Ben Eater's series on building a 6502-based computer on a breadboard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzuMJLZRdU&list=PLowKtXNTBypFbtuVMUVXNR0z1mu7dp7eH) was pivotal to my understanding of how MCUs know how to follow high level instructions from programmers. What do the instructions actually look like by the time they reach the hardware?

I was finally able to purchase a 6502 kit from eater.net/6502 and build it for myself!