Machineness
Machineness refers to the quality or condition of being machine-like. In both everyday usage and academic discourse, it denotes the extent to which an entity—an artifact, a process, a system, or even an organism—exhibits characteristics commonly associated with machines: predictability, modularity, efficiency, controllability, and replicability. The concept is often discussed as a spectrum rather than a binary attribute, recognizing that many systems blend machine-like and non-machine-like features.
In engineering and design, machineness is a design philosophy that emphasizes standardization, automation, feedback control, and
In philosophy and social theory, machineness is used to critique how modern life becomes organized around instrumental
Assessment of machineness is debated; there is no universal metric. Analysts might examine performance metrics, degree
Related domains include automation, mechanization, robotics, and the study of digital infrastructures such as algorithmic governance