“That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show”

[thieuster]

“That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show” Words by Ada Lovelace to Charles Babbage when he turned down her offer to build his analytical machine.

Late August, I posted here a question about Ada Lovelace: https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...light=lovelace
Lots of info and ideas from forumites here for my wife to 'investigate' the life and work of Ada Lovelace, lord Byron's daughter.

Today she went to one of the Harvard libraries where she had an appointment to see (and don't touch) the Sumner manuscript about Ada Lovelace. My wife had to hand over her phone and all to prevent picture taking or worse: the use of flash when taking pics! She also had a lengthy conversation with a professor who happens to have a life-long interest in Lord Byron, his work and his family.

The task she gave herself: to find out how Lovelace was able to 'unfold' her genius mind given the 'headwind' she encountered from being a woman(...) with a strange passion (maths) in an era not used to a combination of both. She will try to pull this into the 21st century and how certain elements of those circumstances can be used (or not) to develop creativity and a genius mind. One thing already: it looks as if a genius mind works best / makes the biggest steps when it's not in 'pampered environment'. E.g. Turin's work and life and homosexuality. (My example; not my wife's so it's perhaps not fully correct as an example). However, if it is correct, it's likely that hiring a genius coming to work for a big company will not work. Big companies often have start-ups and incubators where bright people can work without the hassle of 'corporate life'.

Menno

The Harvard Library earlier today; well, one of the 76(!) libraries. Some are small and inside another building. This one is huge.

[M4tt]

As was the case with several well connected women of the period, Rossetti for example, Ada didn’t encounter as much headwind as most women and having married well, as they say, encountered still less. However, this doesn’t undermine her singular abilities. Have you bumped into the play Arcadia as this explores a situation much like hers and is well worth the read and indeed watching when it is next staged.
comparisons with Turing can get rapidly misleading if only because he had access to logic after Russell and Frege had tidied it up into a universal tool capable of underpinning the Church Turing thesis and thus functional accounts of universality. Personally I think her vision of AI was more compelling than his as she seemed to grasp the importance of being able to do things that required intelligence if done by humans while Turing seemed to get stuck on ersatz selves - a mistake that hung round the neck of GOFAI until Rumelhart and Mclelland. It’s hard to know how good she’d have been as she never got the chance to get into a dialectic relationship with a functioning Turing machine. I suspect she’d have exploded with creativity, but we will never know.

[markbannister]

Really really interesting, thank you.

[Brian]

I think that Henrietta Swan Leavitt deserves honorable mention (1868 - 1921) in these areas of hard working women (against the flow and indifference of their time).

I was fascinated with her and her work in astronomy for a while.

B

[thieuster]

I think that Henrietta Swan Leavitt deserves honorable mention (1868 - 1921) in these areas of hard working women (against the flow and indifference of their time).

I was fascinated with her and her work in astronomy for a while.

B

Ah a 'Harvardian' (or better: Harvardienne?). My wife will be happy to hear that.
Today is a shopping day, buying fridge magnets and an MIT and Harvard sweater for my youngest. - and oh...she has to work as well.

She told me that the way the Library is organised looked and functioned like the Soviet stores from a bygone era! Receiving a ticket, get a stamp on various documents at 4 different stations - all in one room(!) before she was allowed to see (no touching!) the precious manuscript.
But it was worth it: the experience and the papers!