How does a computer think and do what we tell it to?
The Switch Whisperer
How does a computer think and do what we tell it to?
Here's a secret that sounds almost rude: your computer doesn't actually think. Not the way you do, daydreaming about pizza or wondering if your friend is mad at you. And yet it can play music, run games, and answer your questions in a blink. So what's really going on inside that glowing box?
Deep inside, a computer only understands one ridiculously simple idea: on or off. That's it. A tiny switch is either letting electricity through or it isn't — like a light switch flipped up or down. We call these two states 1 and 0. Everything a computer ever does is built out of nothing but millions of these little yes-or-no switches.
