Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age

Ada Lovelace, like Steve Jobs, stands at the intersection of arts and technology.—Walter Isaacson, author of The InnovatorsOver 150 years after her death, a widely-used scientific computer program was named Ada, after Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate daughter of the eighteenth centurys version of a rock star, Lord Byron. Why?Because, after computer pioneers such as Alan Turing began to rediscover her, it slowly became apparent that she had been a key but overlooked figure in the invention of the computer.In Ada Lovelace, James Essinger makes the case that the computer age could have started two centuries ago if Lovelaces contemporaries had recognized her research and fully grasped its implications.Its a remarkable tale, starting with the outrageous behavior of her father, which made Ada instantly famous upon birth.