4 ms·

Ada Lovelace: Enchantress of abstraction

58 points by mkempe 11y ago

kjs3 11y ago
I hear she worked with Charles Babbage: Studmuffin of computing. Really, Nature?
- breadbox 11y ago
  The title is a reference to Babbage's own appellation for Lovelace as "the Enchantress of Numbers".
  - kjs3 11y ago
    I'm aware of how Babbage referred to her in the mid-1800s. That's the point. [Edited for clarity]
  - stefantalpalaru 11y ago
    At what point do we admit that Babbage was using this mediocre celebrity-by-birth to get his articles published and maybe some funding?
    - theoh 11y ago
      She was a personality, though, at least that's the impression given in "Zeros + Ones" by Sadie Plant (mandatory feminist correction).
- lexcorvus 11y ago
  As soon as I saw the title, I thought, "Oh, Nature stepped in it." But think of how odd it is that here, in 2015, it's considered (by some) inappropriate to describe a woman as an "enchantress." It reminds me of this observation, from Paul Graham's "What You Can't Say": For example, at the high water mark of political correctness in the early 1990s, Harvard distributed to its faculty and staff a brochure saying, among other things, that it was inappropriate to compliment a colleague or student's clothes. No more "nice shirt." I think this principle is rare among the world's cultures, past or present. There are probably more where it's considered especially polite to compliment someone's clothing than where it's considered improper. So odds are this is, in a mild form, an example of one of the taboos a visitor from the future would have to be careful to avoid if he happened to set his time machine for Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1992.
  - kjs3 11y ago
    He also says people with strong accents are bad founders[1] and we shouldn't allow women to be founders today because they probably haven't been hackers for 10 years[2]. I dig Lisp, too...but maybe Paul isn't the best person to uncritically take advise from. And yes, I've read all of his "well that's what I said but really I'm not sexist" justifications. [1] http://paulgraham.com/accents.html http://paulgraham.com/accents.html [2] http://valleywag.gawker.com/paul-graham-says-women-havent-been-hacking-for-the-pa-1490581236 http://valleywag.gawker.com/paul-graham-says-women-havent-be.... Key insight: "If we really wanted to fix this problem, what we would have to do is not encourage women to start startups now."
    - ps4fanboy 11y ago
      Makes more sense if you include the full context, why are you manufacturing outrage? " What that means is the problem is 10 years upstream of us. If we really wanted to fix this problem, what we would have to do is not encourage women to start startups now. It's already too late. What we should be doing is somehow changing the middle school computer science curriculum or something like that. God knows what you would do to get 13 year old girls interested in computers. I would have to stop and think about that. "
      - kjs3 11y ago
        How does your context not engender outrage? It's nothing more than "the boys, they'll be fine because boys are better than girls at technology and we're totally cool if they go on to start companies. But the girls, well, they're inferior so why would we encourage them." But I'm sure you'll get props at your mens rights movement meeting for pretending overt "girls just aren't good at tech" messaging isn't sexism.
        59nadir 11y ago
        It's very simple; he's saying the problem goes back to elementary school. You need to plant the seed then to foster any meaningful amount of interest and engagement in computers and computer science. Since this is currently only really succeeding with boys, you need to re-examine what's being done and make sure that the seed is also planted for girls. The boys will be fine because clearly what's being done is already working for them, but as a group girls are clearly not being drawn into computer science education and so that's where the problem lies.
- elektromekatron 11y ago
  That really should be an article title though.
  - foobar2020 11y ago
    It is, you just have to be familiar with details. He called her "the Enchantress of Numbers"
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
lowlygod 11y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbVbqRvqTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbVbqRvqTM This is a nice short video about her. And I read a bit more about her in this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1400096235 http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/d...
Tloewald 11y ago
I learned two things I did not know about Ada Lovelace: she had three children and, even allowing for flattery the artist, was quite beautiful. And not lacking in self-confidence, either.
- jayvanguard 11y ago
  I learned that she really _got_ the potential of computing and what it was going to be. In 1843. Crazy.
- dllthomas 11y ago
  I learned she had a cat named Puff.
mwest 11y ago
It would have been Ada Lovelace's 200th birthday this year. The Bodleian Library will be displaying a slew of Lovelace paraphernalia, open to the public from October. There's also a symposium in December. More details here: https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/2015/09/02/celebrate-ada-lovelace-in-oxford/ https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/2015/09/02/celeb... If you're in the UK, I recommend making the effort to visit the display at the Bodleian.

58 points by mkempe 11y ago

kjs3 11y ago

I hear she worked with Charles Babbage: Studmuffin of computing. Really, Nature?

breadbox 11y ago
The title is a reference to Babbage's own appellation for Lovelace as "the Enchantress of Numbers".
- kjs3 11y ago
  I'm aware of how Babbage referred to her in the mid-1800s. That's the point. [Edited for clarity]
- stefantalpalaru 11y ago
  At what point do we admit that Babbage was using this mediocre celebrity-by-birth to get his articles published and maybe some funding?
  - theoh 11y ago
    She was a personality, though, at least that's the impression given in "Zeros + Ones" by Sadie Plant (mandatory feminist correction).
lexcorvus 11y ago
As soon as I saw the title, I thought, "Oh, Nature stepped in it." But think of how odd it is that here, in 2015, it's considered (by some) inappropriate to describe a woman as an "enchantress." It reminds me of this observation, from Paul Graham's "What You Can't Say": For example, at the high water mark of political correctness in the early 1990s, Harvard distributed to its faculty and staff a brochure saying, among other things, that it was inappropriate to compliment a colleague or student's clothes. No more "nice shirt." I think this principle is rare among the world's cultures, past or present. There are probably more where it's considered especially polite to compliment someone's clothing than where it's considered improper. So odds are this is, in a mild form, an example of one of the taboos a visitor from the future would have to be careful to avoid if he happened to set his time machine for Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1992.
- kjs3 11y ago
  He also says people with strong accents are bad founders[1] and we shouldn't allow women to be founders today because they probably haven't been hackers for 10 years[2]. I dig Lisp, too...but maybe Paul isn't the best person to uncritically take advise from. And yes, I've read all of his "well that's what I said but really I'm not sexist" justifications. [1] http://paulgraham.com/accents.html http://paulgraham.com/accents.html [2] http://valleywag.gawker.com/paul-graham-says-women-havent-been-hacking-for-the-pa-1490581236 http://valleywag.gawker.com/paul-graham-says-women-havent-be.... Key insight: "If we really wanted to fix this problem, what we would have to do is not encourage women to start startups now."
  - ps4fanboy 11y ago
    Makes more sense if you include the full context, why are you manufacturing outrage? " What that means is the problem is 10 years upstream of us. If we really wanted to fix this problem, what we would have to do is not encourage women to start startups now. It's already too late. What we should be doing is somehow changing the middle school computer science curriculum or something like that. God knows what you would do to get 13 year old girls interested in computers. I would have to stop and think about that. "
    - kjs3 11y ago
      How does your context not engender outrage? It's nothing more than "the boys, they'll be fine because boys are better than girls at technology and we're totally cool if they go on to start companies. But the girls, well, they're inferior so why would we encourage them." But I'm sure you'll get props at your mens rights movement meeting for pretending overt "girls just aren't good at tech" messaging isn't sexism.
      - 59nadir 11y ago
        It's very simple; he's saying the problem goes back to elementary school. You need to plant the seed then to foster any meaningful amount of interest and engagement in computers and computer science. Since this is currently only really succeeding with boys, you need to re-examine what's being done and make sure that the seed is also planted for girls. The boys will be fine because clearly what's being done is already working for them, but as a group girls are clearly not being drawn into computer science education and so that's where the problem lies.
elektromekatron 11y ago
That really should be an article title though.
- foobar2020 11y ago
  It is, you just have to be familiar with details. He called her "the Enchantress of Numbers"
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

lowlygod 11y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbVbqRvqTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbVbqRvqTM This is a nice short video about her. And I read a bit more about her in this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1400096235 http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/d...

Tloewald 11y ago

I learned two things I did not know about Ada Lovelace: she had three children and, even allowing for flattery the artist, was quite beautiful. And not lacking in self-confidence, either.

jayvanguard 11y ago
I learned that she really _got_ the potential of computing and what it was going to be. In 1843. Crazy.
dllthomas 11y ago
I learned she had a cat named Puff.

mwest 11y ago

It would have been Ada Lovelace's 200th birthday this year. The Bodleian Library will be displaying a slew of Lovelace paraphernalia, open to the public from October. There's also a symposium in December. More details here: https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/2015/09/02/celebrate-ada-lovelace-in-oxford/ https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/2015/09/02/celeb... If you're in the UK, I recommend making the effort to visit the display at the Bodleian.