Definition of a Computer

[Tom Jennings]

>> Years ago, someone (I don't remember who) gave the definition of a
>> computer as a "device which inputs some stuff, does some stuff to
>> it, and outputs some other stuff".

Chickens do that; they turn bugs into birdshit and eggs.


For a stored program, automatic, digital, computer, the thing that
distinguishes it from other human artifacts is this one
simple-seeming thing: the machine that modifies itself.


(I know that now a bunch of pointless threads about "well as I
drive my car the engine wears, that's 'changing itself'" but
include me out of that time-wasting nonsense.)