When comparing humans to machiens, did Descates address machines as something accurate, perfunctory? I believe he wanted to emphasize a different characterist of machines: the body with a governing system that commands subordinate branches to follow its orders - just like our brain governs our actions. Machines are programmed - so that they have a instructory feature - and their technical parts perform according to its wishes. Brain programs our fingers, in the ruler lab specifically, to catch the ruler when dropped and our fingers do so. In this respect, humans work like machines.
However, of course, there is much difference between machines and humans. Especially, regarding reaction time. Contrary to machines, we take much longer time to respond. This difference and inferiority allow us space for improvement and it is achieved through repetition. We learn, when machines don't, and this difference is in how w e are programmed - a difference Descartes ignored.
I interpreted the comparison of humans to machines very similarly. I believe Descartes wanted to emphasize that the actions of humans are very mechanical, but that does not classify us as a machine. Human reflexes are very much like machines in the sense that they are performed without conscious intent on our part. While reaction time for a human is much slower than that of a machine, reflexes can be seen as mechanical action or an automatic response to something. For example, you don't think to pull your hand away from a hot surface, your body does it automatically.
I also agree with the logic in differentiating machines from humans because of humans' learning capabilities. In addition, the emotional and rational capabilities humans possess over machines makes enough difference to not classify humans as machines.
I agree with both of you. I believe that humans can behave mechanically, and most of our instinctive actions can certainly be classified as being mechanical (the hot surface example supports this). I also agree with the idea that he wanted to emphasize the concept of the body having a governing system that directs the rest of the motions of the body. I also think that Descartes makes a good point when he argues for the soul as the governing body. While he suggest this as a way of escaping persecution for an idea that goes against the church, and we do not medically believe in the soul as a governing body, I believe that the soul becomes a good argument for why humans and machines are different. The soul became the name for what allows us to make decisions, to restrain ourselves consciously, and so forth. While machines are usually programmed to perform a certain action, humans have a level of consciousness that allows us to make decisions about most of our actions.
