Lovelace wrote that the Analytical Engine cannot originate anything

In Note G of her 1843 Notes on the Analytical Engine, Ada Lovelace wrote: “The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform.” She added that the engine could “follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths.” Alan Turing later named this passage “Lady Lovelace’s Objection” and argued against it.

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Last verified June 6, 2026