Ada

It took me a bit to make my mind about this post; should it be a tribute to the English mathematician and writer who is believed to be the first computer programmer? or simply share my thoughts on the programming language named in recognition of her status as one of the first tech visionaries?

Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron), was a rich and privileged woman, born more than 200 years ago. We still experience today the bias against women doing anything important, so it's easy to extrapolate this bias in the past, to understand the novelty of a woman determined to study mathematics and write algorithms. Of course, the wealth and the privileges helped, but it's the confidence in her abilities that placed her in the history of computers. She was only 17 when she attended a social gathering at Babbage's home where he presented parts of his Difference Engine No 1. "While other visitors gazed at the workings of the beautiful instrument with the sort of expression, and I dare say the sort of feeling, that some savages are said to have shown on first seeing a looking-glass or hearing a gun - if indeed, they had a strong an idea of its marvelousness - Miss Byron, young as she was, understood its working, and saw the great beauty of the invention." (De Morgan, the mathematician). Ada Lovelace died at the age of 36, from uterine cancer.

By the time I learned about Ada, my daughter was already seven years old, so no risk of me making a statement and giving her the name Ada. (The daughter was unhappy with her name, regardless!) However, before even dreaming of how much she could achieve, I taught her the ABC (some kids her age were still in Pampers) and I pushed her to take programming classes in primary school. I punished her each time she was embracing the "I don't understand!" lame excuse. Because, I believe that talking about the gender gap and fighting the bias against women in tech is important, but equally important - if not more - is to focus on girls' education, giving them the means to close the gap. It's going to be difficult for them, perhaps unfairly difficult, but no matter how long it takes, it is efficient and it makes sense. I'm not sure I would have liked Ada, the lady, perhaps she had too many characteristics of a programmer 🙃. Though, I like very much Ada, the programming language. Its semantics treat the machine and the OS as the mathematicians do in mathematics, in which nothing but rules and formulas exist, "no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday and no tomorrow. Nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present." (Hermann Hesse, Das Glasperlenspiel) To be continued.