[SurfScore]

Couldn't they have come up with a better name for a super-smart computer than "The Machine?"

[kqr2]

Maybe it's an indirect reference to the all encompassing Machine in E.M. Forster's story:

http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html

[noedig]

The head of HP Labs explained this in his talk. He said it is called "the machine" because 1) they are researchers, not marketing people, and 2) they started thinking of it as not just another server, but a whole new architecture that scales from phones to data centers (as in, THE machine, the only one you need).