Without output machine

A without output machine (WOM) is a theoretical construct by Umberto Eco from his essay “The Wom” from 1993. It describes a machine that receives an input but does not generate any output . This machine is not possible after Eco. The opposite of a WOM would be a WIM (without input machine).

A black box is defined as a machine (not in the mechanical sense, more like an automaton ) that receives an input x, processes it and generates an output y that should not be equal to x.

An example of such a machine is, for example, a browser that has HTML code as input and gives readable text as output. A more abstract machine would be a black box, for example, which receives a logical statement as input and outputs its negation.

A WOM (Without Output Machine), on the other hand, would be a machine that receives an input but does not generate any output. This machine would destroy all input and would not be perceptible itself. Even the current notion of a black hole does not meet this definition, since such a hole would make itself felt through its effect on its surroundings. Since with a WOM the machine itself - due to the fact that it does not generate any output - would never be perceptible, but the destruction of the input would be obvious, a WOM is inconceivable.

A WIM (Without Input Machine) is accordingly a machine that generates an output by itself without having received an input.