Hochmuth, The Study of Machines, 2017

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Hochmuth considers machines as divided into four distinct categories:

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 1. Simple machines or tools: a device used to apply a force to carry out a particular function (defined by the ancient Greeks and are the wedge, lever, inclined plane, screw, wheel and axle, and pulley). 

 2. Compound machine: a mechanism of two or more different simple machines applying mechanical power having several or more interrelated parts for the accomplishment of a certain task (defined by Reuleaux as lower pairs and higher pairs, turning pairs, screw pairs, cylindrical pairs, spherical pairs, sliding pairs, and rolling pairs). 

 3. Complex machine: an apparatus of two or more different compound machines using or applying power sources - such as mechanical or electrical power - that is capable of producing both tasks and functions (defined by power sources as Mechanical, Electric, Hydro, Magnetic, Gravitational, Chemical, Nuclear, Radiant, Molecular, and Thermal).

 4. Autonomous machine (artificial intellects, 'artilects', or intelligent machines): a network of two or more complex machines measured by the expenditure of power sources, with the capability of utilizing and creating machines with the capacity to optimize its own goals (defined by energy consumption by Kardashev, Type I, II, & III).

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Hochmuth considers machines as modified over time through four distinct methods:

 

i. variation: a change in feature but not function, i.e. size, shape, and color. 

ii. consolidation: the separate combination of two different functions. 

iii. integration: the replacement of previously consolidated different functions with an apparatus.

iv. convergence: the tendency of all machines to reach a connected state.

 

Hochmuth considers the types of machines as defined by four objects of work: 

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i. function: work that is done by simple machines without the use of external energy sources.

ii. task: work that is done by compound machines with the use of mechanical energy or mechanical advantage.

iii. product: work that is done by complex machines with the use of external and mechanical energy to complete tasks and functions.

iv. utility: work that is determined by the autonomous machine itself to optimize goals requiring the use or indistinguishability between machine and energy.

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Citations

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1. Moore, Andrew (January 2011). "The hypothesis' ambassador". BioEssays. 33 (1): 1. doi:10.1002/bies.201090064. 

2. Shoberg, Lore. Machine. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973. Print. Encyclopedia.

3. Shoberg, Lore. Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973. Print. Encyclopedia.

4. Reuleaux, Franz, and Alex B. W. Kennedy. The Kinematics of Machinery: Outlines of a Theory of Machines (1876). Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2010.

5.  Arend Hintze, The 4 Types of AI, Michigan State University, 2016

6.  (Kurzweil 2005, p. 260) or see Advanced Human Intelligence where he defines strong AI as "machine intelligence with the full range of human intelligence."

7. Kardashev, Nikolai (1964). "Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations". Soviet AstronomyWissner-Gross, Alexander D.; Freer, Cameron E. (April 19, 2013). "Causal Entropic Forces" (PDF).Physical Review Letters. 110. Bibcode:2013PhRvL.110p8702W. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.168702. Retrieved 4 April 2016.

8.  Classical and Computational Solid Mechanics, YC Fung and P. Tong. World Scientific. 2001.

9. Image from front: Antikythera Mechanism, Andrew Jerome 2016

10. Classical and Computational Solid Mechanics, YC Fung and P. Tong. World Scientific. 2001.

11.  Cook, Scott D. N. "The Structure of Technological Revolutions and the Gutenberg Myth." New Directions in the Philosophy of Technology (1995): 63-83. Web.