Comment on Ada Lovelace
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
Hooray for the Lady who might have written the first algorithm! She needs more attention.
Other: Charles Babbage (sp?) and the Analytic Engine: perhaps our first real computer. Imagine a steampunk world where all our devices were powered by huge mechanical chunks and chonks.
I saw a video of a constructed Analytical Engine (they couldn’t manufacture the parts to the specs required in Babbage’s time) donated to a Computer History museum by an early Microsoft exec. Didn’t find it on a quick search, but it’s a huge thing driven by a physical crank.
call_me_xale@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
This woman wrote computer programs before computers existed. Fucking mind-blowing.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
I can’t imagine a more advanced mind. I mean, maybe Einstein, but we have proof of her discoveries and they’re not at all abstract in the contemporary world! (I mean, they kinda are, but you get what I mean.)
Zagorath@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
I’m not sure what you mean. Einstein’s theories are not without proof or purely abstract. Without them, satellites’ clocks would get noticeably out of sync with earth’s, which would (among other things) render GPS absolutely useless.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Ada Lovelace. What else would I mean? She (arguably) wrote the first algorithm. (Oh shit, a woman is responsible for all social media, let’s get them! /s)