Machine language is the most basic form of programming language that computers understand directly. It consists of binary code, which is a series of 0s and 1s. Each combination of these digits corresponds to specific instructions that the computer's hardware can execute, allowing it to perform tasks. Because machine language is difficult for humans to read and write, higher-level programming languages, like Python or Java, were developed. These languages are more user-friendly and can be translated into machine language by a compiler or interpreter, enabling programmers to create software without needing to understand the underlying binary code.