The Glossary

A list of steps for getting something done, written out so carefully that a machine can follow it.

A computer that has looked at so many examples it can start guessing about things it has never seen before.

The window you look at websites through. It goes and fetches the page, then shows it to you.

Somebody fixing a problem for somebody else, who says thank you with money.

A machine that follows instructions very fast and never gets bored of doing the same thing again.

The person with the problem. Without one of these, there is no business, only a hobby.

All the little bits of information somebody collected. Facts, numbers, pictures, anything you can write down.

Someone who notices a problem and decides to be the one who fixes it.

One of the things you show a computer so it can learn. Show it a thousand and it starts noticing what they share.

An enormous group of stars travelling together. Ours has a couple of hundred billion in it.

The pull that everything with weight has on everything else. Bigger things pull harder.

Computers talking to other computers. All of them, all over the world, all the time.

To make something that did not exist before, usually because you got annoyed about a problem.

Using something valuable now, hoping it becomes more valuable later. It might not.

A thing built to do a job that would otherwise take a person a lot of effort.

A way to trade what you have for what you want, without having to find one person who has both.

A group of things connected together so they can pass messages to each other.

Going round and round something because it keeps pulling you in and you keep missing it.

Something that keeps happening the same way, so you can start guessing what comes next.

How much money somebody is asking for a thing. Not the same as what it is worth to you.

What is left over after you pay for everything it took to make the thing.

The chance that the thing you hoped for does not happen.

A machine with a body that does a job, and somebody had to teach it how.

Keeping something now instead of using it, so you still have it later.

A helper that already went and looked at nearly everything, so it can tell you where to go.

A computer whose whole job is holding things and handing them over when somebody asks.

An enormous ball of burning gas, so far away it looks like a dot. Our sun is one.

Swapping something you have for something you want.

Everything there is, including you. Most of it is empty space.

How much something is worth to you. It can be different for two people looking at the same thing.

A place on the internet where somebody keeps their things so other people can come and look.