"A computer cannot run without first loading software but must be running before any software can be loaded." This predicament parallels the causality dilemma of the chicken and the egg, and, you may know, is solved by a eency weency bit of software called the BIOS, who is an Alice (from The Brady Bunch) -type that wakes up the video card and mouse and everyone else and tells them to get ready for another fine day of computing.
This process is called booting up, because it is akin to a person pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, which is only possible with magic. Computers ostensibly operate on magic as well, because Christ, how else are you going to explain the pane of glass that you're staring at which is rendering colored light in such a way as to communicate the thoughts of a young man (i.e. me) living in Los Angeles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting
Bonus Wikiliterate:
Today, I learned that The Brady Bunch isn't called The Brady Brunch because that is not actually a thing.
Also, Wikipedia is home to the definitive primer on road accident deaths in Bulgaria. Thank God.
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