Introdution to Computer architecture explained with Minecraft [video]

You can absolutely introduce the basic functions needed to build a very simple CPU in 7 minutes.

My first exposure to computer architecture was through a Minecraft video[1] (which I likely stumbled upon on Digg). In Linear Algebra lecture the next day, I overheard my classmates discussing the video. I purchased the game later that week.

Seeing the circuitry of a computer in this way helped me to understand that computers operated by means other than pure magic. And, the video I saw was much less descriptive of how a computer works than the one the OP linked. So, although neither video amounts to a full college course on the topic, there’s still a lot of value in their ability to expose people to the topic. It’s inspiring to see how computers are mostly a composition of NAND gates, and to compare the massive structures in the videos with the microprocessors of the real world.

[1] https://youtu.be/LGkkyKZVzug?si=hZRdmablPt15gGqn