machinewithout

Machinewithout is a neologism used to describe systems designed to operate without human involvement across their lifecycle. In this sense, it denotes a spectrum from highly automated processes to fully autonomous platforms that can design, deploy, operate, and maintain themselves with minimal or no human intervention.

The term is a portmanteau of machine and without and is used mainly in speculative design, AI ethics, and advanced automation discussions. It contrasts with no-human-in-the-loop approaches by treating the human as absent from all lifecycle stages rather than merely not required for every decision.

Key characteristics include autonomous decision-making, self-monitoring and maintenance, fault tolerance, and secure, closed-loop data flows. Systems described as machinewithout are expected to rely on AI, robotics, sensors, and robust governance protocols to ensure safety, reliability, and ethical compliance.

Applications span critical infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, environmental monitoring, disaster response, and space exploration where human presence is limited or hazardous. Proponents see machinewithout as a means to increase resilience, reduce operational costs, and expand capabilities in extreme environments.

Challenges include safety assurance, accountability and liability, transparency, cybersecurity, and regulatory oversight. Critics warn of risks from unsupervised decision-making, difficult auditing of complex autonomous behavior, and potential social and economic impacts as reliance on automated systems grows.

See also: autonomous system, no-human-in-the-loop, AI governance, cyber-physical system.