Easy-to-program chips tell circuitry to do what you want.

Press a button and a light flashes a pattern. What makes it flash? It seerns like there's a tiny monkey in there flipping the switch. If so, many household iterns contain these tiny monkeys. They're what send the infrared (IR) codes out of our remote controls and then decode them in our televisions. They run our washing machines and toasters. These tiny monkeys are rnicrocontrollers, and you can train them to help you with your own projects.