Ada's Algorithm

By James Essinger,

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

Book description

“[Ada Lovelace], like Steve Jobs, stands at the intersection of arts and technology."—Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators

Over 150 years after her death, a widely-used scientific computer program was named “Ada,” after Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate daughter of the eighteenth century’s version of a rock star, Lord Byron.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Ada's Algorithm as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I’m a geek; I’m ok with that, and I fully embrace that reality. I love books that tell the stories of the early pioneers who brought about computing as we know it. And few figures are as important and underappreciated as Lady Ava Lovelace.

She literally created what we now call “computer programming languages” before there were modern computers and electricity was widely available! Oh, and she did this before she died at age 33. This is a feel-good, inspiring tale of a woman well ahead of her time.

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Interested in Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron, and Alan Turing?

Ada Lovelace 10 books
Lord Byron 18 books
Alan Turing 13 books