claim

active

claim:updated-machine-definition-any-system-that-magnifies-and-partly-or-completely-automates-an-agent-s-ability-to-effect-change-on-the-world-composed-of-parts-several-steps-from-raw-materials-using-rationally-discoverable-principles-of-physics-and-computation

Updated Machine Definition: any system that magnifies and partly or completely automates an agent's ability to effect change on the world, composed of parts several steps from raw materials, using rationally discoverable principles of physics and computation.

The paper's proposed new definition of 'machine' that includes domesticated organisms and synthetic organisms

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

Claims (1)

claim

Physicality is not a requirement for a machine; a machine learning algorithm that generates other machine learning algorithms or designs robots qualifies as a machine.
extends
Proposed definitional update removing physicality as a necessary condition for machines

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.

Updated Robot Definition: a machine capable of physical actions with direct world impacts, able to sense repercussions, partly or completely independent of human action — not binary but a spectrum determined by degree of autonomous control.claim0.812
The paper's proposed new definition of 'robot' as a continuum rather than binary category
Updated Software/Hardware Definition: a continuous variant — a living system is software reprogrammable to the extent stimuli can alter its behavior, as opposed to needing physical rewiring; the binary distinction is not useful.claim0.794
The paper's proposed dissolution of binary software/hardware distinction into a continuum
Updated Program Definition: an abstract multiply-realizable procedure that need not be written by humans, need not be linear, and includes distributed stochastic evolved strategies such as those of nervous systems and non-neural cellular collectives.claim0.791
The paper's proposed expansion of 'program' to encompass biological computation
The notion of 'machine' used to claim living things are not machines refers to an outdated definition that no longer fits.claim0.765
First central claim of the paper: the machine concept used in organicist critiques is historically contingent, not essential
What is an appropriate definition of machine, and does it apply to all, some, or no living forms?question0.760
Central interrogative driving the paper's entire argumentative structure.
What is an appropriate definition of 'machine,' and does it apply to all, some, or no living forms across the tree of life?question0.755
Foundational definitional question motivating the entire paper
A new form of physics, a modified physics, must reconcile self and matter, extending current physics while leaving it nearly intact.claim0.738
The positive program of the chapter: a cosmology that makes sense of architecture and self.
Humans are not being replaced by AI or modified beings — they are maturing, because we should not identify with a fixed set of material specifications; we are an extended, flexible, adaptive work in progress.claim0.736
Reframes fear of replacement as a failure of identity maturity