I have been reading these posts for a few weeks now, without comment. But I just thought that this comment, by Split Rock, was intriguing.
"explain how the computer came to exist" That statement is ironic since I have not yet seen any logical, scientific, intelligent, acceptable explanation as to how the DNA molecule of even the simplest organism came to exist.
DNA is far more complex than any computer and it is necessary for the simplest enzyme which is necessary for the simplest protein which is necessary for any cell which is necessary for complex organs and body parts such as the eye.
So, people here state things like "explain how the computer came to exist" when they cannot explain how the infinitely more complex DNA came to exist that in the end had the intelligence to develop computers.
Have you noticed that intelligence has not changed in any animal, species or, even, man. All animals and man have the same capacity for understanding today as they did 100, 200 or 1000 years ago.
Yet, a monkey still lives in a tree and eats fruit it forges for. A bird still builds the same nest it did in the time or Socrates. Squirrels still bury nuts and dig them up later... Man, on the other hand, we fly machines through the air faster than the speed of sound, send moving pictures in real time to any place on the globe or, in fact, to celestial bodies, take out a human heart and put in a new one without killing the human......
But you ask to explain how the computer came to exist.