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I agree she was a visionary, but take note that by the time she was active, people were already building complex mechanical automata that executed stored programs implemented using cams and gears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaquet-Droz_automata (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillardet%27s_automaton). I think a small number of very intelligent people would see Babbage's work and Jaquet-Droz and conclude "hmm, if we mash these together with some creativity, it seems reasonable the result would be a programmable automaton capable of painting".


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