Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 1: Pre-Modern Era (Pre-1850)
1843
Lady Lovelace's Objection
In her 1843 notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine, Lovelace wrote that the machine could originate nothing and only do what it was ordered to do. Turing answers the objections by name in 1950.
This prescient observation hints at the different paths computation would take from hard-programmed rules to learning models.
People: Ada Lovelace.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
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artificial intelligence
Related moments
Echoes across time
- 1950 · Alan Turing Proposes the Turing Test
- 2000 · Ray Kurzweil’s Cybernetic Poet
- 2022 · Midjourney Launched
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- Timeline Ch 1—Pre-Modern Era with Marius Watz — listen with transcript on Le Random (06 Jul 2023, 46 min). Chapter 1’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify