ELI5. If a computer is made up of preprogrammed circuits, then how does it display anything on its screen, even if that particular thing hasn’t been preprogrammed in its circuits?

Question

ELI5. If a computer is made up of preprogrammed circuits, then how does it display anything on its screen, even if that particular thing hasn’t been preprogrammed in its circuits?

In: Technology

Answer 1

The standard english alphabet is made up of 26 predefined letters, but you can still type sentences much longer than that. Computers have options in which circuits to use, and in what order. This flexibility gives it the chance to f.i display a specific image of a bird by sending power down some pathways, but not others. It doesn’t need to have a “bird circuit” to do that, it just has to follow instructions that tell it which pixels need to be lit up in which order in order to display that image, similar to how you can use a keyboard to arrange the 26 letters in a specific order to write a question regarding how computers work.