Exercise Machines

OK.  I was a good boy and let my achilles rest today.  Instead used this beast, the Precor AMT ($8,000).  It's a very cool machine that allows you to vary between an elliptical trainer and a stair master, and anywhere in between.  Is this much metal, electronics and technology, really necessary to just to allow us to move our bodies?  In perfect alignment and complete safety of course.

I'm impressed with the engineering, but am having a difficult time philosophically with this contraption's mere existance in this world.  Perhaps that's what I enjoy about running.  It's raw, basic and natural.  Just you and the path ahead.