When a slide deck starts computing
A presentation usually shows a sequence of prepared pages. But its shapes can also act like buttons, and links can send a click to a different slide. Add animations that start automatically, and the deck can respond to input, update what is visible, and move through a sequence of operations. That turns the presentation into more than a slideshow: it becomes a small program built from the tools already inside the slide editor.
Shapes become switches; slides become states
In a conventional program, a button changes a variable or calls a function. In a slide-based version, clicking a shape can jump to a slide representing the next state of the computation. An animation can reveal or hide marks, while another transition routes the presentation to the next step. By arranging those actions carefully, the creator can encode rules and make the deck carry out a calculation or other simple task.
The key trick is that a slide does not have to be shown in the order it appears in the file. A hyperlink can branch to a chosen destination, much like a program choosing what to do next. The audience sees slides; behind them is a network of destinations and triggers.
A computer made from interface behavior
This approach is possible because presentation software already combines stored information, user input, and conditional-feeling navigation—even if it was designed for talks, not computation. Its limits are practical: complex logic means many carefully coordinated shapes, slides, and animations, and a small mistake in a link can send the whole process off course.
That makes the project less a replacement for ordinary computers than a demonstration of what computation really requires: rules, state, and a way to move from one state to another. A deck can perform that job using nothing more exotic than a click that sends the presentation to the right slide.
