Fifty
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why do computer people call computers machines instead of computers?
Machines?
- Thread starter Fifty
- Start date
CruddyLeper
Unworshipped Deity
Because English is a language with a high redundancy rate - there are lots of words which have similar meaning, depending on context.
If you do tech support all day long, you'd go mad just calling it the same word all the time. Nothing technically wrong with that, it just makes you sound like a moron with a limited vocabulary.
If you do tech support all day long, you'd go mad just calling it the same word all the time. Nothing technically wrong with that, it just makes you sound like a moron with a limited vocabulary.
Anonymoose
KING OF MEESE
They call them machines because they want to feel a sense of community or some nonsense like that.
Perfection
The Great Head.
I have an interesting hypothesis!
"Computer" is a rather clumsy 3 syllable word. Whereas machine is a 2 syllable word that's easy to say (as opposed to something like buttdart which is 2 syllables and hard). I would imagine it's simply being used as a sort of pronoun to expedite communication. The geeky sort are more familiar with this trick and therefore use it more readily then the less technically inclined.
"Computer" is a rather clumsy 3 syllable word. Whereas machine is a 2 syllable word that's easy to say (as opposed to something like buttdart which is 2 syllables and hard). I would imagine it's simply being used as a sort of pronoun to expedite communication. The geeky sort are more familiar with this trick and therefore use it more readily then the less technically inclined.
I think Perf's got it right. I can only think of the term "machine" used to specific computers, with a demonstrative or definite article next to it - "this machine", "the machine", "that machine", but not "a machine" or "machines". It's probably a way to help differentiate between the specific computer being talked about versus computer used as an adjective to things such as software or to other computers.
Perfection
The Great Head.
I disagree. When working on a computer one rarely needs to specify the adjective computer, it's generally implied.
I think the usage of "the machine" gains its potency because it's a "pronoun" that specifically references the computer in question unlike more standard pronouns like, "it" or "the thing" or "that" which can specify a much broader range of items leading to confusion.
I guess I'll elucidate with some examples:
consider the sentence:
"What's wrong that computer?"
It's perfectly intelligible, but long.
Whereas this sentence
"What's wrong that?"
Is short, but "that" might not be interpreted properly as "that computer", one could be easily interpret it as something else.
But the sentence:
"What's wrong that machine?" is certainly shorter to say then "What's wrong that computer?" and unlike "What's wrong that?" it won't be misinterpreted.
GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
IMO, gives the same connection as one has towards an automobile.
Perfection
The Great Head.
Please elaborate, Mr. CivGeneral!
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
"Computer" sounds so 90s
Rig, box, or machine is just a less formal way of saying the same thing.
Rig, box, or machine is just a less formal way of saying the same thing.
To make it sound more manly and cool?
I noticed something similar when my company asked me to buy a few smartcars for them. All the salespeople referred to the smartcar (a diminutive, "less manly" looking car) as a machine. "This machine," "That machine" etc. etc. They never once called it a car. I suspected that it was to play up the smartcar as something more than it was--a small funny looking fuel efficient vehicle. Maybe it's the same thing for computers, i.e. calling one a machine makes it seem "cool" and manly. Computer sounds nerdy. Machine sounds Terminator-ish.
I noticecomputer nerds super-awesome-and-handsome-tech-savvy-people also refer to their computers as "rigs." Same thing, I think.
I noticed something similar when my company asked me to buy a few smartcars for them. All the salespeople referred to the smartcar (a diminutive, "less manly" looking car) as a machine. "This machine," "That machine" etc. etc. They never once called it a car. I suspected that it was to play up the smartcar as something more than it was--a small funny looking fuel efficient vehicle. Maybe it's the same thing for computers, i.e. calling one a machine makes it seem "cool" and manly. Computer sounds nerdy. Machine sounds Terminator-ish.
I notice
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
They ARE machines.
Bratmon
Super Bratmon 3
Yes. Say "computer" 200 times through the day. If you have to say the same word that many times a day, you look for synonyms.
I'm not sure there's evidence that most "computer people" do this. It's just another word for the same thing. Computer, machine, PC.
Also, originally people used the term "microcomputer" to describe small computers with a microprocessor. Why do people call them computers instead of microcomputers? Or indeed, computers instead of personal computers?
This also explains why "box" is common, as it's even simpler.
Good point. Once upon a time, a "computer" was the name of a person who was employed to perform calculations, so strictly speaking, both "computer" and "machine" are broader terms, in different ways.
Also, originally people used the term "microcomputer" to describe small computers with a microprocessor. Why do people call them computers instead of microcomputers? Or indeed, computers instead of personal computers?
LucyDuke
staring at the clock
What they said.
I think in this case it's exactly the opposite. "Computer" just doesn't say enough. When these things got named, they just did lots of math and crap. Now the things that our computers do are hugely abstracted from "computation". Your xbox is exactly as much a "computer" as your desktop pc, but you don't call it that. I like to use the term "internet machine" to old people, because that's what it is to them. To my cousin, it's a "video game machine", to my mother, it's a "personal publishing machine". The damn things are so versatile, they can be so many different kinds of machines, that it's a great catch-all term that severs their use today from their origins. Nothing wrong with that.
Even Microsoft is in on it. When I'm installing Windows updates, it tells me to please not turn off or unplug my "machine".
I often say "box", with its OS as an adjective, though not for notebooks. There's an "XP box" in the living room, an "apple box" upstairs, a "linux box" in the studio. It's the quickest, easiest way to specify which computer I mean. Rather than "my computer", which could be any of four, or "my computer in the studio", which is a mouthful, "the linux box" is the easiest thing to call it.
Same reason we call them "phones" instead of "telephones", "cells" instead of "cellphones", "microwaves" instead of "microwave ovens", "dryer" instead of "clothes dryer", "vacuum" instead of "vacuum cleaner", I could go on all day.
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