Truity by Abram Allen

Author:Abram Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780761861799
Publisher: Hamilton Books

Chapter M

Machine

A machine is a structure of coordinated parts designed to perform a certain function. It responds to command, and can run on various sorts of energy. Its subjectivity is its ability to perform.

Machines are instruments that have been designed to some end. The cotton gin gins cotton, the automobile provides transportation and the chainsaw cuts wood. The Industrial Revolution witnessed an explosion in the development of new machines. Man demonstrated great ingenuity in creating them, large and small, driven by steam, electric or petroleum.

Machines generally have names, but that doesn’t always help in dealing with them. Sometimes their usage is multifold. And, we have to see a machine perform before we can claim to know it. As stated, “Functional merits beget subjective credits,” i.e. function is forever definitive. And, a machine has value. It is either great and essential to life, or small and incidental.

So, what is it that creates the machine? Each one fulfills a need since that was what initially motivated its development. The need to have the grass cut produced the lawn mower, the demands of the dairy resulted in milking machines and the dirt on the living room carpet caused people to develop the vacuum cleaner. To have a machine to perform a specific function and do it properly so that we do not have to do it ourselves is quite impressive indeed. Robots seem to be the next step in this.

Machines are physical things so they have form and design. We also invent them so as to produce products, but they have other related functions as well, e.g. refining products, packaging them, transporting them, storing and delivering them, etc. Eventually, we will have created a society that is nearly fully mechanized. Indeed, machines now aid other machines, they monitor and control them, and all at the push of a button.

Man would be amazed if he could stop and just take inventory of all the machines he depends on in the course of a single day.

In so far as a machine performs its operations, it has a life of its own. By living and performing our tasks, our bodies, too, become machine-like. They require fuel, maintenance, protection and care. Maybe there is some sort of kinship between ourselves as living organisms and those inanimate creatures that perform so many of our tasks. Why else would we give our beloved machines personal names?

As a veterinarian, I have spent a life time serving, studying and appreciating creation’s many animal machines. I also appreciate the services of the mechanic, electrician and the plumber. Machines require that we be knowledgeable of their working parts, just as dealing with animals requires knowledge of their physiology. And, the composite represents the essence of its parts.

Man creates machines to aid and support himself in his work (or play!) For what purpose did the Creator created living beings? Why does this organism of ours have a structure which ensures locomotion and a mind for reasoning? The mind’s purpose may, in the end, be to serve itself, to aid others and to recognize what is valuable and appreciate it.

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