2.1. Machines and Energy

Through their evolution, from the initial primitive devices used for daily work humans began to also develop complex machines, exploiting the transformation of one kind of energy into another. This enabled them fast technical progress. These first machines were equipped with additional units which functioned independently. Devices used different energies for different purposes. Let us take as an example a watermill, used for grinding seeds and producing flour. The procedure is the following: water energy is transmitted to the blades of the waterwheel, from where it is conveyed to millstones, which grind the wheat and produce flour. The mill simply conveys water energy, converting it to mechanical energy that activates the mill mechanism. Humans quickly began to use the energy of animals as driving power, enabling them a higher social standard and better life. Skipping thousands of years in human evolution in which human and animal power was used to get to the beginning of the technical revolution, we will find that the basis of all devices is conversion of one kind of energy to another and exploitation of natural fuels. The steam engine uses the energy of coal burning, converted to thermal energy. The thermal energy heats and changes the physical state of water to steam. Pressurised steam is used for machines that drive locomotives, ships, mills, power generators, weaving machines and so on.

The logic of producing any machine is based on the desire to make machines work instead of humans, to do what they cannot do themselves. Logically, all work procedures of machines are exclusively under their command. Machines are operated by humans. They give commands and machines perform the tasks by converting different energies. Let us take as an example a car operated by a person: a car uses the burning of oil derivatives as driving power and can take us from one place to another. It can also transport a huge load to a certain place. We simply sit comfortably and operate the machine. One can say that the car has a human being as its soul. Operating it, the latter makes it alive and useful. But when the driver gets out of the car, the latter becomes useless. Comparing a person and a car, we can say that there is great similarity: humans are commanded by their soul, operating their functional systems. When the soul leaves the body, it becomes useless, or in other words dead.

The development of the systems of operating machines by direct execution of commands through mechanical transmission and the use of advantages brought by electronics resulted in the construction of machines that independently execute all the procedures for the benefit of humans. Totally independent machines are called automats or robots. Robots contain a part that, when activated, assumes command of operation and control of the functioning of all operations of the machine until the end of the process, when the machine is turned off manually or automatically. Robots have a “brain” – a processor facilitating the operation and performance of certain functions, and an intelligent programmer who enabled the robot to have a brain and a soul. The soul of any machine is a human being who wrote its programme and enabled independent operation through the processor, the brain, the command unit of the machine. These programmes are such that the processor can perform them as orders and operate the robot so that it correctly performs all its tasks. As we can see, a robot’s soul is a human being, its processor is its brain, and the programmes written for the robot’s processor represent the programmes of human genes.