Main Entry: 1ma·chine
Pronunciation: m&-'shEn
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle French, from Latin machina, from Greek mEchanE (Doric dialect machana), from mEchos means, expedient – more at MAY
Date: circa 1545
1 a archaic : a constructed thing whether material or immaterial b : CONVEYANCE, VEHICLE; especially : AUTOMOBILE c archaic : a military engine d : any of various apparatuses formerly used to produce stage effects e (1) : an assemblage of parts that transmit forces, motion, and energy one to another in a predetermined manner (2) : an instrument (as a lever) designed to transmit or modify the application of power, force, or motion f : a mechanically, electrically, or electronically operated device for performing a task <a calculating machine> <a card-sorting machine> g : a coin-operated device <a cigarette machine> h : MACHINERY – used with the or in plural
2 a : a living organism or one of its functional systems b : a person or organization that resembles a machine (as in being methodical, tireless, or unemotional) c (1) : a combination of persons acting together for a common end along with the agencies they use (2) : a highly organized political group under the leadership of a boss or small clique
3 : a literary device or contrivance introduced for dramatic effect
According to definition (2) (an instrusment, s a lever, designed to transmit or modify the application of power, force, or motion, isn’t it, after all, a machine?
barb’s cryptic post refers to a quote in the testimony by an expert witness in the Florida election trial. The lawyer kept referring to the punchcard voting device as a “voting machine”; the expert, whose specialty concerned these devices, stopped the lawyer with the remark “Don’t call it a machine… it’s a voting device” (or something like that).
barb, I think that the expert was an engineer of some sort. Scientists and engineers apply the term “machine” more narrowly than the lay public – usually to devices whose purpose is PRIMARILY to modify the transmission of force (say, the way a lever – one of the “simple machines” – enables someone to lift a very heavy weight a short distance using a light, but long, effort.) These purists disdain the use of the term applied to any jumble of gears, or blinking lights, or what have you, that has little or nothing to do with converting or redirecting force.
I realized that after I made the post, I should have explained it as not everyone watched the proceedings. But, as to the last post, that’s exactly what I had in mind. The voting “machine” does not have gears or blinking lights. It consists merely of some rubber and the well known chad on ballots, and the stylus a human uses (with force) against the “machine.” Isn’t the force that a person uses with the stylus transformed in some manner? Resulting in a punched-out chad (sometimes). I think that the general public would not regard that as a machine, since there are no gears, etc., but that a scientist or engineer would so regard it, since force is transformed.
Lawyers make money while arguing words, etc. Why are we doing this? I mean, how does the name relate to the outcome? It was not even seen by the majority of the country voters. What do you want to know, Barbie? My can opener looks like a machine to me, Gore lawyers nonwithstanding. My nutcracker looks like a device or a tool. Regardless what lawyers say. If Al Gore would pay these lawyers out of his pocket, he would stop it long time ago. Regardless of the term.
It has nothing to do with such mundane consequences as to who won this presidential election. The result of that election is of no earth-shaking importance. The gvmt will go on as it always has done with either Twiddledee or Twiddledum at the helm. However, some of us (me) like some epistemological answers, answers to such transcendental problems as what is a “machine.”
Barbi, my only regret is that the lawyers whetted your appetite for knowledge. Seriously, I think, dictionary definitions notwithstanding, it’s more convention than hard and fast rules. For instance, they call these drums “lottery machines”. They look too plain to me to be “machines”. Often, a term is applied to a simple gizmo solely to sell it. In Florida, they feel themselves more significant ir they say “voting machine” instead of correct “card puncher” or “chad-maker” :-).
The funny thing is that I’ve always called it a machine and every one I’ve ever known referred to them as voting machines, both in Illinois & SC. And it is a machine, according to the technical definition, as I see it. But this expert said it wasn’t. (So who’s laughing.)
