This is almost embarrassing ask...I have a degree in Computer Science (and a second one in progress). I've worked as a full-time .NET Developer for nearly five years. I generally seem competent at what I do.

But I Don't Know How Computers Work!

Please, bare with me for a second. A quick Google of 'How a Computer Works' will yield lots and lots of results, but I struggled to find one that really answered what I'm looking for. I realize this is a huge, huge question, so really, if you can just give me some keywords or some direction.

I know there are components....the power supply, the motherboard, ram, CPU, etc...and I get the 'general idea' of what they do. But I really don't understand how you go from a line of code like Console.Readline() in .NET (or Java or C++) and have it actually do stuff.

Sure, I'm vaguely aware of MSIL (in the case of .NET), and that some magic happens with the JIT compiler and it turns into native code (I think). I'm told Java is similar, and C++ cuts out the middle step.

I've done some mainframe assembly, it was a few years back now. I remember there were some instructions and some CPU registers, and I wrote code....and then some magic happened....and my program would work (or crash). From what I understand, an 'Emulator' would simulate what happens when you call an instruction and it would update the CPU registers; but what makes those instructions work the way they do?

Does this turn into an Electronics question and not a 'Computer' question? I'm guessing there isn't any practical reason for me to understand this, but I feel like I should be able to.

(Yes, this is what happens when you spend a day with a small child. It takes them about 10 minutes and five iterations of asking 'Why?' for you to realize how much you don't know)