--- description: Walter Isaacson's new book celebrates unlikely pioneers title: Meet the Computer Age’s Original Minds image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Meet the Computer Age's Original Minds by [Eliza Gray](/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 9, 2014 10:33 AM CUT by [Eliza Gray](/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 9, 2014 10:33 AM CUT The biographer of singular Geniuses such as Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs takes on a slew of them in The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. As it turns out, inventions we cannot imagine living without–the computer and the Internet–were not the work of a few rogue whizzes in garages whose names are now famous (though they helped). Across a century and a half of innovation, lesser-known masters laid the digital foundation. Here are just a few: \[This article consists of an illustration. Please see hardcopy of magazine.\] ADA LOVELACE Using her skills as a mathematician, Lord Byron’s daughter wrote the first algorithm meant for computer analysis in 1843 and thus became the first published programmer. GRACE HOPPER While working on Harvard’s 10,000-lb. (4,535 kg) Mark I in the 1940s, Hopper developed the compiler, a concept that would allow programs to be made for multiple machines. Her team also coined the term bug after they found a moth in the wire relays. DOUGLAS ENGELBART Among Engelbart’s many inventions was an ergonomically carved piece of mahogany that a user could roll across a desktop to move a cursor on a screen. And what does a chassis with a tail of cord look like? A mouse. THE WOMEN OF ENIAC Resetting switches and moving cables on the University of Pennsylvania’s massive 1940s computer was a routine task, maybe too much so for the male engineers: women handled programming. RAY TOMLINSON In 1971 the MIT engineer devised a way for people to message one another using the @ symbol to designate a digital address. That seemingly inconsequential hack, as Tomlinson thought of it, became email. JUSTIN HALL In 1994, as a freshman at Swarthmore, Hall kept a “web log” of irreverent personal musings. That type of digital exhibitionism, published in reverse chronological order, was the prototypical blog. TO READ ISAACSON ON MICROPAYMENTS, GO TO time.com/bitcoin ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3483916/meet-the-computer-ages-original-minds/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3483916/meet-the-computer-ages-original-minds/"},"headline":"Meet the Computer Age's Original Minds","datePublished":"2014-10-09T10:33:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:40:50.324Z","description":"Walter Isaacson's new book celebrates unlikely pioneers","url":"https://time.com/3483916/meet-the-computer-ages-original-minds/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Gray","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3483916/meet-the-computer-ages-original-minds/","name":"Meet the Computer Age's Original Minds"}}]}] ```