·~{dRNn}~·

B17 Bomber Belly. ca.1939

A machine is that which behaves in a machine-like way, namely, that its internal state, and the state of its surrounding, defines uniquely the next state it will go [1, p.261].

Thus, the material or materials from which a machine is made becomes irrelevant. As the machine becomes a function of internal and external states.

1. Ross Ashby. Principles of the Self-Organizing System. 1962. p.261.