Today we celebrate the birthday of a truly remarkable Lady (capitalisation intended):
Lady Ada Lovelace was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and the first person to ever write a computer program. Yes, all the old school geeks and nerds out there probably have a moment of blindness right now, but yes, the first computer program ever was written by a woman.
Obviously, Lady Lovelace was acquainted, maybe even friends, with Charles Babbage. The program she wrote was supposed to be used with Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
Lady Lovelace is thus not only an icon for Steampunks, since she was on the team with Babbage, but also for Cyberpunks. I would even go so far as to declare:
Ada Lovelace is the Patron Saint of Cyberpunks!
Sadly, it took over a hundred years after she had passed away, far too early at the age of 36, to recognise her contribution to very early programming, i.e. creating this field of scientific research and development. Now we know.
So, happy birthday, Lady Lovelace, you are remembered and a computer programming language is named in your honour.
And for all of my readers, here is a very short synopsis of Ada Lovelace’s life and contribution to science: