Tribute to Ada, a tech head a century before our time

More than 100 years before electricity surged through the vacuum tubes of the first generation of computers and well before the unveiling of the microchip, a young woman described with startling prescience the computer age of today.

Ada Byron Countess of Lovelace was a promising mathematician who has gone down in history as writing one of the first computer programs. Working with English polymath Charles Babbage on his steam-powered “Analytical Engine,” a forerunner of the modern computer, she developed an algorithm to compute Bernoulli numbers.

That is noteworthy, but what is extraordinary about Ada is the intellectual leaps she made in imaging what the Analytical Engine could do. She outlined an extraordinary vision for, unlike the men around her, she realized machines would do more than simply crunch numbers. She outlined the abstract principles of computation to understand symbols and to be used to create music or art, and to do this more powerfully and faster than humans. “This insight would become the core concept of the digital age,” Walter Isaacson wrote in his book The Innovators, about the people who created the computer and the Internet.

The countess of computing

Babbage’s machine was never built, so his work and the insights of Ada had little impact at the time and her role as a forerunner in the field of computing languished for decades. Rediscovered, she has in recent years become a poster girl for all women whose contribution to science has been neglected, downplayed or written from the pages of history.

What I know about Ada Lovelace is this. She died too young, at the age of 36, and although later in life she invested more energy in challenging conventions than exploring the limits of knowledge, she never stopped learning. As someone who studied mathematics at high school and university, I have always been inspired by Ada: she proved that women can make significant contributions to mathematics and science.

The inspiration I take from her is that Ada was someone not afraid to challenge the limits of her era and her knowledge. Born in a time when women had few chances in life, she had the advantages of a wealthy family and a husband that encouraged her to learn mathematics. These circumstances gave her the opportunities few others had, and she seized them.

Writing on the approach of a day named in her honor, when women are still severely underrepresented in the fields of science and mathematics, Ada Lovelace to me remains a stark reminder of what women can achieve when given the opportunity.

Beyond that, as her cooperation with Babbage illustrates, when people combine their talents and abilities they can conceive great achievements together. In my work at Daimler, I encourage women to pursue careers in information technology, but I also know that breakthroughs will not be made by men or by women. Rather, they will come from like-minded peers working in a spirit of cooperation. In this, Ada and Charles Babbage provide a lesson for all humankind.