I don’t know what a cat is supposed to make of some machine that, for no apparent reason, suddenly extends a piece of itself in the cat’s direction. Nor do I know why the owner of said machinery would continue to tempt the cat to give it a good thrashing. Sometimes it’s hard to decide who makes less sense, cats or people.
I would guess that to a feline, anything which moves must be alive and has to be dealt with.
Some of the things cats have to deal with because of all the gadgets we humans collect must mystify them. You can see it in some of their faces and reactions.