WEBVTT - Was Ada Lovelace the first computer programmer? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.840 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.639 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poette and 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.040 I am an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.360 Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:33.400 Does not compute. Nice, very nice, Thank you. Not everything computes, No, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.559 not everything. But the lady will be talking about in 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.239 this podcast. Sure dead, Yeah, let's talk about her. This 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:49.080 is comes courtesy of a little listener mail. And uh, 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.879 this listener mail is actually a two fur We got 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.400 two requests in the space of a week, which is 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.720 not a big surprise considering the subject of this um 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.480 this podcast. It's a listener mail rock blaw. Yeah. So 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.640 this comes from Bridget and Adam. So uh, I'll read 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.200 Bridgets first. Bridget is from Australia, but I'm not going 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.640 to try and do an Australian accent because whenever I do, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.840 I sound like a New Zealander who suffered massive head trauma. 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.880 So here is bridgets email. Good day, Chris and Jonathan. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.440 I've been spending some time lately looking to inspirational people 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.680 in hope of finding a suitable name for my soon 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.160 to be born child. Such searching brought me to Ada Lovelace, 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.360 otherwise known as the Mother of Coding. I've done a 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.160 little research into Ada and found that there's some discussion 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.240 as to whether she deserves this moniker. Was Ada Lovelace 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.240 the first computer programmer and therefore a worthy namesake for 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.280 my future daughter? Let me know what you think. Cheers, 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:49.640 Bridget and Adams. Was I recently learned a little about 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.000 Ada Lovelace, the first woman to write an algorithm that 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.080 would be read by a computer, and thought it would 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.280 make a great podcast. I love the show. Keep up 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.480 the amazing work. Can you also do a show on 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:04.360 the LHC. Please cheers? Insert beer clink sound here. Alright, 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.760 Bridget and Adam, this is our podcast about Ada, not 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.160 about the LHC. Um Jonathan, we can't do this podcast. 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.120 What do you mean we can't do this podcast. It's 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:18.360 already been done. I mean stuff he missed in History Class? 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:20.960 It's already done a whole podcast. There's a podcast called 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.320 stuff you Missed in History Class? There is It's wonderful. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.079 Is that the one with Katy and Sarah. It is indeed, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:28.680 and they talked about Ada Lovelace already they did, and 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:30.200 they did really well, you know what we should do. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.120 What's that? We should just have their podcast play and 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.239 we'll sign off. All right, we'll just insert their podcast 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.679 here and then no, we can't. We can't do that. 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.240 We can't do that. Besides, they specifically mentioned us in 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.440 that podcast. Well, maybe what we should do then is 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:48.000 talk specifically about her computer programming expertise and how she 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.720 managed to do that considering she lived in the eighteen hundreds. Yeah, 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.639 you would think she lived before computers. How could she 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.360 have written a computer programmer program? Rather not wrote a 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.880 programmers a long week? Well, we're gonna do this on Friday. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.639 Actual clearly not, but we're going to tell you how 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.480 she wrote a computer program. First of all, Bridget, I'm 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:09.680 going to get this all the way. First of all, 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:15.040 congratulations on your child. And also, Aida is more than worthy. 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:16.920 I would say, In fact, I kind of fell in 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:18.959 love with this lady the more I read about her. 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:21.520 Actually her first name was an Aida. No, it was 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.560 Augusta Augusta Ada Byron. Yeah, Augusta Ada Byron, daughter of 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.119 Lord Byron the poet. Yes, she was born December tenth, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.560 eighteen fifteen, the daughter of Lord George Gordon Byron and 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.840 Annabella Millbank Byron. Um. Actually, your parents married on the 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.760 second of January and eighteen fifteen, but we're separated by 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.920 January six, eighteen sixteen, So the marriage lasted a full 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.440 year and a week and a half, just long enough 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:51.040 to uh to have the first computer programmer born to them, right, Um, 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:54.360 so yes, they're there. Marriage was not a happy one 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.160 her parents and uh. In fact, um young Ada was 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:02.440 never to meet. Her father was separated. Um, she lived 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.680 with her mom, and her mom had decided that Aida 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.640 did not really need to have the distractions of poetry. 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:13.720 She thought that Byron's rather unpredictable personality let's call it 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.680 that showy um was due to his romanticism and his 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.520 obsession with poetry. Yeah, let's just and and Annabella the 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:26.720 mother felt that the that such qualities were not really admirable. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.080 She didn't want her daughter to have the same sort 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:34.120 of personality and uh and and wanting lifestyle as the 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:38.080 father did had so um so she thought, well, what's 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.200 the least poetic thing I can push my daughter into 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.760 I happen to be an amateur mathematician. Let's push her 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:47.239 into mathematics. Yeah. Actually uh. As a matter of fact, 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.640 I found out that Lord Byron had referred to his 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:56.720 very brief married married wife, um uh, he called Annabella 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.520 the Princess of parallelograms. Yes, that was a lot poetic. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:05.720 It was not meant to be a compliment, nonetheless, but 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.120 it does illustrate that she had a mathematical bent herself. 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:13.480 And what I find interesting is that not only were 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:19.360 Lord Byron's poetical genes evident later in Ada's life, but 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.120 it's actually she ended up being sort of a blend 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.520 of both of her parents, as is appropriate for this case. Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:32.799 and Ada herself received a a wonderful, wonderful title given 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.520 to her by by Charles Babbage, who will will discuss 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.240 at length in a little bit, uh, the Enchantress of Numbers, 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:44.520 which I think is an amazing, amazing phrase and very 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:49.800 fitting as well. So Aida grows up um with some 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.640 of the best tutors in that you can imagine. During 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.760 this time she studies mathematics and has absolutely fascinated with them. 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.599 It's the subject mathematics, and is incredibly adept an amazing student. 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.479 In fact, the more we research data, the more I 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:13.839 realized anyway, that she was phenomenally more intelligent than I am. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.680 I mean, I can't even really compare. Uh. She was 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:23.200 able to to understand algorithms that that completely baffle me, 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.880 and I was able to to really study them in 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.159 a way that she found fascinating. I find them perplexing 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:35.360 and maddening. She found it as having its own kind 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.800 of poetry. Um, and in a way you think about it, well, 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:40.960 this kind of makes sense, you know. We we when 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.320 you really look at algorithms, we're talking about things like 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.680 number theory and how the universe sort of works, like 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.400 how things kind of fit together. And we express this 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.279 more often than not through mathematic equations and algorithms and 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.800 things of that nature. And she was able to see 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.120 that kind of stuff. I'm under I can understand the 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.360 underlying concept, but when you get beyond that, it just 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.239 I feel like I'm a fish out of water. Yeah, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:13.160 I understand. Well, let's see, um, somebody who else who 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.920 was fascinated with her would be William King. Yes, he 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.240 was so fascinated. Whether he married her? Yeah? Well the 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.920 first William King? Who was who was her tutor. I 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:24.000 found that I found this interesting. I mean the two 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.440 different William Kings. Well no, actually I did mean, I 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.360 did mean her future husband. But it was really funny 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.280 because it confused me for a second when I was 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.400 doing the research, I said William King was her tutor. 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.440 And then, as it turns out, there was a William King, 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:37.600 not the one she married, as her tutor, who was 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.080 apparently uh immediately feeling out of his depth as he 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.080 talked to her, he realized that she had a much 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:47.240 more innate grasp of mathematics than he did, so he 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.200 he actually bowed out very quickly. He was one of 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.880 the many many but yeah, less than a year later, 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:57.320 apparently he uh ad married the other William King, who 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.560 um was the eighth bear in King and U was 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:04.960 an earl made an earl in nineteen thirty eight, so 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:13.200 that's when she became eight eighteen thirty eight, dude. So yes, 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.480 he was made an earl in eighteen thirty eight, and 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.320 that's when she became the Countess of Lovelace. Yes, so 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:22.080 we usually just referred to her as Ada Lovelace. Uh. Now, 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:29.200 Aida continued her her almost obsession with mathematics throughout her life, 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:35.640 which unfortunately was tragically short. Ada passed away from after 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:39.160 contracting cancer. Um. I think she was thirty seven. It 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:43.320 was eighteen fifty two, and she died November eighteen, eighteen 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.880 fifty two. Right. Uh so, But during that her her life, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:53.280 she ended up encountering lots of remarkable people as including 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:55.760 you know, like the author of Charles Dickens, who became 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:01.400 a close friend. One of her other friends was Charles Babbage. Yeah, 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:05.360 she met she met Babbage who was the Leucassian Professor 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.760 of mathematics at Cambridge. She met him when she was 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:14.320 just seventeen, um, which is a pretty interesting eighteen thirty three, 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.160 was it right around when that happened. Um. And she 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.000 she rubbed elbows with other people who were interested in 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:25.640 math and science, like Mary Somerville. Um. And that's uh, 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.880 I don't know. Should we get into the the time 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.160 when she was talking at a party with Babbage about 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:36.679 this new machine four Um. He had come up with 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:42.440 this thing, the analytical engine. Yes, all right, well, let's 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.480 let's backtrack just a touch before we get into the 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.360 analytical engine. That was not the first machine that Babbage 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:49.280 had proposed. No, no, not at all. As a matter 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.800 of fact, we brought it up before from the past, right, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.160 that was a fun podcast, um, but yes, this was 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.240 a more recent one. And as we talked about on 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.480 that podcast, UM, Abbage was having difficulty getting funding for 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.120 these amazing machines because people just didn't get it. Babbage 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.960 was able to get subfunding for his first uh machine, 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.760 which is called the difference engine. Yes, different from the 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.560 other one. Right. It was a little more simplistic than 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.920 his idea for the analytical engine. Right now, the difference engine, 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.200 he managed to get some money to fund it, but 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:24.800 his the process of building it was a very long, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.640 laborious process. They had to actually machine these parts by 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.959 hand and and try and put it all together, and uh, 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.000 he kind of ran out of money before he ran 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.120 out machine. The machine was not done yet, and um 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.960 it was in the process of this whole construction phase 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.080 that he got the idea for the analytical machine, which 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.400 was even more ambitious than the difference yes engine. Right. 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.720 So the analytical engine was going to be uh more 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:54.080 complex and be able to do more than the difference engine, 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.880 which you could kind of say was essentially a giant calculator. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.920 The analytical engine was more like a very primitive computer. Yeah, 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:05.640 and as a matter of fact that at that time, 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:07.600 that whole time thing, the fact that was taking a 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:09.520 long time to build, did not help him when he 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.880 was seeking funding for the analytical engine. Right. There were 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.200 two things that two things that budd that kind of 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:15.959 plagued him when he was trying to get some money. 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.680 One was that he had not finished the difference engine, 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:20.360 and that was kind of what he was being paid 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.160 for in the first place. So his funders were saying, 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.160 until you build this other machine you promised us several 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:28.800 years ago, we ain't giving you no more money. Yeah. 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.520 And then the other part of they probably did. They 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:33.840 probably said with an English accent, So that's probably until 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.520 you go and fish daddy, we ain't given you no 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:41.559 more money. Uh. They're apparently all glad, apparently apparently all 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.200 played by Dick van Dyke. So um anyway, at any rate, 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.839 so the sammage is in a tight spot. But he 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.160 comes up with this idea of the analytical engine, and 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.679 of course he's very passionate about it, so he's blabbering 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.000 on and on about it at parties. Yes, then you 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:01.319 have young Ada Lovelace who over here such talk thinks 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:06.319 this sounds absolutely fascinating, and not only does she think 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:10.600 it's interesting, she immediately sees the potential to use such 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:16.640 a device far beyond even Babbage is uh concepts s. 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.720 Babbage is thinking, well, this would allow you to create 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:24.160 an engine that would be able to generate the numbers 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:29.120 that you would find in a logarithmic table, because until 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.480 that point you pretty much had to be able to 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.320 come up with those figures by doing the calculations all yourself. 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:37.960 And these calculations were pretty complex, and it was easy 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.640 to to make a mistake along the way, which would 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.560 of course affect all of your figures from that point on. Uh. 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.360 And he he just he was sitting down one day 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.280 and he was thinking, what if I could What if 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.679 there are a machine, some steam powered machine that could 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.480 generate these numbers so I wouldn't have to and then 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.840 I could I could generate them as far out as 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.640 I wanted to. Uh, And I wouldn't have to worry 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.679 about error because the machine would just be following the 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:10.079 same algorithm over and over and over again. Yes, well, 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:12.920 Ada thought of that, and she even went further. She 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.760 said that you could potentially use mathematics to represent other 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:25.240 things like text or images or even music. She had 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:31.160 foreseen computers. This remarkable woman was able to look at 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.640 this machine that really was meant to be able to 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.959 run algorithms so that you could generate more mathematical figures, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.960 mainly in the in the pursuit of mathematics itself and 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.080 things like number theory, UM, and she was able to 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:50.840 see even grander uses, which to me is it's it's 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.280 it's one of those discoveries that I just think before 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.920 that time, no one had ever really even considered this, 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.880 and then she just comes up with it just by 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.720 looking at this thing and seeing its potential. Yes, it's 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.800 that's where I'm like, Okay, this woman was way above 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.160 and beyond smarter than I am. All right, stop geaking 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:12.760 out for a second. Okay, I'm sorry, I will. I 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:14.640 will give you a quote from her. As a matter 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.400 of fact, she uh, she compared to Jacquard's looms. If 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.560 you will remember we've mentioned that machine a couple of 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.320 times on the podcast I Believe UM. This was a 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:29.400 loom that was invented by uh Monsieur Jacquard, and UM 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.560 basically made a lot of people unhappy because it used 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.080 punch cards to automate parts of the weaving process. You 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.000 could put in a pattern, a card for a pattern 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:41.360 in the loom would be able to weave that pattern 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.560 into the fabric. While she said, um, we may say 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.640 most aptly that the analytical engine weaves algebraical patterns just 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:54.320 as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves. So see, 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.320 there you go, there's that whole poetry thing she's you know, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.840 that's just in there. Yeah. Well, and and like I said, 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.000 even if you even if you ignore the language, and 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.280 Ada was very gifted with with words, just as she 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.640 was with mathematics. Um, the fact that she could see 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:15.600 the poetry in in math is again very phenomenal to me. Well, 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.320 I meant that she was making connections between something that 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.920 was completely, well not completely, but in wide in a 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.480 wide way. It was, it was not very related directly 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:29.400 to this analytical engine. Uh. Also you might notice, Um, 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.480 she sort of foresaw the use of punch cards uh, 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:35.280 to be used for programs. So she's already thinking in 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.840 a programmatic sense. Yeah. Actually, U Babbage himself talked a 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.600 little bit about punch cards when he wrote about his 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:46.520 analytical engine. Um. Yeah, and in his sense. He was 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:50.200 talking about the the use for punch cards for two purposes. 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.760 And we've talked about this. Babbage also we we shouldn't 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.960 we shouldn't know. He's leave him out of this amazing 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:01.720 innovation as well. Babbage was also amazing in his ability 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:06.280 to foresee the future as far as computers are concerned. Now, granted, 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.080 his devices were all mechanical as opposed to electrical, yes, 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:16.080 but they the principles of electronic computing are based very 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:21.440 firmly on Babbage's discoveries. Um Babbage foresaw the use of 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:26.240 punch cards using two different kinds of punch cards. One 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.280 would be a set of instructions and the other would 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:33.720 be would represent the constants or variables of whatever formula 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.160 you're plugging in. Right, So one is the program and 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:37.840 the other is the information that you plug into the 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.080 program to get a results. Exactly same sort of thing 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.320 that we see in microprocessors today. What Babbage was doing 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:49.920 was was the the precursor to the micro processor. It's 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.160 just his was a macro processor because it was enormous 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.400 and weighed tons and tons. If he had ever managed 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.000 to actually build it at the size of that silicon 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.600 waver yeah, he never He never did build the analytical engine. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:03.880 He did, he realized during his lifetime that it was 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:05.399 not going to happen, and I'm sure it was a 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.120 massive disappointment to him. But they have been made since. Yes, 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.600 there was one created almost like an art project in 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.399 the early nineties, and um fun I think it's in 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.359 a museum now, right, Yeah, Actually, I think I think 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.280 there may be two. To be honest, I think it's 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.160 one of the things that I ran across a mention 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.840 of as I was looking specifically for information about it 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:26.639 to lovel so I didn't follow it, but yeah, I 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:28.600 think I think I saw that there were two in 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.960 existence now that had been created just because you can 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.920 and and Babbage actually wrote that the analytical engine would 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:41.320 eventually contain an apparatus for printing on paper or if required, 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:44.919 up to two copies printed out on paper, and that 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.040 puts it ahead of the iPad. I'm kidding their software 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.639 for that. It would have a means for producing a 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.920 stereotype mold of the tables or results it computes, and 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.040 it would have a mechanism for punching on blank pasteboard 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.479 cards or metal plates the numerical results of any of 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.800 its computations. So in other words, you would read it 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.159 by looking at a punch card. You would find the 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.040 results of whatever it was that you were trying to 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:17.800 uh to calculate. And the his his method of designating 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.200 a punch card was actually pretty simple. The each punch 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:26.840 card had um had several columns of holes or or 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.760 columns where you could punch a hole uh and ten rows. 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.639 And if you punched the top hole, that would be 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.560 a one. If you punched the top two that would 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:40.320 be a two, if you punched the top three that 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.280 would be a three. So this isn't binary, you see 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.360 what I'm saying. Yes, so it was a very simple way. 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.600 You would look at the punch card and you would say, 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.000 all right, well the first number is a three because 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:52.800 the first three holes are punched. That kind of thing. 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.080 That made it pretty easy to read. But again, Babbage 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.439 was just thinking in terms of numbers. Lovelace was the 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:03.040 one who was thinking in terms of graphics, music, that 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:08.639 kind of thing. And then Lovelace comes up with a 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.680 kind of a test. She she writes out a program 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:18.840 essentially based on Babbage's UH design for the analytical engine. 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.920 Now this engine again did not physically exist at this point, 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.359 in fact, that it never existed during his life and 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:31.080 and and Lovelace predeceased Babbage. So Lovelace looks at this 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:34.920 design and she says, you know what, let's just take 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:40.840 one uh one mathematical algorithm, and I will design a 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:45.640 program for this engine that would fulfill this algorithm. So 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:50.800 she decides to create a program that would generate Bernoulli numbers. 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.560 I would like to explain to you what a Bernoulli 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:57.760 number is, Honestly, I would like to, but I'm an 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:02.439 English major, and seriously, I looked at Bernoulli numbers. I 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.200 looked up five or six different explanations, and really it's 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.359 just a it's it's a level of mathematics with which 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.440 I am not comfortable. So I cannot even explain. Um, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:18.800 they're generated through the through a simple algorithm, relatively simple algorithm, 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.480 and um, Lovelace was able to create a program that 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.520 would have generated Bernoulli numbers through the analytic engine had 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:29.680 it ever been built. So I would say that, yes, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.720 you can call her the first computer programmer definitely. So um, yeah, 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.480 I admit, it's been a long time since, uh, since 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.040 I took calculus to more than twenty years now. But yeah, 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:44.840 the Bernoulli numbers were named for Jaco Bernoulli, who published 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.760 Actually the work was published after his death, was published 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.520 in seventeen um and based on the and that was 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.000 in the art I hope I probably am not pronouncing 0:20:55.040 --> 0:21:00.040 this right ours conject CONDI or yeah. Anyway, anyway, it 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.159 was published by Mr Bernouilli, who was one of several 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.439 in his family to work with math um. But the 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.159 Bernouilli numbers are very very important because they can be 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.920 used in a lot of different ways related to number 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.920 theory and trigger a metric functions as well. But yes, 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.760 number theory, I mean we're talking about a lot of 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.639 pure mathematics here. Yeah, it's it's basically has to deal 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:24.439 with the consecutive integers and and the way the sums 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.320 of powers are calculated. Yeah, I read that, and um 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.000 sure yea. Also, I should also point out before anyone 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:35.680 writes in uh, he was not the first, He was 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.840 not the only person to discover this principle. Well, I 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:41.639 mean this is a time of people who were discovering 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:43.720 things at the same time. Right at the same time, 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:47.879 there was two different forms of I want to say 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.600 it was a Japanese scholar who discovered it, and also 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.199 his work was published after he passed away, and it 0:21:55.240 --> 0:22:00.119 was published in seventeen twelve, one year before. But they 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.800 probably discovered it around the same time. Yeah, because this 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.400 was actually almost ten years I think after Bernoulli's death, 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:10.720 so it would have been back concurrently, simultaneous, concurrently side 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.960 of time. I was sorry, that would have peditively redundant. Well, 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:16.920 it's hard to say he was first, but they were 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.600 around the same time, just as you know, in the 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:23.879 immediately preceding years we have the calculus being conceived of. 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:26.080 It's fast. It must have been a really heavy time 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:30.440 for mathematicians. And uh so, yeah, I mean the fact 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:33.720 that that Lovelace was able to you know, she she 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:37.280 knew of course about this um the algorithm to generate 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.800 Bernoulli numbers, and was able to program a you know 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:44.159 this this is all more or less a thought experiment, 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:47.200 because again nothing existed with which on upon which she 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:49.560 could run this program. But she was able to create 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:52.680 a program that would have generated Bernoulli numbers based upon 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:56.879 the way that the analytical engine would have worked. So 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:02.440 the fact that one she understood this, which all by 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:05.040 itself is pretty amazing to me because I mean in 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.679 the sense that I find it completely incomprehensible too. She 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.720 was able to write a program for something that only 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.200 existed in theory. I mean, and and she had a 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:17.560 lot of influence with Babbage. The two of them together 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:22.080 really kind of shaped the analytical engine. And they would 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:25.800 find errors in each other's work. So it wasn't like 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:28.880 like Babbage would make mistakes because he's human and Lovelace 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:31.000 would find them. And sometimes love Lace would make mistakes 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:32.960 and Babbage would find them. They had a very long 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:38.560 history of correspondence. Um. And also a web comic. Yes, yeah, 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:43.320 we have to mention that the Lovelace and Babbage web comic. Oh, 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:46.199 this guy's do a search on on the web for 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:49.400