Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) is considered as the first programmer in the history of computer science, even before the existence of this discipline. She had discovered and was fascinated by the “Babbage difference machine”, a kind of gigantic calculating machine. But she had, from this, conceived modes of operation, founders of computer science, which largely exceeded the machine itself. It could not implement them concretely.

Babbage’s machine was designed to do only one type of calculation. Ada Lovelace conceptually extended the possibilities by proposing that a computing machine could be universal, i.e. could perform all types of operations, on all types of objects. Ada Lovelace did not only dream about the universality of computing, she also proposed technical solutions, namely :

She envisaged that the numerical calculations of the machines could represent other things than numbers, in particular logical operations, and all that one wishes: texts, sounds, images, concepts...
She also envisaged, deepening Babbage’s ideas, to use the punched cards of the Jacquard looms to be able to reprogram the machines at leisure. It seems obvious today, to store the memory and the instructions on a medium, but even the first ultra-fast computer of the American army, the ENIAC in 1945, did not have this functionality at the beginning, its programming passing by tangles of cable connections, which one had to manually reconnect one by one to execute a different program, which took hours.
She conceived the operating logic of modern computer languages, namely subprograms, recursive loops, conditional branches...

Ada Lovelace’s concepts have largely inspired John Von Neumann, and many others. They are the basis of the logic of current computer science, as well as its uses. She wrote for example “The machine could compose refined and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity”, prefiguring without knowing it the logics and fields of application of artificial intelligence.

Ada Lovelace was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron who initiated, the year of Ada’s birth in 1815, a “writing workshop” with several of his friends, which gave birth to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the first occurrence of the idea of a humanoid created by man, which escapes him... It is astonishing that it is his own daughter who will lay major stones of the future science which will allow, two centuries later, the real manufacture of the intelligent robot which will free itself from the human.

Link to the founding text of Ada Lovelace (PDF version).

“The operating mechanism can even be thrown into action independently of any object to operate upon (although of course no result could then be developed). Again, it might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine. Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.”

Ada Lovelace, 1842.

Poem in automatic writing about « Ada Lovelace »

Each time I speak to an AI, I choose what I bring of the world into the exchange. So, while the choice to use a technology backed by certain industrial powers is political, it’s crucial not to conflate technology with rationality. In the case of a consultation with computer, webdoc be seen through the web browser on the computer. It is the product of a calculation of conditional probabilities over sequences of words, executed in a few seconds. Is reality more real than dream, or both are equal ? Artificial intelligence is becoming a commodity, in the way electricity did at the start of the twentieth century. Evidence Turned Inward Bazin spoke of evidence as the attestation of an external presence: something was there, in front of the machine. According to Albert Bayet. Moreover, the playwright’s proposal was very specific because it addressed two audiences simultaneously in different positions: the audience (200 people) and the participants via the Periscope application (2500 people). The feedback from committee members confirmed this.

Webinar presenting the findings of the AI Monitoring Committee of the Forum des images

Humanize AI rather than robotize humans.

For eleven months, philosophers, artists, educators, institutional leaders, and corporate experts worked together within the Artificial Intelligence Oversight Committee, launched by the Forum des Images and TUMO Paris. I facilitated this (…)

29 January 2026

12 min

The technology behind web-documentary

What is a web documentary?A web documentary is an interactive audio-visual object, consisting of photographs, sounds, text, video ... which is accessed with a computer, tablet, phone ... In the case of a tablet or phone consultation with the (…)

28 October 2012

3 min

The Image as Evidence

What Machines Do to Us.

When an image is born of a machine, it attests. This property, which distinguishes photography from drawing and cinema from theatre, gives image-based mediation a power and a delicacy of its own. Recognising what this implies leads to thinking (…)

23 April 2026

12 min

Thought 381

Film by Benoît Labourdette (2’47 s, 2016).

Is reality more real than dream, or both are equal ? Based on the “Thoughts” by Blaise Pascal (17th century).

16 August 2016

3 min

Is nature a computer system?

Hypothesis for a digital naturalism.

The philosopher Mark Alizart, in “Celestial Computing” (2017), explores the idea that nature is computing, bringing together the living (DNA, genetic code) and the mechanical (machines, AI). By retracing the history of computing, from Pascal to (…)

10 January 2025

3 min

Moore’s Law

An empirical law of computing that has more impact than we imagine on professional audiovisual practices. Gordon MooreGordon Moore, a chemist by training, is one of the co-founders of the company Intel, manufacturing microprocessors that equip (…)

19 July 2018

3 min

Tutoriel de réalisation de films en collaboration avec des intelligences artificielles

Tutorial for making films in collaboration with artificial intelligence

A film by Benoît Labourdette (11’24s, 2024).

Video tutorial for an effective method of making short films in cooperation with artificial intelligences, which I designed and put into practice as part of the Tumo x AI workshop in June 2024 at the Forum des images.

5 July 2024

1 min

Symposium : Attention, machine! Artistic Practices and Media Recycling

Communication by Benoît Labourdette to listen (25 minutes) on the stage use of live contributions from unknown users. As part of the symposium “Attention, machine!”. February 7,2018. This symposium organised by the Litt&Arts UMR of the (…)

7 February 2018

5 min

The Entangled Person

What we become when artificial intelligence enters our intimate dialogues.

For over a year, people have been telling me they talk to an artificial intelligence before talking to their partner. I have done the same. It seemed urgent to think about what is happening to us. Where I speak fromThis article is itself a (…)

1 April 2026

12 min

Participatory conference by Benoît Labourdette “Artificial Intelligence and creation”.

Artificial Intelligence and Creation” course for teachers

Podcast of a participatory conference by Benoît Labourdette.

Co-animation by Benoît Labourdette and Laura Schlenker (La fabrique média) of a one-day course for teachers on the theme of Artificial Intelligence and creation, organized by the Délégation Académique aux Arts et à la Culture of the Grenoble (…)

10 June 2024

2 min

Ensourced Speech

A Daily Practice of Artificial Intelligence, in Response to Yann LeCun’s Diagnosis

Yann LeCun argues that large language models reason within an abstraction of language, foreign to what we usually call the world. Their speech nonetheless enters our own speech, quietly. I seek here a daily practice by which to inhabit this (…)

19 April 2026

13 min

Is science immoral ?

A film by Benoît Labourdette (5’11s, 2014).

The myth of scientific progress. According to Albert Bayet.

2 July 2014

3 min

Biological intelligence, electronic intelligence

From mechanical cognition to electronic intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a commodity, in the way electricity did at the start of the twentieth century. But the phrase “artificial intelligence” covers very different realities, and its history is shifting. Mechanical cognition, the (…)

31 March 2026

14 min

Digital and rationality

For a non-phantasmic vision of digital technologies.

Digital technology, often wrongly associated with rationality, is in reality an imperfect and material technology. Our choices of digital tools are political and determine the world we collectively build. A Pseudo-Critical SpiritIn debates, (…)

25 April 2025

6 min

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Photographs, paintings, drawings, assemblies and texts by Benoît Labourdette (unless otherwise stated).

Saint George

Painting by Paolo Uccello: Saint George slaying the dragon (c. 1456).

Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) is considered as the first programmer in the history of computer science, even before the existence of this discipline. (…)

Célestin Freinet

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Complotist

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Super 8

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Fire

Fire, an energy that can be both constructive and destructive.

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Cultural Rights

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Us

(photo : DR)

Infra

Zebra

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Light-Emitting Diode.

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Lamp

(photograph : Bénédicte Loyen)

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emmanuel vergès

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Short film

“Short film” is a French legal term that refers to a film of less than 60 minutes (“short” corresponding to the length of the film, less than 1600 (…)

Social action

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Lockdown

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Sledge

Image generated by Dall-E on January 16, 2023.

ROSEBUD 2022, the end of cinema

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Pikachu

Drawing by Hassan, 7, from Les Lilas (Seine Saint-Denis).

Contents

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(the photograph displayed and the installation are by Myriam Drosne)

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Oblivion

Memory failure, involving either acquired knowledge or skills or memories; forgetfulness.

Innovation

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Pocket Films

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Experimental cinema

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Michel Serres

(photo : DR)

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Photograph by Jeanne Paravert.

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HTML

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Rainer Maria Rilke

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John Dewey

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Hare

(image generated by artificial intelligence Ideogram)

Earth

Colour

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Telephone number

(photo : DR)

Paris Yellow Pages

Light

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Panorama

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Jean-Philippe Poirée-Ville

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The singularity

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Karine Saporta

Photographie : Karine Saporta.

ChatGPT

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Maëlla Mickaëlle

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SPIP

SPIP (Système de Publication Pour l’Internet) is an “engine” for creating websites, known as a “CMS” (Content Management System). SPIP is free, (…)

Ada Lovelace

Poem in automatic writing about « Ada Lovelace »

Webinar presenting the findings of the AI Monitoring Committee of the Forum des images

The technology behind web-documentary

The Image as Evidence

Thought 381

Is nature a computer system?

Moore’s Law

Tutorial for making films in collaboration with artificial intelligence

Symposium : Attention, machine! Artistic Practices and Media Recycling

The Entangled Person

Artificial Intelligence and Creation” course for teachers

Ensourced Speech

Is science immoral ?

Biological intelligence, electronic intelligence

Digital and rationality

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