0:00:05.120,0:00:09.462 My name is May-Li Khoe [br]and I'm a designer and an inventor. 0:00:10.300,0:00:15.680 So some of the things I've designed have been at Apple, and now I design products for kids to use 0:00:15.680,0:00:18.060 so that they can have [br]an easier time in school. 0:00:18.060,0:00:22.300 My other jobs include DJ-ing and dancing. 0:00:25.620,0:00:27.960 Computers are everywhere! 0:00:27.960,0:00:33.180 They're in people's pockets, they're in people's cars, people have them on their wrists. 0:00:33.180,0:00:35.460 They might be in your backpack right now. 0:00:36.160,0:00:38.820 But what makes a computer a computer? 0:00:38.820,0:00:41.000 What does make a computer a computer anyway? 0:00:41.000,0:00:42.980 And how does it even work? 0:00:46.380,0:00:50.180 Hi I'm Nat! I was one of the original[br]designers of the Xbox. 0:00:50.460,0:00:56.040 I've been working with computers since I was maybe seven years old and now I work on virtual reality. 0:01:07.180,0:01:10.520 As humans, we've always built tools to[br]help us solve problems. 0:01:10.600,0:01:15.900 Tools like a wheelbarrow, a hammer, or a printing press, or a tractor-trailer. 0:01:15.900,0:01:19.220 All of these inventions helped us with manual work. 0:01:19.220,0:01:21.280 Over time, people began to wonder 0:01:21.380,0:01:25.560 if a machine could be designed and built to help us with the thinking work we do, 0:01:25.560,0:01:29.820 like solving equations or tracking the[br]stars in the sky. 0:01:29.820,0:01:34.280 Rather than moving or manipulating physical things like dirt and stone, 0:01:34.280,0:01:38.300 these machines would need to be designed to manipulate information. 0:01:40.040,0:01:43.740 As the pioneers of computer science explored how to design a thinking machine, 0:01:43.740,0:01:46.920 they realized that it had to perform four different tasks. 0:01:48.240,0:01:50.240 It would need to take input, 0:01:51.080,0:01:52.360 store information 0:01:53.400,0:01:56.180 process it and then output the results. 0:01:56.700,0:01:58.580 Now this might sound simple, 0:01:58.580,0:02:01.980 but these four things are common to all computers. 0:02:02.740,0:02:05.620 That's what makes a computer a computer. 0:02:07.940,0:02:10.419 The earliest computers were made out of[br]wood and metal 0:02:10.419,0:02:12.580 with mechanical levers and gears. 0:02:13.360,0:02:17.600 By the 20th century, though,[br]computers started using electrical components. 0:02:17.600,0:02:21.100 These early computers were really large and really slow. 0:02:21.100,0:02:25.380 A computer the size of a room might take hours just to do a basic math problem. 0:02:27.400,0:02:33.040 These machines are things of gleaming, varied colored metal and numerous flashing lights. 0:02:33.320,0:02:36.100 Computers started out as basic[br]calculators, 0:02:36.100,0:02:40.760 which was already really awesome at the time, and they were only manipulating numbers back then. 0:02:40.800,0:02:47.220 But now we can use them to talk to each other, we can use them to play games, control robots, 0:02:47.220,0:02:49.980 and do any crazy thing that you could probably imagine. 0:02:50.920,0:02:54.120 Modern computers look nothing like those clunky old machines 0:02:54.120,0:02:56.580 but they still do these same four things. 0:03:02.740,0:03:04.740 First, we're going to talk about input. 0:03:04.740,0:03:07.180 This is my favorite because what input is 0:03:07.180,0:03:12.240 is the stuff that the world does or[br]that you do that makes the computer do stuff. 0:03:12.240,0:03:14.160 You can tell computers what to do[br]with the keyboard, 0:03:14.160,0:03:18.640 you can tell them what to do with the mouse, the microphone, the camera. 0:03:18.640,0:03:22.400 And now if you're wearing a computer on your wrist, it might listen to your heartbeat 0:03:22.400,0:03:25.520 or in your car, it might be listening to what the car is doing. 0:03:25.520,0:03:31.180 And a touchscreen can actually sense your finger, and it takes that as input on what it's doing. 0:03:36.200,0:03:40.680 All these different inputs give a computer[br]information, which is then stored in memory. 0:03:41.860,0:03:45.480 A computer's processor takes[br]information from memory. 0:03:45.480,0:03:47.920 It manipulates it or changes it using an algorithm, 0:03:47.920,0:03:49.980 which is just a series of commands. 0:03:49.980,0:03:54.180 And then it sends the processed information back to be stored in memory again. 0:03:54.200,0:03:58.620 This continues until the processed[br]information is ready to be output. 0:04:03.320,0:04:07.260 How a computer outputs information[br]depends on what the computer is designed to do. 0:04:07.260,0:04:13.180 A computer display can show text, photos, videos, or interactive games -- even virtual reality! 0:04:13.180,0:04:17.279 The output of a computer may even include signals to control a robot. 0:04:17.279,0:04:19.820 And, when computers connect over[br]the Internet, 0:04:19.820,0:04:23.880 the output from one computer becomes the input to another, and vice versa. 0:04:25.620,0:04:29.760 The computers we use today look really different from the earliest thinking machines. 0:04:29.760,0:04:32.620 And who knows what the computers of tomorrow will be[br]like? 0:04:32.620,0:04:37.480 My hope is that you get to help decide what you want the computers of tomorrow to look like. 0:04:37.480,0:04:41.480 But across all computers, regardless of the different types of technology they use, 0:04:41.480,0:04:44.580 they're always doing those same four things. 0:04:44.580,0:04:46.360 They take in information, 0:04:46.360,0:04:47.980 they store it as data, 0:04:47.980,0:04:49.520 they process it, 0:04:49.520,0:04:51.460 and then they output the results.