The first example is a machine with two states. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine From the

The first example is a machine with two states. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine From there you can deep dive into subjects like digital logic and automata theory.