How Does Your Computer Think?

Have you ever wondered how your computer or tablet is able to do so many amazing things? Just like humans use their brains to think, so do computers. The brain of a computer is called a PROCESSOR. This processor gives directions for your computer to follow. But how do our computers read and understand these directions?

What Language Does Your Computer Speak?

It might sound crazy, but computers have their own language! You might have been thinking of English, Spanish, or even French, but computers use a language called BINARY CODE. This language lets computers understand, read, and complete the directions given by their brains, or the 

Figure 1: Binary Code

processor we talked about above. Unlike any normal language that humans use and is written and spoken using the ABCs, binary code uses NUMBERS. In fact, it only uses two numbers which happen to be ZERO and ONE! These ones and zeroes are put together to create a secret code that only the computer can read along with the humans who invented this code. To get a better look at this “secret code,” a picture is provided above in Figure 1 of what all computers have to read (3). Since these secret codes of ones and zeroes are difficult for humans to read, they started to think of ways to make an easier language for both humans and computers to understand and read.

Making an Easier Language

Binary code is a very hard language for humans to understand and make readable for computers to follow directions given by its “brain,” or processor (2). To solve this problem, people called computer programmers created HIGHER-LEVEL LANGUAGES. These higher-level languages are very different from binary code. Instead of using zeroes and ones for computers to follow directions in, these new languages use the ABCs for computers to read. By changing from numbers to the alphabet, computers are able to do so many more AMAZING things. These things include the fun games that you play on your computer or tablet or watch cartoons and movies on Netflix. An example

Figure 2: Games on Kindle tablet

of what these games might look like to you can be seen in Figure 2 to the right (1). Next time you go on your computer and watch the cool and amazing things that your computer lets you do, take a second and think back to how your computer thinks and what languages it uses to do these things for us.

References

(1)Amazon Kids Series [Illustration] (2014). Retrieved from http://www.viralblog.com/trends-innovations/why-netflix-and-amazon-tap-into-kids-series/

(2)Deitel, P. & Deitel, H. (2015). Java™: How to program. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

(3)Vector – Blue Binary Background [Illustration] (2014). Retrieved from http://www.canstockphoto.com/blue-binary-background-16091597.html