Some of [Lovelace's] comments sound remarkably modern. One is very appropriate to a discussion there was in England which arose from a tendency, even… - Ada Lovelace

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Some of [Lovelace's] comments sound remarkably modern. One is very appropriate to a discussion there was in England which arose from a tendency, even in the more responsible press, to use the term “electronic brain” for equipment such as electronic calculating machines, automatic pilots for aircraft, etc. I considered it necessary to protest against this usage (51), as the term would suggest to the layman that equipment of this kind could “think for itself,” whereas this is just what it cannot do; all the thinking has to be done beforehand by the designer and by the operator who provides the operating instructions for the particular problem; all the machine can do is to follow these instructions exactly, and this is true even though they involve the faculty of “judgment.” I found afterwards that over a hundred years ago Lady Lovelace had put the point firmly and concisely (C, p. 44) : “The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to oriqinate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform” (her italics).

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About Ada Lovelace

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron and now commonly known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer, daughter of the poet Lord Byron. She is chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. Because of this, she is often described as the world's first computer programmer, or the "mother of computer programming".

Also Known As

Pen Names: A. A. L.
Native Name: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace
Alternative Names: Lady Ada Augusta Ada Byron Ada Byron Augusta Ada King Ada King Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace Lovelace, Ada Augusta Ada King Countess of Lovelace

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Additional quotes by Ada Lovelace

When I behold the scientific and so-called philosophers full of selfish feelings, and of a tenency to war against circumstances and Providence, I say to myself: They are not true priests, they are but half prophets — if not absolutely false ones. They have read the great page simply with the physical eye, and with none of the spirit within. The intellectual, the moral, the religious seem to me all naturally bound up and interlinked together in one great and harmonious whole... That God is one, and that all the works and the feelings He has called into existence are ONE; this is a truth (a biblical and scriptural truth too) not in my opinion developed to the apprehension of most people in its really deep and unfanthomable meaning. There is too much tendency to making separate and independent bundles of both the physical and the moral facts of the universe. Whereas, all and everything is naturally related and interconnected. A volume could I write you on this subject.

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I may remark that the curious transformations many formulae can undergo, the unsuspected and to a beginner apparently impossible identity of forms exceedingly dissimilar at first sight, is I think one of the chief difficulties in the early part of mathematical studies. I am often reminded of certain sprites and fairies one reads of, who are at one's elbows in one shape now, and the next minute in a form most dissimilar.

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