Emotional Side of Computing:
“One might think the invention of computing and advanced machineries focused solely on logic and mathematics, but without the imaginative vision to drive such innovations, they are merely an input/output machine that lack the human imagination.” M.E.Habbal
“The history of the world is but the biography of great men.”
One great goal that drove the most important achievement of human kind was based on two things, simplicity and automation.
- Simplicity and division of endeavors by breaking them down into easy and small tasks that could be accomplished on assembly lines.
- Automation to mechanize steps so that they could be performed by machines.
This is a note regarding the wild mind of Ada Lovelace and her vision of a modern computer.
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer.
You can say that Babbage was the implementor and Ada was the visionary, in which she dreamt of multi-function machine that can not only read numbers, but symbols, art, music and much more.
“Leonardo da Vinci was the exemplar of the creativity that flourishes when the humanities and sciences interact.”
“When Einstein was stymied while working out General Relativity, he would pull out his violin and play Mozart until he could reconnect to what he called the harmony of the spheres.” Which is a philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies, the sun, the moon and planets as a form of music.
There was first the industrial revolution that changed our entire commercial and production system and then, there was the digital revolution, the computer, microchip and the internet. At the heart of both eras were innovators who combined imagination and passion with wondrous technology.
Ada said in 1841 “I can throw rays from every quarter of the universe into one vast focus.” “Math constitutes the language through which alone we can adequately express the great facts of the natural world.”
What is the essence of modern computers?
“The bounds of arithmetic were outstepped the moment the idea of applying cards had occurred. The analytical engine does not occupy common ground with mere “Calculating machines.” It holds a position wholly its own. In enabling a mechanism to combine together general symbols, in successions of unlimited variety and extent, a uniting link is established between the operations of matter and the abstract mental processes.”
Operation: It is the process which combines and alters two things with mutual relation.
Conditional branching: Changing to a different path of instructions if certain conditions are net.
Ada Lovelace was one of the great people who helped paint a vision to the modern computer that this note was written on.