4) The first person to describe the human body as a machine was the French philosopher, René Descartes. His belief was that every action in the body was a direct response to an outside stimulus. A stimulus would excite a nerve, which would transfer a signal to the brain, which would then communicate to a muscle and create motion. In other words, the bodys reflex is a reflection of the energy from the outside. In this way, humans are like machines. However, the existence of choices and different actions depending on different situations gave rise to the theory of some type of central switching system. Descartes knew however that the theory of humans as machines would lead to disturbing theological implications and therefore stopped his research. Other scientists have gone further since then and the theory of humans as machines has opened the doors to many enlightening discoveries about the many mechanisms of the human body.
Im not inclined to agree or disagree with this theory. I would agree that the human mechanisms work very much like a machine, one thing leading to another, but its difficult to determine what exactly controls choices. While I do agree that humans could be described as more finely tuned machines compared to other animals, its difficult to understand how people can change reactions or make decisions depending on different situations. Machines do not have minds. I think the simple fact that we can think or have emotions would lead me to believe we are less like machines.
Contrary to the result that one would expect from this theory, my experimental results showed that focusing on the response produced faster times than when focusing on the stimulus. I wouldnt say that this disproves the theory of humans being machines. I would just say that its inconclusive or could have been due to experimental error. Perhaps the person who was helping didnt hold the ruler at the same place every time or maybe the person didnt release it at the same rate every time or perhaps there was something else influencing me. It would be beneficial to repeat this experiment. Personally, as an engineer, I understand the importance of eliminating any experimental error. I think in order to prove or disprove a theory one must repeat an experiment several times.
