People are held to be similar to complex machines in psychophysics, a new scientific paradigm that becomes popular in Germany around 1860.

This paradigm will lead to the experimental psychology paradigm which will attempt to discover the nature of humans and how to control it.

Many of the classical techniques and theory of psychophysics are formulated in 1860 when Gustav Fechner publishes Elemente der Psychophysik.

He coins the term "psychophysics", and describes research relating physical stimuli with how they are perceived and set out the philosophical foundations of the field.

Fechner wants to develop a theory that can relate matter to the mind, by describing the relationship between the world and the way it is perceived