I'm not personally of the belief that everything we've been told about this place is true. So yeah, 'or something'. For all we really know, it could be doing exactly what someone set it up to do.

[ He's just trying to relay the basics of what needs to be known about their situation, not all his own paranoid thoughts and theories. Not that they don't sink their way in to the way that he informs others of the circumstances.

At the question of no one having shut it down though, Wash gives the machine a flat look, whether or not it can see him. It's evident enough in his voice, anyway. ]

Yeah, amazing that no one's thought of that until now, right? [ Just excuse the dripping sarcasm. ] There's no way to shut it down. Not that anyone is aware of, anyway. No one here knows anything useful about the thing. Supposedly we're heading to a planet where someone knows how to 'fix' it so everyone can go back to where they belong. How much you believe that is ultimately up to you.

[ Because he doesn't believe it at all at this point, but he needs to get back home so he's still sticking around on the off chance that he's wrong. ]