Excerpt
Introduction to Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace had a way of seeing the world that was completely different from most people around her. While others saw machines as simple tools, Ada saw something much more exciting—something almost alive with possibilities. Numbers weren’t just numbers to her. They were ideas, connections, even music.
She wasn’t supposed to be this way. At least, that’s what her mother had hoped.
Ada was born in 1815 into a famous family. Her father, Lord Byron, was one of the most well-known poets of the time, known for writing dramatic verses and living an even more dramatic life. But he wasn’t around for very long. Just a few weeks after Ada was born, he left England and never came back. That meant Ada grew up with her mother, Lady Byron, who had strong opinions about how her daughter should be raised.
Lady Byron didn’t want Ada to follow in her father’s footsteps. Poetry? No. Wild emotions? Definitely not. She believed that logic and reason were the way to a proper life. Instead of letting Ada get lost in stories and daydreams, she surrounded her with math and science. Her tutors drilled her in numbers and equations, and she was expected to study hard.
But something unexpected happened.
Instead of resisting math, Ada loved it. She didn’t just learn equations—she played with them, turning numbers into patterns and puzzles in her mind. Where others saw rules and limits, Ada saw adventure. Even as a child, she asked questions that no one had thought to ask before. Could numbers be used to create pictures? Could machines think beyond simple calculations? Could they be taught to create?
Ada’s mind didn’t fit neatly into a single category. She was fascinated by science but also drawn to art. She once designed a plan to build a flying machine, carefully studying the way birds moved to figure out how wings should work. She sketched out diagrams, took notes, and imagined a world where people could glide through the air like birds. This wasn’t just a daydream—it was a carefully thought-out experiment, based on research and observation. She was only twelve.
It wasn’t always easy. In the 1800s, girls weren’t expected to study subjects like math and engineering. Many people believed that women didn’t have the kind of minds suited for that kind of work. They thought girls should focus on things like sewing, music, and running a household. But Ada had no interest in those things. She wanted to explore, to learn, to create.
And she was lucky—she had people in her life who saw her potential. Her mother made sure she had excellent teachers, including some of the best mathematicians of the time. One of them, a man named Augustus De Morgan, was amazed by how quickly Ada understood complicated ideas. He even told her mother that Ada could be one of the great mathematical minds of the time—if she had been born a boy, that is.
But Ada didn’t let other people’s opinions stop her. She kept pushing forward, eager to learn more. She wanted to understand how things worked—not just on the surface, but deep down.
That curiosity led her to someone who would change her life: Charles Babbage.
Babbage was an inventor, a thinker, and a bit of a troublemaker when it came to challenging the way things were done. He had a bold idea—a machine that could solve complex mathematical problems automatically. At the time, calculations had to be done by hand, which meant they took a long time and could be full of mistakes. Babbage believed a machine could do it faster and more accurately.
He called it the Difference Engine. It was a machine made of gears and levers, built to crunch numbers with precision. To most people, it looked like a fancy clockwork contraption. To Ada, it looked like the beginning of something much bigger.
The first time she saw it, something clicked in her mind. While others saw a complicated piece of machinery, Ada saw potential. If a machine could follow instructions to calculate numbers, what else could it do? Could it be taught to follow more complex instructions? Could it think in a way that was almost human?
She started asking questions that no one else had asked before. Not even Babbage.
The two of them became fast friends. Babbage was impressed by Ada’s sharp mind, and he enjoyed talking to someone who understood his ideas. Ada, in turn, was fascinated by his work and wanted to help make his machines a reality. She became deeply involved in his next invention—an even more advanced machine called the Analytical Engine.
While the Difference Engine could only solve specific types of problems, the Analytical Engine was designed to be more flexible. It could be programmed to follow different instructions, making it more like a modern computer. But there was a problem—no one had figured out how to actually write those instructions yet.
That was where Ada came in.
Ada Lovelace had a way of seeing the world that was completely different from most people around her. While others saw machines as simple tools, Ada saw something much more exciting—something almost alive with possibilities. Numbers weren’t just numbers to her. They were ideas, connections, even music.
She wasn’t supposed to be this way. At least, that’s what her mother had hoped.
Ada was born in 1815 into a famous family. Her father, Lord Byron, was one of the most well-known poets of the time, known for writing dramatic verses and living an even more dramatic life. But he wasn’t around for very long. Just a few weeks after Ada was born, he left England and never came back. That meant Ada grew up with her mother, Lady Byron, who had strong opinions about how her daughter should be raised.
Lady Byron didn’t want Ada to follow in her father’s footsteps. Poetry? No. Wild emotions? Definitely not. She believed that logic and reason were the way to a proper life. Instead of letting Ada get lost in stories and daydreams, she surrounded her with math and science. Her tutors drilled her in numbers and equations, and she was expected to study hard.
But something unexpected happened.
Instead of resisting math, Ada loved it. She didn’t just learn equations—she played with them, turning numbers into patterns and puzzles in her mind. Where others saw rules and limits, Ada saw adventure. Even as a child, she asked questions that no one had thought to ask before. Could numbers be used to create pictures? Could machines think beyond simple calculations? Could they be taught to create?
Ada’s mind didn’t fit neatly into a single category. She was fascinated by science but also drawn to art. She once designed a plan to build a flying machine, carefully studying the way birds moved to figure out how wings should work. She sketched out diagrams, took notes, and imagined a world where people could glide through the air like birds. This wasn’t just a daydream—it was a carefully thought-out experiment, based on research and observation. She was only twelve.
It wasn’t always easy. In the 1800s, girls weren’t expected to study subjects like math and engineering. Many people believed that women didn’t have the kind of minds suited for that kind of work. They thought girls should focus on things like sewing, music, and running a household. But Ada had no interest in those things. She wanted to explore, to learn, to create.
And she was lucky—she had people in her life who saw her potential. Her mother made sure she had excellent teachers, including some of the best mathematicians of the time. One of them, a man named Augustus De Morgan, was amazed by how quickly Ada understood complicated ideas. He even told her mother that Ada could be one of the great mathematical minds of the time—if she had been born a boy, that is.
But Ada didn’t let other people’s opinions stop her. She kept pushing forward, eager to learn more. She wanted to understand how things worked—not just on the surface, but deep down.
That curiosity led her to someone who would change her life: Charles Babbage.
Babbage was an inventor, a thinker, and a bit of a troublemaker when it came to challenging the way things were done. He had a bold idea—a machine that could solve complex mathematical problems automatically. At the time, calculations had to be done by hand, which meant they took a long time and could be full of mistakes. Babbage believed a machine could do it faster and more accurately.
He called it the Difference Engine. It was a machine made of gears and levers, built to crunch numbers with precision. To most people, it looked like a fancy clockwork contraption. To Ada, it looked like the beginning of something much bigger.
The first time she saw it, something clicked in her mind. While others saw a complicated piece of machinery, Ada saw potential. If a machine could follow instructions to calculate numbers, what else could it do? Could it be taught to follow more complex instructions? Could it think in a way that was almost human?
She started asking questions that no one else had asked before. Not even Babbage.
The two of them became fast friends. Babbage was impressed by Ada’s sharp mind, and he enjoyed talking to someone who understood his ideas. Ada, in turn, was fascinated by his work and wanted to help make his machines a reality. She became deeply involved in his next invention—an even more advanced machine called the Analytical Engine.
While the Difference Engine could only solve specific types of problems, the Analytical Engine was designed to be more flexible. It could be programmed to follow different instructions, making it more like a modern computer. But there was a problem—no one had figured out how to actually write those instructions yet.
That was where Ada came in.