| Computers have come to be a major part of the lives of anyone living in a modern society. In fact, many people carry a computer in their pockets in the form of a smart cell phone. Historically, a computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem.
The interface between the computer and the human operator is known as the user interface. This interface could take many forms such as a keypad, voice, graphical (using a mouse) or even mouse-like but using our fingers such as with a touch pad.
The first use of the word "computer" was recorded in 1613, referring to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar modern meaning where it is recognized as a machine. We even sometimes use the term human computer to mean a person that can calculate like a machine and this demonstrates how we clearly view the computer as a machine rather than as a human (the original concept).
Modern smart phones are fully programmable computers in their own right, and today they are the most common form of computers in existence.
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