An engraved portrait of Augusta Ada King Drawn by Alfred Edward Chalon (1780–1860); Engraved by William Henry Mote (1803–1871). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Why Ada Lovelace should be on an English banknote

Recognising the greatest ‘poetical scientist’

For me, this remarkable campaign started with an overheard tweet.

@mikebutcher: @Suw Let’s start a campaign to put Ada Lovelace on the new UK banknote. Yeah?

Which I then jumped on and crossposted to a known Ada fan. This in turn was intercepted and linked back to a campaign already kickstarted by Haidee Bell.

@haideebelly: Prompted by @ejanderton I’m starting a campaign to get Ada Lovelace on UK bank notes. Who’s in?! #ada4tenner

Minutes later, an online petition was born (which, by the way, you should just go and sign right now). TechCrunch, Nesta, FutureEverything, Memeburn, Gia Milinovich and others seized on it immediately.

Who is Ada Lovelace and why should she be on a bank note anyway?

If you haven’t heard of Ada Lovelace, you’re not alone. She’s one of the most unsung heroes of the information age. Her work imagined computer programming in 1833, and with it laid the foundations for the development of software, computer algorithms, artificial intelligence and electronic music. Check out this video for a nice introduction to her work.

“It may be desirable to explain, that by the word operation, we mean any process which alters the mutual relation of two or more things, be this relation of what kind it may. This is the most general definition, and would include all subjects in the universe.” (Ada Lovelace)

Her vision and reasoning were far-reaching. Essentially, she was one of the first people to see the potential for computers to go beyond mere number-crunching. It was a conceptual leap recognised by many scientific pioneers, and later by writers and thinkers like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Vladimir Nabakov and Tom Stoppard.

The campaign to put Ada Lovelace on a banknote comes against a whirldwind of controversy after the Bank of England announced that Elizabeth Fry would be replaced by Winston Churchill in 2015.

Historical figures were first introduced on British banknotes in 1970, since when there have been only two women: Fry and Florence Nightingale. The others have all been men, from William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens to composer Sir Edward Elgar and scientist Michael Faraday.

So, here’s your chance to give some recognition to a vital pioneer in science, technology and information and even up the gender balance on English paper money.

If you are a British citizen, go sign the petition. If not, support the movement and spread the word throughout your networks using the hashtag #ada4tenner.

Edit: Should mention there is already a petition with sizable support to keep a woman on English banknotes in general. So, why not add your support to that too?

Another edit: I’ve got nothing against Charles Darwin. Mervyn King, retiring governor of the Bank of England, already said that he could be replaced on the ten pound note.