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New Research Explodes Myths About Ada Lovelace (ox.ac.uk)
Two mathematics historians investigated the Lovelace-Byron family archives (which are available online) to confirm the early mathematical prowess of Ada Lovelace for two scholarly journals. Slashdot reader bugs2squash shares a post from the Oxford Mathematical Institute:
The work challenges widespread claims that Lovelace's mathematical abilities were more "poetical" than practical, or indeed that her knowledge was so limited that Babbage himself was likely to have been the author of the paper that bears her name. The authors pinpoint Lovelace's keen eye for detail, fascination with big questions, and flair for deep insights, which enabled her to challenge some deep assumptions in her teacher's work. They suggest that her ambition, in time, to do significant mathematical research was entirely credible, though sadly curtailed by her ill-health and early death.
Ada Lovelace died in London at age 36.
Ada Lovelace died in London at age 36.
Okay, yes, that is all true, but it'd be nice if women could climb the ladder without blowjobs, or other sex acts. I hate having to give a few blowjobs every quarter.
Then off to management. Or, like me at 40, organized crime.
Coming this fall to a station near you!
The work challenges widespread claims that Lovelace's mathematical abilities were more "poetical" than practical, or indeed that her knowledge was so limited that Babbage himself was likely to have been the author of the paper that bears her name. The authors pinpoint Lovelace's keen eye for detail, fascination with big questions, and flair for deep insights,
If you keep looking at the big picture, and have a flair for deep insights, soon you'll discover eye gone values and be as impressive as Malcolm Gladwell.
Wolfram did an analysis of her situation, and suggests that her capability was like that of a competent graduate student, ready to do some good work (and be a reliable manager for Babbage, who lacked self-management skills) if life (and death) hadn't intervened. The paper talks about "exploding myths" but it doesn't really, Lovlace is already extremely well revered by many, and the people who claim she is overrated are in the minority.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Ada Lovelace is my father.
It was the only moral choice.
I've read a fair bit about her, but I've never heard anyone claim all those bad things. Can anyone point to sources saying that? Sure, I think she liked poetry, but I can't even make sense of a claim wherein her insight was more 'poetic' than mathematical. What does that even mean?
Sometimes I think historical theories are made up to troll people. When some historian claims to have a completely new understanding of something, I read it as them trying to sell books....
I don't know why academia idolizes her. In her later years, she had an affair which was an open secret with a man outside of her marriage and was a well known gambler. Her first "algorithms" were for large bets that she subsequently lost. Finding herself in heavy levels of debt, she had to run back to her husband to bail her out.
On her death bed, she whispered something to her husband that caused him to leave her in her last hours. Her "supposed" lover also burned all of the letters she had sent him.
Try wearing a bag over your face, or plastic surgery even.
Because none of that has fuck-all to do with her skills in the mathematics?
Even in a bet - she would have known the odds of losing.
"Woman can't be famous scholar, because she likes a bit on the side"? Really?
Go look at Hawking's personal life, nobody questions that.
I don't know why academia idolizes her. In her later years, she had an affair which was an open secret with a man outside of her marriage and was a well known gambler. Her first "algorithms" were for large bets that she subsequently lost. Finding herself in heavy levels of debt, she had to run back to her husband to bail her out. On her death bed, she whispered something to her husband that caused him to leave her in her last hours. Her "supposed" lover also burned all of the letters she had sent him.
They wish they could be like her. #LifePatternsForSuccess
OK, this story in not about pornography, is it... Slightly disappointed.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Everyone knows only Asian Women have any Math Skills.
Remember when we landed a probe on a comet, and all we heard about was how awful and sexist one guy's shirt was? Double standards are very much in play here.
Female scientist who slept around? A-OK.
Male scientist wearing a shirt? Horrible misogyny!
I do not think the feminazis are "left". They are basically everybodies enemy, as the only ones they think deserve any recognition or power is themselves. A classical fanatical splinter-group that will eventually implode from the sheer concentrated stupid it radiates.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
And your scientific proof to back up this "fact" is what exactly?
Remember when we landed a probe on a comet, and all we heard about was how awful and sexist one guy's shirt was?
Only those who cared about science. Sadly when we landed a probe on a comet the only thing the majority of people cared about was whether or not the picture of Kim Kardashian's ass was real or Photoshoped. And if it was real, did she have butt implants?
Babbage asked her to fire an Enfield rifle at a book he held in front of himself. A daguerrotype technician was on hand to record the scene. Unfortunately, Lovelace had calculated the bullet's penetrating power using metric units not Imperial. When questioned by the constabulary, she exclaimed "Math is hard!"
If feminists need to go digging, I guess she was worthless.
I'm a male. Not particularly a radical feminist, but I believe in women's rights and a fair playing field.
Why the rumors about Lovelace, and the need to do special investigative work about her? Are there any male mathematicians or scientists in history that need to be investigated? Why all the rumors that Babbage must have written her paper. A woman COULDN'T have been capable?
Just some food for thought...
Go look at Hawking's personal life, nobody questions that.
Some people do.
A person's character and a person's work are mostly separate except where trust or interpretation is required such as in this case. Ada Lovelace's failure in ability to keep multiple partners a secret when she wanted to do so is evidence that she was not detail oriented and was not a deep-thinker in applications.
Well, /. Has been on a rapid slide down hill for a while, a great pity, it's now at a level that gasket would have been proud of..
I had hoped that it might improve again to what it once was.
Having read the comments on this article,enough is enough.
I hope you all die of something very painful,long lasting and un-treatable.
I wonder how many of you could even understand the ideas that Lovelace and Babbage had and worked on,after all,it's a long time ago and with the wonderful educations that you all appear to have had,it should be simple for you all,yet I bet if shove comes to push,most of you need help wiping yer own arses.
Only males get to have their credibility questioned; it's yet another example of male privilege.
Because none of that has fuck-all to do with her skills in the mathematics?
Even in a bet - she would have known the odds of losing.
"Woman can't be famous scholar, because she likes a bit on the side"? Really?
Go look at Hawking's personal life, nobody questions that.
And did she lose, multiple times. To the point where she had to go back to her rich husband who she was whoring around on.
She's a lowly gambler addict who is a prime example of "grasping at the straws" when it comes to finding examples of women evenly faintly interested in something STEM related. You want good examples of smart women in technology and the sciences? Look no further than Grace Hopper and Madame Curie.
To put such a gambler whore with such a non-existant list of accomplishments next to women of such talent is an insult to the memory of truly gifted and talented women.
I was waiting for the Michael Bay style explosions. Sadly nothing was exploding in this very boring article about nothing.
Boo hoo hoo!
Yeah, it's an insult to great painters who were also nice people that Pablo Picasso is listed among them. How dare this man who maintained several mistresses that everybody fucking knew about be listed among names like Manet, Monet or Dali! It shows his lack of attention to detail as an artist that this gambler manwhore wasn't able to keep them secret.
You dumb throwback, angry that a woman achieved more than you ever will, and got more sex than you ever will :). Sexier and cleverer than you, how does that feel? Bet it really pisses you off, huh?
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggl... ;-)
And you can order the book
Herve S.
There has been a lot of that going around, lately. Mathematics is actually pretty careful to remember its heroes, male and female, but Ada Lovelace is not among them. Other women are. This is a rather strong indicator of what is going on here.
It is true that there are a few, famous female mathematicians (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...), but off the top of my head, I could only name two: Emmy Noether and Sofia Kovalevskaya. The main reason for that is no doubt the fact that women were simply not allowed to study at university until an embarrassingly late date - Emmy Noether was only just allowed into Erlangen (in 1903, I believe) as one of only two women out of about 1000 students. And amazing as it may seem, there are still academic institutions where you meet a bias against women scientists, although things have improved.
So, I think, rather than the world of mathematics celebrating female mathematicians exactly as much as the males, there is still a legacy of reluctance, so that we only really hear about the ones that are so undeniably outstanding, that we have to accept them. Fortunately the world of academia has been improving a lot, but we aren't quite there yet.
Try ass-licking and brown nosing, I've heard it works for men, too!
Or, like me at 40, organized crime.
Private sector or government ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I agree completely, his art is shit.
Honestly, the shit art is more of an issue to me.
A classical fanatical splinter-group that will eventually implode from the sheer concentrated stupid it radiates.
Wait, I thought you wrote that feminists aren't "left".
Jokes aside, "feminazis" are a manifestation of what leftism, or at least progressivism, becomes when a positive feedback loop forms via leftists thinking relatively.
When a person that is quite progressive criticizes other leftists for being too far right, and they are from that persons perspective, then a loop is formed where people shift ever farther left to ensure they are not perceived as being the evil right.
And your scientific proof to back up this "fact" is what exactly?
Look at the numbers.
The numbers answer the "what," not the "why."
A friend of mine from Skepchicks came up to me at a convention and out of the blue asked me to name two female scientists who were NOT Marie Curie.
I thought of a couple: Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and the crystallographer who enabled Watson and Crick to make their DNA breakthrough (I had to Google her name: Rosalind Franklin). Later the names Mary Leakey and Jane Goodall and Patricia Churchland came to mind.
In retrospect I was kind of offended, as this seemed like some kind of politically-correct litmus test for scientists. OTOH it may just be a way to gauge the relative lack of historical coverage for women in science.
The why is the normal reason why - it's hard. Not that they can't do it, they want to find an easier way to life.
Your opinion will be filed in all the places according as its worth.
Looks like you don't understand science either.
No, there's something about the male mind that makes it unsuitable to get out of a career in Science. This stuff is hard.