the Boards-prep colloquy: something the machine needs

The body-as-machine doctrine, wielded here as argument. Pemulis frames dependence as mechanical necessity: "What happens if you try and go without something the machine needs? Food, moisture, sleep, O2? What happens to the machine?" The academy's foundational metaphor — the body as a system with defined inputs — gets turned into a case for why Hal can't simply quit. It's the doctrine's dark edge: if the body really is a machine with needs, then a need is a need, and the same logic that justifies the regimen's inputs can justify anything the machine has learned to require. (The addiction application is a-r's; landed here is the body-as-machine framing.)