b"When Lord Byron\\u2019s 17 year-old daughter, Ada Lovelace, attended a soir\\xe9e at the home of academic Charles Babbage on 5th June, 1833, the pair hit it off immediately. He invited her to see his \\u2018Difference Engine\\u2019 - an early mechanical calculator - kicking off a correspondence that lasted throughout her life.\\nTheir lively, intellectual correspondence, and Ada's deep understanding of mathematics and science, lead to her championing of Babbage\\u2019s \\u2018Analytical Engine\\u2019, a groundbreaking proto personal computer for which Ada even wrote an algorithm.\\nIn this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly debate whether Ada deserves her 21st century acclaim as the godmother of computer programming; expose her extramarital affairs and gambling habit; and consider whether Babbage himself even fully understood the applications for what he had invented\\u2026\\nFurther Reading:\\n\\u2022 \\u2018Charles Babbage\\u2019s Difference Engines and the Science Museum\\u2019 (Science Museum, 2023): https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles-babbages-difference-engines-and-science-museum\\n\\u2022 \\u2018How Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage Invented the World\\u2019s First Computer: An Illustrated Adventure in Footnotes and Friendship\\u2019 (The Marginalian, 2015): https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/06/15/the-thrilling-adventures-of-lovelace-and-babbage-sydney-padua/\\n\\u2022 \\u2018Ada Lovelace in \\u201cVictoria\\u201d (ITV, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOoCOUDdoeA\\nLove the show? Support us!\\xa0\\nJoin\\xa0 \\U0001f334CLUB RETROSPECTORS\\U0001f334to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY\\u2026\\xa0\\n\\u2026 Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.\\xa0\\nJoin now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show \\u2764\\ufe0f\\nThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer:\\xa0\\nOllie Peart\\nTheme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders.\\nCopyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024. \\n\\n\\n\\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices"