Machines
A machine is an enclosure which contains independent parts that exert force on each other to produce a desired function. This may be as simple as cogs in a drill press making holes or more complicated like employees working in a corporation to make profit.
It is the commonality of the parts which define the machine i.e. the majority of parts in a drill press do simple tasks which work together to make holes in things. Whereas in a corporation a collection of people work together to make profit. Machines always have inputs, a function and then based on their efficiency, a productive output (internality) and a waste output (externality).
Machine Theory
Hawkings[1], Musk[2], Gates[3], have all stated their fear of the potential existential threats we face with the development of AI. There are multiple reasons however it boils down to if you create something more intelligent that yourself it may find out some information which we do not know which might rationalise destroying human life. For instance, if an AI was tasked without hard written (ROM) specifying something along the lines of Issac Asimov's three laws of robotics to protect biodiverse life on earth its first though would most probably kill the majority of humans. Luckily, as of yet no autonomous robots have been created in the traditional sense.
There are many problems with the creation of General AI, many of them have been solved for instance human intelligence has been mimicked as a starting point, spawning neural networks and machine learning technology which has taught us that weighting masses of data points in an interlaced network of tables helps computers come up with better solutions to problems. However as of yet it seems not to have been able to unhook from coded heuristics to make its own about the world.
Machine theory argues that corporations are an amalgamation of legal heuristics which has enabled the legal creation of recognised entities which will prove to be the starting point of new AI systems. They already exist and since the creation of computers have been advancing through a singularity to become autonomous beings similar to DAOs.
The machines we fear are already here, means many share the same existential dread of super intelligent machines being our overlord. Machine theory argues the seeds of them already walk amongst us. The weakest part of these machines currently are the people, unionisation and strikes historically have been effective in jamming the machines progress, however with the further developments in robotics and self governing quality management systems means a cybernetic system is nearly upon us. We have a limited time now as humans still have power to clog the machines progress into something autonomously run in the persuit of profit.