Introduction

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." These words, written by George Orwell in his novel 1984, remind us that history is often shaped and reshaped, by those in power. Unfortunately, this means that marginalized voices are too often erased or overlooked in the stories we tell about our past.

It’s no secret that the tech world is predominantly male. But what is less acknowledged is how many women have been, and continue to be, crucial to the development of technology as we know it. Honoring and amplifying their stories is essential if we are to build a more equal and inclusive foundation for the future of tech.

Studying and shedding light on the lives and legacies of women in computing serves a deeper purpose: it helps elevate these often-forgotten pioneers and inspires a new generation of women to see themselves in the field. Representation matters not only to correct the record but to show young women that they belong in computing, engineering, and innovation.

When we think of pioneers in computing, male names usually come to mind. Rarely do we hear about the women who laid the groundwork for modern computing. Today, we turn our attention to one of those foundational figures, the woman who wrote the very first algorithm intended for a machine: Ada Lovelace.

The life of Ada Lovelace: the enchantress of numbers

Ada Lovelace was born in December 1815 in London. Her mother was Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke, a rational and highly educated woman with a deep love for mathematics. Her father was none other than the famous poet Lord Byron, yes, that Byron, the Romantic literary genius known for his brilliance, tempestuous behavior, and scandalous love affairs.

However, Ada never got to know him. Just a month after her birth, Lord Byron abandoned both wife and daughter and he left England permanently and never saw Ada again. He died when Ada was about eight years old, and thus, they never had any real relationship.

Lady Byron believed that the Byron family’s blood was cursed, and therefore, she needed to control her daughter’s life at all costs. Fearing that Ada might inherit her father’s unstable and overly imaginative nature, Lady Byron sought to shield her from literature and poetry. Instead, she ensured that Ada received a rigorous education in mathematics, logic, and science, subjects rarely taught to girls at the time. This very strict control between the mother and her daughter meant that the two did not have a very friendly relationship throughout Ada’s life.

Ironically, this education didn’t suppress Ada’s creativity, it enhanced it. She developed a deep fascination with abstract thinking and numbers, but retained an imaginative approach. She referred to her interest in mathematics as “poetical science,” exploring patterns and beauty through logic and computation. When she was younger, she even wanted to create a flying horse machine that could gallop through the air. She was so curious and studious that she dedicated herself to studying not only the anatomy of horses but also of birds to learn how to create her invention. But of course, these were childhood plans that never came to be true.

Ada’s education was elite: she studied with renowned mathematician Augustus De Morgan, and she mingled with intellectuals like Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin, and Charles Dickens, despite societal restrictions on women’s access to science. In fact, her mother had difficulty finding tutors for her because, sooner or later, Ada ended up surpassing her tutors in knowledge and asking questions that they could not answer.

Her health, however, was fragile throughout her life, she had a brilliant mind but a weak body. Ada suffered long illnesses and often had to recover in isolation. Ada had a bad case of measles that attacked her legs, leaving her bedridden and unable to walk for almost a year.

In 1835, she married William King, and when he became the Earl of Lovelace three years later, she became Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. They had three children, but her later life was marked by health struggles, including cancer, and her use of alcohol and opiates (often prescribed at the time to relieve pain). Lovelace was so passionate about numbers and mathematics that she even developed a gambling habit, trying to find mathematical logic in horse race results. This, of course, led her into debt.

She discovered she had a disease that would make her die soon: uterine cancer, which, at the time, had no cure. This led her to reconcile with her mother, who stayed with her throughout her illness. Furthermore, she asked to be buried next to her father, so that in death, she would have the paternal contact she never had in life. Ada Lovelace died young, at just 36 years old, in 1852.

The world’s first computer program

In 1833, Ada Lovelace met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and engineer who had designed a calculating machine called the Difference Engine, a precursor to the mechanical computer, similar to a basic calculator that we have today. While the machine was never completed during Babbage’s lifetime due to high costs, the ideas behind it captivated Ada. He was the one that called Ada the enchantress of numbers.

Through this connection, she deepened her understanding of complex mathematics under the mentorship of Augustus De Morgan and took a keen interest in Babbage’s later project, the Analytical Engine. This machine, unlike the Difference Engine, was a general-purpose computing machine: the first conceptual model of what we now call a computer.

Between 1842 and 1843, Ada translated a scientific paper by Luigi Federico Menabrea, an Italian engineer, originally written in French, this paper was a transcript of Babbage’s presentation of the Analytical Engine. However, Ada added a series of detailed notes labeled A through G, notes that would become more influential than the original article.

In these notes, Lovelace described the Analytical Engine in detail, even taking care to explain what else the machine might be able to do in the future. In this description, she explained that the machine would have a “mill,” something very similar to what we know today as a processor. She also described a “store,” which we now call memory.

Ada also explained that the machine was not important in itself, but rather for its ability to reflect human logic. In this way, the machine could help us solve problems without becoming tired and with fewer errors.

She described what we now call modularization, saying that the Analytical Engine could use simple commands together and thus perform more complex calculations. For her, the machine could do more than simple calculations; it could work with conditionals and loops, although she did not use this terminology. Ada also argued that the machine could manipulate symbols and not just numbers, implying that it could one day be used to compose music, process text, or create visual art.

Her algorithm, considered the first computer program, was a formula for calculating Bernoulli numbers. She broke down into small steps what was needed for the calculation and organized them so that, together, these steps would perform the calculation. Quite similar to what we do even today, isn’t it?

She offered profound philosophical insight, such as her famous statement: “The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform.” This became known later as the “Lovelace Objection”, and it would be cited more than a century later by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence.

A legacy that shaped the future

Ada Lovelace’s contributions were largely forgotten after her death. However, her legacy resurfaced in the mid-20th century, particularly in the work of Alan Turing, who referenced her notes while exploring the concept of artificial intelligence.

In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named a new programming language Ada in her honor, meant to standardize the hundreds of programming languages then used by the military.

Another major recognition came with the creation of Ada Lovelace Day in 2009, celebrated every second Tuesday of October. The day is dedicated to recognizing the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

In 2022, the UK-based Finding Ada foundation announced it could no longer fund Ada Lovelace Day, but it was soon revived with support from The Royal Institution, ensuring its ongoing celebration and expansion.

Ada Lovelace’s legacy today reminds us:

• That imagination and logic can coexist and even enhance one another.
• That the future of computing was envisioned by a woman long before it became real.
• That young girls today can aspire to careers in tech because of the foundations laid by pioneers like Ada.

Who will lift the dust from your eyes, Ada Lovelace? Look how far your name has reached, in a time so unlike your own. Days like Ada Lovelace Day serve to inspire students, girls especially, to imagine themselves in the lab, behind the keyboard, or crafting the next great innovation. Somewhere in a classroom, the next Ada may already be dreaming, and may she be encouraged to pursue those dreams.

Conclusion

Ada Lovelace’s story is not just a historical footnote, it is a powerful reminder of the brilliance that can emerge when creativity meets scientific curiosity, regardless of gender. Her vision of a machine capable of more than mere calculation laid the conceptual groundwork for the digital world we now inhabit. And yet, for too long, her contributions were forgotten or minimized, reflecting a broader pattern of erasure that has long affected women in science and technology.

By revisiting and honoring Ada’s legacy, we do more than correct the historical record, we actively reshape the future. Her life proves that innovation is not confined to a single era or stereotype. It belongs to those who dare to imagine beyond the limits imposed on them.

As we look forward to a more inclusive and diverse future in tech, let Ada Lovelace be both a symbol and a spark, a symbol of how far we’ve come, and a spark that lights the path for the innovators yet to come.

And this is just the beginning. In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to highlight the stories of other remarkable women who helped shape the world of technology, voices that deserve to be heard, remembered, and celebrated.

Co-author: Julia Aguiar

References

• https://pubsonline.informs.org/do/10.1287/LYTX.2017.01.06/full
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0004370216300224
• https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/sciencehistory/celebrating-ada-lovelace-pioneer-programming
• Howard, William. Ada Lovelace: The Enchantress of Numbers

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