but if you're ada lovelace, lord byron's daughter you can visualize, walks in beauty like the night. just like ada could visualize the beauty of an equation or algorithm. she writes algorithms to show what a computer can do the new 1830s. so she realizes there's beauty in a mathematical phrase and she can visualize that just like she can visualize she walks in beauty like the night. that's what i meant by saying there's a beauty in both the arts the humanities on the one side and technology and science on the other side. >> host: you have a timeline in your book which kicks off with ada lovelace inventor of e-mail in here the -- >> guest: google -- >> host: et cetera, et cetera. what is it she contributed? >> guest: the main thing she does when she sees the beauty of the connection of arts to science, is that she comes up with a concept of a general purpose computer. for example, show travels through end land as -- england as a young woman and sees the mechanical looms and they use punch cards so the looms would weave beautiful patterns and her father was a luddite, meaning his only s

the way ada lovelace did and albert did and albert einstein. we talk einstein. we talk about about innovations so often, innovations so often, it's almost drained it's almost drained of its of its meaning, and i've meaning, and i've always liked always liked to write about real people to write about real people who are in a who are in a situation, whether situation, whether it it be be averill hairman averill hairman after world war ii and you have after world war ii and you have a create a create a new world a new world ordinary like nato and the ordinary like nato and the world bank and world bank and the marshall the marshall plan 0, plan 0, steve jobs who says we're now in steve jobs who says we're now in a digital a digital revolution, we have to make revolution, we have to make it personal. it personal. these are people who -- these are people who -- to use to use steve jobs' words, steve jobs' words, were able were able to think different, to think different, think out of the box. think out of the box. i want i want to try to explore to

. >> guest: there's ada lovelace of course, at the very top. steve jobs, bill gates, and then allen touring. they're about 30 main characters in the innovators-but those four i felt were the ones that inspired me. >> host: bill, portland, oregon good morning to you, your on with walter isaacson. >> caller: good morning, thank you, c-span for taking my question. and i appreciate you mr. walter isaacson, and i think you're a great man. and i -- >> guest: i write about great people. i don't think i can -- >> caller: i wish you well a long life. and to keep bringing the history and icons to us common thinking folk. first, a question and just an additional question. with the server farms are cloud computing and 3-d printing do you see that as an evan to all change or industrial revolution to the whole world? and my second is, when does elon musk going to talk with you? >> guest: yes, i see that the cloud computing, 3-d printing mobile -- will have a transformative effect. we're already seeing it now. which is really since the industrial revolution t

we do teach physics and biology and whatever introduced you to ada lovelace, but you also in all of youron a woman named kathy. >> guest: oh my wife. you know, she's got the most common sense of everybody, and she is the first and last reader of every book, you know, when i do the first draft and before i turn in the last draft. and, you know, there's a -- when you connect the humanities, kathy's somebody who, you know, she's been a lawyer, but she works on the washington women's foundation, new york women's foundation, you know helping other people. that notion of being engaged in society is always helpful when you're trying to write a biography and say how will that connect to other people in society? >> host: facebook comment: in the wise men you write about the mesh establishment -- american establishment. is there an establishment mentality today? if so, what is it, in your opinion? who or what determines those within this blushment? >> guest: yeah, there is an establishment mentality, and i mean that neither to elevate it, nor to denigrate it. there's a general consensus that i wou