The McKendry Machine
An endless printing press, pressed by humans. — Sean McKendry, 2026
Abstract
The McKendry Machine is a figure for human-in-the-loop AI. Gutenberg, in the 1440s, built a printing press; mass literacy followed. The McKendry Machine is the endless printing press. The machine drafts forever — a thousand pages a second, tireless, with no idea whether any of it is true. But every page that counts is pressed by humans. The machine drafts; the human presses, and scores. That is the apparatus, and that is its name.
The figure, in one paragraph
An LLM is a draft engine. It predicts the next word. It cannot tell whether the word is the right word — it has no regard for whether what it produced is true (Frankfurt's definition of bullshit). The machine drafts; that is useful and that is honest. What it does not do is judge. It does not crown the page. It does not score. Worth is conferred by people. A printing press without a human at the lever is a paper mill. A human at the lever, on top of an endless press, is something new — and that something new is the McKendry Machine.
Three properties
① Endless
The press doesn't tire. The drafts arrive faster than any prior medium — at telephone-bill prices. Treating that flow as authoritative is the category error.
② Pressed
Every page that counts has a human signature on it. The signature is the score. Without the press, the draft is a draft.
③ Dignified
The press is also a dignity machine. Best and worst both score; the only loss is the shrug in the middle.
What it is not
It is not anti-AI. It is a fix-not-replacement figure. The machine isn't broken; it is missing one capacity — doubt and the scoring that follows from doubt — which humans have and the machine doesn't. The McKendry Machine names the rig where the missing capacity gets added back, by adding humans, not by removing the machine.
Why now
Because the press is endless, and what worth means in public is being decided in real time. Only humans can score isn't a slogan; it's an architecture choice — and it works at any scale where a human is the lever.
"Only humans score."