What I am talking about are those times when someone might say to another person, "You are a machine!" or "He/She is a machine!" Typically I hear these kinds of kinds of comments in the context of some athletic competition or some other kind of grueling physical labor. The suggestion seems to be that the person is acting in a manner that displays valuable machine like qualities such as an unrelenting effort to complete some task in an efficient and precise manner.
Granted, such a compliment lacks a certain specificity, but it does point to an interesting curiosity in comparing a person to a machine.
If I were to see a robot running in a fluid and relentless fashion, I would be considerably less impressed than seeing a human, world class, marathon runner near the end of a stunning race. It is precisely because someone is a finite human being and is performing some grueling physical labor in a determined, efficient, and precise manner that we are so often impressed and feel the need to compliment and acknowledge his or her admirable efforts. But such a performance only becomes significant to us against the backdrop of a finite creature that could and often does not perform so well. That is, it is precisely because we know that humans so often do stumble, trip, fall, and tire from exhaustion that when they do not, we look twice and admire.
Depending on where we choose to place the emphasis we are left with the choice of "He/She is a machine!" or "He/She is a human being!"
Increasingly, I think there is a place for acknowledging and affirming the human dimension of excellent performances.
Perhaps someday there will be advanced robots that compliment one another by saying "You are a human!" In the strangeness of such an expression on robots imitation lips, we may begin to ponder what our own finite, humanity means.
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