What is a Computer?

Laptop

Laptop

Tablet

Tablet

Smartphone

Smartphone

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch

Smart TV

Smart TV

Wi-Fi Router

Wi-Fi Router

Bluetooth Speaker

Bluetooth Speaker

Brother Printer

Printer

Microwave

Microwave

Toyota Tacoma

Car

You

Human Computers
Human Computers
Human Computers
Hidden Figures

What is a computer?

  1. Does math
  2. Follows instructions step by step
Choose Your Own Adventure Book
Minecraft

Minecraft from Math?

  • behavior
  • graphics
Creeper Wireframe
View Frustrum
View Frustum Transform Diagram

Key Components

  • CPU - Central Processing Unit (the brain)
  • Memory - RAM and Storage
  • Input Devices - Keyboard, Mouse, etc.
  • Output Devices - Monitor, Printer, etc.
Laptop Parts
MacBook Pro Parts
MacBook CPU
Die Stack Block Diagram
Die Labeled ALU

Questions?

Types of Computers

  • Desktops
  • Laptops
  • Tablets
  • Smartphones
  • Servers
Server Blade

Server blade

Data Center Racks

Server rack

Airport Datacenter
Airport Datacenter Map
Google Data Center

Undersea Cables

Undersea Cable
Undersea Cable Map

Undersea Cable Landing

Undersea Cable Landing
Undersea Cable Landing Map
Undersea Cable Bore

Starlink Internet

Starlink

Starlink Internet

Starlink

Questions?

What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence

Systems that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence

"Anything that a computer does"

Chat bot, voice assistant

Predicting the Next Word

"The fox jumped ___"

  • over
  • high
  • quickly
  • into

Group Activity

Let's build a sentence, one word per person

"The ..."

How does an AI make a sentence?

  • AIs build sentences by putting words next to each other one by one
  • They copy ways they've seen words appear together before
  • They predict what word comes next in a sequence
AI sentence generation

ChatGPT Demo

Can AIs be wrong?

  • AIs make predictions based on patterns
  • They don't "know" facts, they predict probabilities
  • They can be confidently incorrect
  • They reflect biases in their training data

Can humans be wrong?

  • Yes, humans make mistakes
  • We have biases and blind spots
  • We can be overconfident
  • We sometimes believe things that aren't true

How do we know if something is true?

  • Evidence and observation
  • Expert opinion
  • Critical thinking and skepticism

Thank You!

Questions?