Line #24 Webcomic/TheThrillingAdventuresOfLovelaceAndBabbage


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/babbagelovelace_2696.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Computer science actually is this [[RuleOfCool cool]].]]
3
4	->''"It doesn't fight crime, it [[SeriousBusiness PRINTS LARGE TABLES OF NUMBERS!!]]"''
5	-->-- '''Babbage'''
6
7	In RealLife, Charles Babbage was an eccentric genius and mathematician who designed the world's first computers and wrote the first computer programs. His mentee Ada, Countess of Lovelace, was the first to speculate upon computers as not mere calculation machines, but material representations of analysis. Sadly, Babbage's computers were never built and Lovelace died when she was 36.
8
9	As it turns out, RealLife sucks, so what actually happened was that Babbage and Lovelace built a [[SteamPunk Difference Engine that takes up an entire building]] and use it to fight crime. That is, if you [[BlueAndOrangeMorality define crime as street music and poetry]].
10
11	The comic ([[http://2dgoggles.com/ found here]]) is written by Sydney Padua, who wrote the first installment in celebration of Ada Lovelace Day.
12	----
13
14	!!''The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage'' provides examples of:
15
16	* AbsentMindedProfessor: Babbage.
17	* [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer Absurdly Spacious Hardware]]: The Difference Engine is so large that debugging code requires crawling inside of it. Creator/GeorgeEliot goes inside and gets lost in [[VideoGame/{{Zork}} a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.]][[note]]In a weird bit of RecursiveReality, Dave Lebling, co-author of ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'', is a fan of this comic.[[/note]]
18	* {{Art Evolution}}: To some extent. While the entire comic has been good quality since it started (Padua is a professional animator after all), the first episode, "The Origin" was neatened up for a magazine publication. This led to some changes in dialogue, though.
19	* AsciiArt: In a desperate [[spoiler: but successful]] attempt to stop Babbage and UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria from [[ItMakesSenseInContext kicking the crap out of each other]], Lovelace gets the Analytical Engine to generate an ASCII picture of a kitten.
20	* BadassBookworm: And some of it is ''even true!''
21	%%* BerserkButton: (ZCE- how do they react to these things and when is that shown?)
22	%%** Don't remind Ada that she's Lord Byron's daughter. Except maybe on Tuesdays.
23	%%** Don't be a street musician within earshot of Babbage.
24	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Babbage and Lovelace's ideas of what is objectionable are unorthodox at best.
25	* BuffySpeak:
26	-->'''Brunel''': I'd be able to build gigantic iron ships, certainly–but could they FLY?\
27	'''Ada''': It would indeed be difficult...\
28	'''Brunel''': Would Darwin be able to mess around with his..uh, barnacles he won't talk about?\
29	'''Ada''': Um, that one I'm not sure about...\
30	'''Brunel''': WOULD FARADAY BE ABLE TO DO THAT WHATSIS WITH THE THINGAMAJIG?\
31	'''Ada''': NO! NO HE WOULD NOT!
32	* CheshireCatGrin: Babbage gets a [[http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-and-babbage-vs-the-organist-pt-1/ downright alarming one]] at the beginning of ''The Organist''.
33	* CloudCuckoolander: Charles Babbage has a tendency to be distracted from pressing issues by relative minutiae.
34	* CrossDresser: Lovelace, who generally wears a man's shirt and waistcoat (US: vest) on her upper half and a skirt and petticoat on her lower half. She ''occasionally'' goes full drag with shirt, waistcoat, jodhpurs and calf-length boots, as in the page image, but not very often.
35	* CurseCutShort:
36	-->'''Babbage''': I believe I may perceive some sort of mathematical pattern...\
37	'''Ada''': No sh–
38	* DeadpanSnarker: Lovelace has her moments.
39	-->'''Babbage''' ''(about his harmonic disruptor)'': It's operated by a ''crank!''\
40	'''Ada''': Indeed.
41	* DistinguishedGentlemansPipe: Lovelace smokes like a steam engine, invariably from a pipe. They emphasize the general "I'm better than you" demeanour created by her combination of nobility and genius.
42	* DontExplainTheJoke: An out-of-universe example with 'sterling engine'.
43	* DrunkOnMilk: Ada falls OffTheWagon and goes all out on poetry when she and Babbage split.
44	* FacePalm: Ada gets one when Babbage starts in on The Cheese Story.
45	* {{Fanservice}}: Well, footmen were selected for their fine physiques, so the shirtless minion drawings are [[SarcasmMode not prurient interest, but historical, of course!]]
46	* TheFantasticTropeOfWonderousTitles: As expected from a Steampunk work.
47	* ForScience: Obviously. Invoked often enough by many a British scientist.
48	* InTheBlood: Ada Lovelace is taught mathematics to quell the poetical tendencies she inherited from her father, Creator/LordByron. [[spoiler:She succumbs to poetry after she separates from Babbage during his crusade against street musicians.]] The first part is TruthInTelevision, bizarrely enough.
49	* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: As expected from a Steampunk work.
50	* LargeHam: Everyone gets a turn being the hammiest of hammy, although Babbage probably is the hammiest one overall.
51	* LoveableRogue: UsefulNotes/IsambardKingdomBrunel. Being the Engineer - and FriendlyEnemy - to Babbage and Lovelace. In two of the tales, it's up to Brunel to fix what's gone wrong.
52	* MadScientist: Babbage isn't mad (well, [[BerserkButton except when it comes to street musicians]] )... just not very well organized.
53	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The Organist bears a strange, yet totally coincidental resemblance to Mr. Bruce of ''The Correspondents."
54	* PercussiveMaintenance: Loads, even [[LampshadeHanging quoted verbatim]] in one introduction splash.
55	* PoliceAreUseless: For a odd reason, why are Lovelace and Babbage the only ones doing actual crime-fighting? This was even discussed InUniverse by The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel (founder of the modern British police force) in the third part of ''The Organist''!
56	--> '''Peel''': Honourable members, why has the nation's crime-fighting been entrusted to random mathematicians? That doesn't even make sense! My proposal, of a civilian force...\
57	'''Wellington''': Well you're not prime minister, are you, Peel? We all agreed I am cooler, so I win.
58	* SeriousBusiness: MATHEMATICS!!! Whenever Lovelace gets into one of her moods, she's seen mulling over the P=NP problem. And [[Literature/SherlockHolmes firing bullets into the wall]] while mulling it.
59	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Actually justified in the following passage (just you try putting it any simpler than this):
60	-->Astounding!! In enabling mechanism to combine general symbols in successions of variety and extent, a uniting link is established between the operations of matter and the abstract mental processes of the most abstract branch of mathematical science! A new, vast and powerful language is developed for the future of analysis, in which to wield its truths so that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical application for the purposes of mankind than the means hitherto in our investigation have rendered possible!
61	* ShoutOut: Several, most notably to Lewis Carroll (and Martin Gardner) in ''The Organist''.
62	* ShownTheirWork: Notes after each comic reveal the sources of historical and mathematical in-jokes and [[RealityIsUnrealistic too-good-to-be-true-but-actually-are stories]] of Babbage's and Lovelace's life.
63	* StealthInsult: Well, she ''is'' the daughter of Lord Byron.
64	-->'''Ada''': I surmise it contains a small difference engine to analyze the acoustic wave patterns...\
65	'''Babbage''': Exactly! It's operated by a crank!\
66	'''Ada''': Indeed.
67	* StealthPun: The Coniform Collector of Tympanic Violations.
68	* SteamPunk:
69	** The Difference Engine is a giant clockwork. Their economy modeler runs on steam. Babbage's Harmonic Disruptor operates on punch cards. And on and on ...
70	** The alternate history suggests that with the aid of the Difference Engine England is able to defeat the [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds Martian horde]]...
71	** To an extent, this is subverted. Padua has observed that the whole point of Steampunk is the awesome clothes...but the specific decade in which the comic is set was a decade of hideous fashion, and Lovelace and Babbage were probably two of the worst-dressed people in it. Lovelace and Babbage in the comic are considerably snappier dressers than they were in real life.
72	* SuckinessIsPainful: The Organist.
73	* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Ada has [[http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/vampire-poets-part-the-third diagrams]] to show ''Your Brain on Poetry''.
74	* UnsoundEffect: Loads. The best is "RE-BOOT!", the first reboot of a computer ever...of course done with a kick.

Context Webcomic / TheThrillingAdventuresOfLovelaceAndBabbage