Modern machines are increasingly interdependent, not independent.

Challenges classical assumption that machines are separate from environment and each other.

Source paper

extracted_from

Living Things Are Not (20th Century) Machines: Updating Mechanism Metaphors in Light of the Modern Science of Machine Behavior

(2021) · Joshua Bongard · Michael Levin

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Communities (3)

community

Design principles for care-centered systems
members_of
Cross-scale frameworks linking spatial patterns, diagrams, and simplicity as expressions of care in design.
Living systems as 21st-century machines
members_of
Reconceptualizes life and biological complexity through modern computational principles—substrate-dependence, multiscale integration, irreducibility—rather than mechanical reductionism, bridging xenobiology and machine learning circa 2020s.
Life-machine boundary dissolution
members_of
Argues 21st-century machines share properties once unique to living systems, collapsing categorical distinctions.

Claims (1)

claim

Living things are not 20th-century machines, but may be 21st-century machines.
supports
Core thesis: the machine metaphor requires updating, not abandoning, in light of modern machine behavior.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

Modern machines are increasingly resistant to reductionist analysis and explanation.claim0.816
Deep neural networks, swarms, and complex autonomous systems require holistic ethological and cognitive approaches.
21st-century machines are increasingly unpredictable and noisy.claim0.807
Quantum computers, ML systems, and evolved machines exploit uncertainty rather than requiring determinism.
Machines can now make machines.claim0.793
Evolutionary algorithms and self-organizing systems blur distinction between evolved and designed.
The notion of 'machine' used to claim living things are not machines refers to an outdated definition that no longer fits.claim0.792
First central claim of the paper: the machine concept used in organicist critiques is historically contingent, not essential
The architecture of the past century served the inherently machine-like production process that is incapable of creating life.claim0.786
General historical verdict.
The life vs. machine distinction is relevant only to the lowest class of machines available in prior decades and is not fundamental.claim0.781
Claim that the organism–machine dichotomy is outdated.
The full possibilities of my system will not have been realized until almost all of the machines in the shop are run by men who are of smaller caliber and attainment, and who are therefore cheaper than those required under the old system.quote0.779
Taylor's own words revealing the deliberate deskilling and cost-cutting aim of scientific management.
"It is certainly very hard, and perhaps impossible, for mere humans to anticipate and rule out in advance all the disastrous ways the machine could choose to achieve a specified objective."quote0.775
Russell's statement opening Section 2 articulating the core motivation for the Contemplative AI approach