One switch

It started with one switch. On or off. One or zero.

Connect switches and they form gates. Connect gates and the circuit can compare, add, and hold a value.

You do not need to remember the wiring. Keep the larger idea:

Complicated behaviour can emerge from many simple parts working together.

No switch understands the task. The result comes from the arrangement.

Once the same machine could follow many different programs, people began to ask a much bigger question.

If a machine can produce the outward signs of reasoning, should we say that it thinks?