With GUIminer (graphic interface miner), you don't need to know all the underlying works that is going on. Just find a mining pool and register yourself as a worker, then input your login details into GUIminer and you can start mining right away. If bitcoin gets popular enough (it is already on it's way), people will start accepting and using it like paper money. Just as paper money, you don't need to understand how feds are printing and controlling the paper notes in order to use the paper money.