What Does Machine Learning Really Mean?

Surely we've heard the word float around in recent years as one of the hottest new buzzwords to hit the technosphere, but does anyone know what machine learning is? Well, from the title alone we can deduce that it has something to do with machines learning, which is undoubtedly true. However, let's look at a more formal definition: "Machine learning is a field of computer science that uses statistical techniques to give computer systems the ability to'learn' with data, without being explicitly programmed." The magic of this field of study comes in the very last segment of that definition: "Without being explicitly programmed." Traditionally in computer science, whenever we needed to have the machine do something, we'd write out a clear-cut instruction set in the form of code.