Man and machine are two different beings today. At least that is what we see them to be today. Visions and possibilities concerning the world of tomorrow reveal to us the developing world of cyborgs (a cross-breed between man and machine). However, exactly how different are they?
The word "machine" means (literally) a device consisting of fixed and moving parts... The first images that comes to our mind when we hear the word tends to be moving clogs, motors and robots. Yet we ourselves are also machines but of another type.
The machines of yesterday were mainly made of wood, bone and iron. The machines of today consist of a larger variety of material ranging from alloys like nitinol to polymers and plastics like keratin. We tend to see the wooden ones as the oldest examples. We neglect the great grandfather of all machines, the mastermind behind them, the superior machines that control them... Us... or to be more specific, the human body which is the biological machine created by nature.
Our bodies have stationary and moving parts. We use electricity in order to function. Our brains are considered to be the greatest computers... Maybe, we are the most superior machines ever built.
I (for one) personally agree with the statement "Man is nothing more than a specialized machine" by Loren Eiseley. We are no more than a complex design created by nature (we have a genetic code instead of a binary code). We see machines differently due to media. We musn't forget that machines are currently evolving faster than us. So, how long until we become the less superior one?
