Ada's Algorithm

I'm surprised by the negative reviews of this! The low star rating! I mean, it's fine. I enjoyed it. I learned a lot. I had fun diving deep into early 19th century England (it's been a while); it's such a rich portrait of the times and people.

Anyway, while this book is ostensibly about Ada Lovelace - Matron Saint, along with Grace Hopper, of all things women and computers these days (e.g. adafruit, Ada Lovelace Day, the Ada Initiative) - it does indeed spend a lot of time on her collaborator, Charles Babbage, and her parents, Lord Byron (of Byronic poet fame) and Lady Byron. I thought this was fine; it's a short-ish book, and still manages to be enriching, and it contextualized a lot when you heard about how (in)famous Lord Byron was during his own lifetime and how much of a troubled grump Babbage was. I was also a little starstruck at having Dickens and Darwin wandering around the parties too. Here is my favorite Charles Darwin quote - ah! I find it so encouraging. I also find his daily routine so inspiring too.

I think the most interesting - intoxicating, even! - aspect of Ada and Babbage's story - and one others have picked up on - is the “what might have been” aspect. They were on the cusp of augmenting the Digital Age about a hundred years early and in a totally different country. That's amazing!!! It blows your mind!!!! The book doesn't dwell too much on this, but does point it to a couple different things: (1) Babbage having a super shitty meeting with the Prime Minister of the time, and basically shooting himself in the diplomatic foot, and (2) Ada's genius getting constantly derailed and squashed by the patriarchy and hum drum bullshit responsibilities. You do wonder what they could have accomplished if they had been unleashed!

Some stuff I didn't like about the book: in almost all the Ada sections, it's written defensively. As in, “She really IS a genius, despite what some sexist naysayers might have you believe.” DUDE. I do NOTTTT care what sexist naysayers are saying, so please spare me the time and spare yourself the pages and let's get back to building the Difference Engine! It just seemed like an inordinate amount of energy was spent on defending Ada's intellect and this was so, so discouraging and disheartening.

Also, goddamn these people were rich.