And we return to our American stories. Up next, a story from a noun writer and

biographer Walter Isaacson on the invention of the computer and the internet.

We'd like to thank the Library of Congress for this wonderful audio from a book talk back in 2015.

Let's get into the story.

Take it away, Walter.

We know that we distort history a little bit.

We make it seem like there's some lone genius who ripples the surface of history,

some guy or gal who goes to a garage or a garret and has a light bulb moment and innovation happens.

That's not the way it works. We know that in our lives.

Creativity is a team sport. It's not done by loaners.

The reason we do not really know who invented the computer and who invented the Internet

is they were invented by teams of people who had the wonderful quality of wanting to share credit more than take credit

for themselves. Now, I must admit, I didn't know too much about Ada Lovelace. In fact,

I had this started maybe eight years ago when my daughter was applying to college. And if, you know, people like us,

we think we're supposed to be involved with the college application process,

I'm supposed to help a little bit, and my daughter was having none of that.

She wouldn't even tell us who she was writing about.

Finally, she said, I sent it in. I said, well, who was your essay on?

And she said, Ada Lovelace. And I said, remind me, what did she do?

And Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron, the only legitimate child of Lord Byron.

And by being the daughter of Lord Byron, she had a poetic, artistic sensibility.

But she also loved math and science and engineering. And she would go around

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