Humans + Technology = "The Machine"

I am intrigued by the idea that we are the machine when thinking of technology. I don't think we are "the machine" exactly. I think a more accurate statement would be to say that we are a part of the machine.

I see the relationship between technology and people as being a cyclical process. Take for example, the website Wikipedia. Someone uses technology to create an entry for any topic. A different person can use technology to go and view the entry. This same person can also edit the entry. This improves "the machine," making the available information more accurate. Any number of people can then use the technology to learn about whatever topic the entry is about. This is only possible because of the combination of technology and human effort involved in creating the entry. I see much of the web and digital culture as being involved in a similar process. 

Technically, we could say that humans invented technology in the first place, which means that humans are 100% of the machine. However, I think that is over-simplifying things a bit. People were only able to create the technology that we have because of the technology that existed beforehand because of the people who created it, and so on and so forth. You can see why I think of it as a cyclical process :)

                                           

Thus, the machine is comprised of humans and technology working together. Without these two parts working together equally, "the machine" would eventually cease to work as it should. This would likely cause the collapse of civilization as we know it, but that's a story for another day :)