Some people think computers can be dangerous because they can be used as weapons for war. People say many good and bad things about these machines. Of course we have problems with computers sometimes because the software (program) is complex and from time to time a problem may happen. Today computers are part of our daily life, may we like it or not, and are more than just machines. They are powerful tools for work and amusement.  But how did these things begin? Where did they come from? There are some different answers. One of them is that the first electronic computer was created in the USA, during World War II. A computer can do almost everything we need depending on the program we use. The program is called "software" and the physical machine is the "hardware". That first machine occupied three floors in a building using vacuum tubes and relays.  It was an electro-mechanical machine. Today a computer uses microchips thousands of times more complex and powerful than the first machine. Just to give an idea of the fantastic progress reached in about 60 years, the calculation that took that first machine three days can do done by your home computer in two minutes. Today computers are present in all human activities. They are in medicine, business, electronic projects and even to write texts like this. By the way, don't forget the Internet.  Computers made easier, or should we say possible, the arrival at the Moon in 1969 a fantastic technological achievement. All this progress came with the development of micro processors that are used in many other applications: digital watches, pocket calculators, automatic pilot for airplanes, cordless phones, pacemakers and lots of other applications. A computer is not a killing and dangerous machine, as many people think. It is just a machine that operates under the instructions of a program written by a human being.  So, if you are used to think about computers as stupid machines, you are quite right. But remember that they can be used for good or evil because they can't think. The first one was used to create an Atomic Bomb, but the bomb was created by people not by the machine, got the idea? It's like people say about guns: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people" Isn't it interesting?