A good portion of the educated public's knowledge how how computers work ends at the idea that math and electricity is involved. There's just too little basis f

A good portion of the educated public's knowledge how how computers work ends at the idea that math and electricity is involved. There's just too little basis for explaining a research project of any sort. The approach I've started taking is to ask people if they know about mechanical or water powered computers. That at least implants the idea that there's a variety of ways to make a computer work.