Zeros + Ones: A Feminine Equation
Zeros + Ones: A Feminine Equation
Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, brilliant, articulate, and forever curious, became interested in Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a proposed general purpose computer that he had designed in 1837. The daughter of the affectionately dubbed Princess of Parallelograms, Annabelle Byron, and the prolific writer, Lord Bryon, Ada is an argument for hereditary genius. She considered herself an analyst and a prophetess. Asked to expand upon the Italian mathematician, Luigi Menabrae’s explanation of Babbage’s machine, Ada’s extensive notations, which were longer and more detailed than the original explanation, included what is considered to be the first computer program ever written, earning her the post humorous distinction of being the first computer programmer. While being the first at anything is notable, the fact that she did this as a 28 year old female during the nineteenth century, long before computers (Babbage’s invention notwithstanding) were invented, is astounding or so it would seem.
However, upon reading Zeros and Ones and Sadie Plant’s examples of traditional “women’s work” such as weaving and typing, longstanding misogyny and the methods of communicating that women have employed over the centuries, it actually makes sense that a woman would be the first to understand and develop a computer language. Additionally, because women were historically regulated to mundane tasks, aka ‘micro processes’, they have been instrumental in the development of computers themselves - not through victimization, though, but through agency. Using Ada’s story as a launching point and structure, Sadie Plant gives women their place in computational history.
From the beginning of her book, Plant makes it clear that current methods of computing, networking and even technological hardware are outgrowths of natural systems and that everything is connected to everything else. With detailed descriptions of sexual selection, bacterial and viral replication, human biology, the advent of computer technology and cultural ideals of patriarchy, Plant weaves the history of women, computers, and machines, into an intricate and complicated tapestry to rival any ever created on a Jacquard loom. Tantalizing excerpts from science fiction literature, movies, Freud, Lacan, Baudrillard, and Ada’s own letters flesh out her arguments. Speaking of women in society, she writes;
“There was always so much, too much, and too many different things to do, so many tasks to juggle and perform: making lists and notes, taking stock, keeping track; parallel processing, flipping between functions and the cry of a child, the ring of the doorbell, a sudden flash of dream sequence; distributed systems, adaptive networks, scattered brains” (106).
Computers articulate using packets of information sent through a network. The information is ‘scattered’ and then reassembled. Artificial intelligence programs are designed to be intuitive. Computers run multiple platforms at the same time. Databases keep lists, keep track, and juggle. The parallels are clear.
Articulate, exploratory, and insightful, Plant’s writing is incredibly dense, layered, and non-linear. It folds in on itself. There are times when one is not certain if she is describing technology, or women in general, and that’s the point.
