Who was the father of the modern computer? No doubt many would say it was Charles Babbage. Unfortunately, however, the question rarely asked is "Who was the mother of the modern computer?" in which case the answer would almost certainly be Ada Lovelace. Referred to by Babbage as the 'enchantress of numbers', Lovelace worked closely with him on his plans for the Analytical Engine, the nineteenth-century forerunner of today's PCs, and helped him to develop what was in effect the first computer program. Babbage may well have been the architect of the project, but Lovelace spent time going over his calculations and even correcting them. Some might even say that she had a greater vision than Babbage. Where he saw the Analytical Engine as merely a number-crunching device, his protégé imagined it one day being able to not only play music but also compose it. In her writings Lovelace even speculated on whether such a machine could ever have original thought—artificial intelligence! Unfortunately, the machine was never completed, and Lovelace's story does not end well either. As women were ineligible to join scientific institutions, she had few friends with whom she could discuss her work. She was deeply unhappy and became reliant on alcohol and opium. Lovelace died in 1852, aged just thirty-seven, but her legacy still lives on in the computer language called Ada that was named in her honour.