Conceiving Ada

Story

Synopsis

Emmy Coer, a computer genius, devises a method of communicating with the past by tapping into undying information waves. She manages to reach the world of Ada Lovelace, founder of the idea of a computer language and proponent of the possibilities of the "difference engine." Ada's ideas were stifled and unfulfilled because of the reality of life as a woman in the nineteenth century. Emmy has a plan to defeat death and the past using her own DNA as a communicative agent to the past, bringing Ada to the present. But what are the possible ramifications?

Director

Lynn Hershman-Leeson

Writers

Eileen Jones, Lynn Hershman-Leeson

Language

English

Country

Canada, United States of America

Release date

19 February 1999

Ensemble

Cast

• 

  Tilda Swinton

  Ada Augusta Byron King, Countess of Lovelace

• 

  Francesca Faridany

  Emmy Coer

• 

  Timothy Leary

  Sims

• 

  Karen Black

  Lady Byron / Mother Coer

• John Perry Barlow

  John Crosse

• John O'Keefe

  Charles Babbage

• J.D. Wolfe

  Nicholas Clayton

• Owen Murphy

  William Lovelace

• 

  David Brooks

  Children's Tutor

• Esther Mulligan

  Mary Shelley

• Ellen Sebastian

  Dr. Fury

• 

  Mark Capri

  Dr. Locock