»How did this technological advance come to be?

The very first step to the Computer, would be the mathematical instrument called an Abacus.

The Abacus was found off the coast of Greece and may have been invented in current Iraq, in the 4th Century B.C. The Abacus was an instrument used to calucate problems in Math, like adding and subtracting. It was also used commonly to keep track of the amount in farmers' herds.

The next step, was taken into Calculators. Logs were made by John Mapier, of Scotland (1614). Logs allowed the calculator to compute problems that had multiplication and division into it, and reduce it into addition and subtraction.

Then, Wilhelm Schickard builds the first mechanical calculator in 1623. But the actual first COMPUTER, was the Colossus, a British computer used for code-breaking which was operational by December of 1943.

Then the UNIVAC, was developed in 1951. UNIVAC stands for: Universal Automatic Computer. The IBM360 was introduced in April of 1964, and quickly became the standard mainframe computer that was used.

In 1962, Ivan Sutherland demenstrated a program called SketchPad which allowed for computers to work for engineering drawings with a light pen.

Doug Engelbart demonstrated a program in 1968 called Word Processor. It was an early hypertext system. There now existed 3 common computer applications.

Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce founded the company Intel in 1968.

By the mid-1980's, the 360 and it's descendants were estimated to make more than $100 billion dollars.

The computer came to be in a process of just putting microchips and wiring electricity to run the "engine", as you might call it, and jump-start it to work. It took big steps to be able to have the computer hold more and more information, but society managed to make it work.