Before your personal computer is turned on, it is a dead collection of dead components.Pushing on switch starts
a string of events that brings to life your PC.
Even with that spark of life in it the PC is still stupid at first. It has some primitive sense of self
as it checks to see what parts are installed and working. But beyond taking inventory of itself,the newly awakened PC
still can't do anything really useful.
It can search for intelligence ‒ intelligence. in the form of an operating system that gives structure to the PC's existence.
Then application software starts to work - programs that tell the PC how to do tasks fast and accurate,
But not all kinds of computers have to endure rebirth each time they're turned on.You encounter daily many computers that spring to
life fully formed at the instant they're switched on. These computers built to accomplish only one task ‒
and they are efficient about doing that task ‒ are hard-wired. But that means they are more like idiot savants than sages.
Each time you turn on your PC it is tabula rasa, capable of doing anything your creativity ‒ or, more usually,
the creativity of professional programmers ‒ can imagine for it to do.
Such intelligence is fragile and short-lived. All it takes is an errant instruction or a stray misreading of a single switch to
destroy this artificial life, besides simply turning it off.
Then the next time you turn it on, birth begins all over again.