Welcome to the machine
"A machine manages power to accomplish a task" (1). Biological systems are good examples of machines – they consume energy to accomplish a task. Physical systems, built by humans, also fit the definition. However, the definition does not differentiate between the two – and that may be appropriate.
More broadly, assembly of biological systems – such as an ant colony or Wall Street – can be considered machines as well. Here the "task" is a slightly more complicated objective function such as aiding the queen ant to reproduce or maximizing personal wealth without other considerations. Since the energy consumed and the task accomplished can be measured, most machines can be attributed an efficiency factor. In the world of machines, only efficiency matters.
The performance of machines, thus, is the only thing that matters in the world. From the first bacterium to the complex biological systems of today, the fundamental architecture has remained the same. Set an objective and achieve it in the most efficient fashion possible. Later, humans, designed mechanical and organizational machines that reflected their own characteristics (2). All systems that exist today are machines. The task at hand are generally a simple subset such as the maximization of food, power and reproduction. The energy mostly come from a candle a few light minutes away, called the sun.
As humans seek "extra-terrestrial life," it may be instructive to measure the transformation efficiencies of such systems. If the efficiencies are about the same as we find on Earth, we may have found our cousins – something most scientists are very excited about. If it is higher, we may have come across a world of superior machines – fodder for most contemporary scientific fiction. However, if we find systems with lower transformation efficiencies, they may indicate societies more advanced than machines, ourselves.
(1) Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine
(2) Flexibility : Flexible Companies for the Uncertain World. http://is.gd/flexbook
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