Ongoing History Daily: The amazing Ada Lovelace
If you know anything about the history of computers, you’ve heard about Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician who was one of the very first computer programmers working with Charles Babbage in the 1820S on his mechanical calculating device called the Difference Engine and then the steam-powered Analytical Engine.
When that second computing device was demonstrated, Lovelace realized that using the mathematics of pitch and harmony, the Analytical Engine could theoretically be programmed to “compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity and extent.”
The machine was never actually able to do that, but Lovelace saw the potential of what we’re seeing now with music and artificial intelligence. And that was in the 1830s. More next time.
