Aida had her own thoughts on 405 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:52,720 Speaker 1: the project in the paper's notes. In his conclusion, Minnebrea asked, quote, 406 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 1: who can foresee the consequences of such an invention? Well? 407 00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:59,760 Speaker 1: Aida had an answer one you heard at the top 408 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: of this episode the quote vast new powerful language. Menabrea's 409 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 1: paper was only originally around eight thousand words. AIDA's clocked 410 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:15,400 Speaker 1: in at twenty thousand. The writer James Esinger in his 411 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:20,479 Speaker 1: book AIDA's Algorithm comments on the significance of her notes quote, 412 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,120 Speaker 1: Aida is seeking to do nothing less than invent the 413 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,440 Speaker 1: science of computing and separate it from the science of mathematics. 414 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,720 Speaker 1: What she calls the science of operations is indeed in 415 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:38,440 Speaker 1: effect computing. Unlike Babbage, Aida saw the practical uses of 416 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:42,960 Speaker 1: the analytical engine and foresaw the digitization of music as 417 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:48,480 Speaker 1: CDs or synthesizers and their ability to generate music. End quote. 418 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,440 Speaker 1: That last bit of the passage about music refers to 419 00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 1: a part of AIDA's notes I consider worth reading aloud 420 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,440 Speaker 1: while you, the listener, recall that she was writing this 421 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:05,040 Speaker 1: in a eighteen forty two The computer, Aida argues, quote 422 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:10,200 Speaker 1: might act upon other things besides number, where objects found 423 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:14,680 Speaker 1: whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of 424 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:19,720 Speaker 1: the abstract science of operations. Supposing, for instance, that the 425 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony 426 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 1: and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, 427 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:34,200 Speaker 1: the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music 428 00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:39,160 Speaker 1: of any degree of complexity or extent. End quote. Ada's 429 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,400 Speaker 1: understanding of computing is bettered by her understanding of and 430 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:47,719 Speaker 1: passion for music that began as a child. In the 431 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:52,240 Speaker 1: same vein. Her understanding of computing was equally bettered by 432 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:57,400 Speaker 1: her understanding of language itself. She wrote, quote, this science 433 00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 1: constitutes the language through which a line we can adequately 434 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:05,520 Speaker 1: express the great facts of the natural world and those 435 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:11,560 Speaker 1: unceasing changes of mutual relationship which visibly or invisibly, consciously 436 00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: or unconsciously to our immediate physical perceptions are interminably going 437 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,840 Speaker 1: on in the agencies of the creation we live amidst 438 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:26,440 Speaker 1: It's downright philosophical, and in a more personal sense, regarding 439 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:31,160 Speaker 1: AIDA's own experience, it contradicts the idea that one must 440 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:36,959 Speaker 1: be imaginative or logical to understand the natural world is 441 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: to understand humanity, and vice versa. What ultimately led to 442 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: Ada's recognition today as the first computer programmer was not 443 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:52,080 Speaker 1: her philosophical perspective on the potential of a computing device, 444 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:57,280 Speaker 1: but an algorithm called note G. I'll let essenger explain 445 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:00,840 Speaker 1: its significance far more intelligently than I would be able 446 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:07,000 Speaker 1: to quote. Note G is highly complex, juggling mathematics and technology. 447 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: Most important of all, it is in effect a program 448 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:16,160 Speaker 1: containing instructions for a computer. While note G isn't a 449 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,080 Speaker 1: program you can execute today, it is instead an instruction 450 00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:25,200 Speaker 1: for how the analytical engine would theoretically execute it. Those 451 00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,440 Speaker 1: in the programming community thus debate whether or not it 452 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:32,960 Speaker 1: can actually be considered the first computer program, but there 453 00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,960 Speaker 1: is no doubt it was a pioneering line of thinking. 454 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:41,440 Speaker 1: Aida initially didn't consider putting her name on her work 455 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:46,520 Speaker 1: at all, but later settled on signing as Aal at 456 00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:51,200 Speaker 1: the suggestion of her husband. Notably, this pen name was genderless, 457 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:56,600 Speaker 1: which was AIDA's intention. Aal proudly presented her mother with 458 00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: her notes, which she called her first born. Quote. He 459 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:03,280 Speaker 1: will make an excellent head of I hope a large 460 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:08,480 Speaker 1: family of brothers and sisters, she said. Annabella was extremely 461 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:13,040 Speaker 1: proud of her daughter, boasting herself as quote mother of Aida, 462 00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:17,279 Speaker 1: which she said might be quote as good a passport 463 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,359 Speaker 1: to posterity if I am to have one as the 464 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:25,160 Speaker 1: wife of Byron. Though Ada published the notes simply under 465 00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:29,680 Speaker 1: her initials, it quickly became known among London society that 466 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:34,200 Speaker 1: Lord Byron's brilliant daughter was the author, and she soon 467 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:39,359 Speaker 1: was a well regarded name in the scientific community. Tragically, 468 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,120 Speaker 1: Ada's health only began to decline further, and her Notes 469 00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:47,080 Speaker 1: would end up being her only published work. She would 470 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,560 Speaker 1: live for less than a decade after her note's publication, 471 00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:54,280 Speaker 1: during which the state of her health ebbed and flowed. 472 00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:57,640 Speaker 1: This is not to say that Aida didn't still live 473 00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:00,799 Speaker 1: a life during those years. There was ga gambling, there 474 00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:06,200 Speaker 1: was infidelity, and there was ultimately an unknown deathbed confession 475 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,760 Speaker 1: so juicy that her husband left in her final hours, 476 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:14,400 Speaker 1: But unfortunately we just have to speculate on what exactly 477 00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 1: that confession was. Aida died of uterine cancer on November 478 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:23,720 Speaker 1: twenty seventh, eighteen fifty two, when she was thirty six 479 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:28,360 Speaker 1: years old. Many have tried over the years to discredit 480 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,239 Speaker 1: AIDA's work and stick around for the epilogue to hear 481 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,840 Speaker 1: more about that, but today her impact as a visionary 482 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:39,400 Speaker 1: far ahead of her time is undeniable. In Miranda Seymour's 483 00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:43,480 Speaker 1: book In Byron's Wake, she astutely compares AIDA's work to 484 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:48,320 Speaker 1: that of her father's friend Mary Shelley, writing quote, neither 485 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:52,279 Speaker 1: woman changed the world in which they lived uniquely. Both 486 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:56,839 Speaker 1: Lovelace and Shelley foresaw the role that technology might have 487 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:01,759 Speaker 1: to play in transforming a world they never new. Perhaps 488 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,799 Speaker 1: it wasn't quite delusion when Ada told her mother that 489 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,640 Speaker 1: one day she could be able to see quote anything 490 00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:14,000 Speaker 1: that a being not actually dead can see and know. 491 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,680 Speaker 1: That's the story of Ada Lovelace's technological achievements. But keep 492 00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 1: listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear a little 493 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:39,280 Speaker 1: bit more about her legacy. It is no exaggeration, wrote 494 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,840 Speaker 1: the Babbage historian Bruce Collier to say that she was 495 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,480 Speaker 1: a manic, depressive with the most amazing delusions about her 496 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:50,320 Speaker 1: own talents and a rather shallow understanding of Charles Babbage 497 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:54,840 Speaker 1: and the analytical engine. There is a history of valid 498 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,880 Speaker 1: debate within the scientific community as to whether or not 499 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:03,759 Speaker 1: AIDA's algorithm them constitutes a computer program, or whether or 500 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:08,080 Speaker 1: not she was the first computer programmer, but comments like 501 00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:12,040 Speaker 1: the one made above have also not been uncommon throughout history, 502 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,680 Speaker 1: comments that pretty much boil down to misogyny. Quote. As 503 00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:21,080 Speaker 1: people realized how important computer programming was, there was a 504 00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:24,680 Speaker 1: greater backlash and an attempt to reclaim it as a 505 00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:28,960 Speaker 1: male activity, says Valerie Aurora, the executive director of the 506 00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: Ada Initiative, a nonprofit organization that arranges conferences and training 507 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:39,359 Speaker 1: programs to elevate women working in math and science in 508 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,280 Speaker 1: order to keep that wealth, she told The New Yorker 509 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,239 Speaker 1: and power in a man's hand, there's backlash to try 510 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:50,200 Speaker 1: to redefine it as something a woman didn't do, and 511 00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:54,440 Speaker 1: shouldn't do and couldn't do. Since two thousand and nine, 512 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,040 Speaker 1: Ada Lovelace Day has been celebrated on the second Tuesday 513 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:01,920 Speaker 1: of October, with the goal to quote raise the profile 514 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:07,040 Speaker 1: of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Let's be English 515 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:10,839 Speaker 1: here for Ada maths. In twenty thirteen, when the New 516 00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:16,319 Speaker 1: Yorker piece quoted above was written, a quote Ada Lovelace 517 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:21,239 Speaker 1: edit Athon was being hosted at my alma mater, Brown University, 518 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:26,800 Speaker 1: where volunteers were invited to improve Wikipedia entries for female scientists. 519 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:32,160 Speaker 1: Universities continue to host various Ada Lovelace Day conferences and 520 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:36,520 Speaker 1: events each year, and last year the Official Ada Lovelace 521 00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:42,560 Speaker 1: Day organizers hosted their annual Science Cabaret at the Royal Institution, 522 00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:47,600 Speaker 1: where Mary Montgomery used to bring a teenage Ada Lovelace 523 00:38:47,880 --> 00:39:05,719 Speaker 1: to broaden her mind. Noble Blood is a production of 524 00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble 525 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:14,440 Speaker 1: Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwortz, with 526 00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:20,440 Speaker 1: additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, 527 00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:24,759 Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and 528 00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:30,000 Speaker 1: produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising 529 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:35,640 Speaker 1: producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams 530 00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:40,560 Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 531 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:44,920 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 532 00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:46,080 Speaker 1: favorite shows.