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In our modern society, technology, innovation, and progress are
intrinsically linked in our minds. This has not always been the case in
our own history, and certainly is not the case in the 41st Millenium.
The
Imperium of Man’s attitude toward technology is one of the hardest
things for new players in this setting to fully grasp. We live with the
confidence of knowing that our current level of technology is the
highest it has ever been in the history of the human race. Further
advancement lies ahead of us through innovation and new discoveries.
Humanity in the 41st millenium, however, lives in the shadow of the
Dark Age of Technology, a time in their distant past where mankind’s
technological prowess was far superior to the technology of their time.
All the energy we put into innovation they put into reclamation. Why
bother inventing a thing if the ancients did it so much better? All
that need to be done is find some long-lost world, some fragment of the
legendary Standard Template Construct, that will bring into the fold of
human knowledge great and long-lost power.
The Imperium of
Man is fundamentally conservative. They look to the past, to tradition,
to guide their lives. Old is good, new is suspect. Technology, it’s
creation, use, and maintenance, are trade secrets held by an exclusive
organization, the Adeptus Mechanicus. They hold a monopoly on
technology and are understandably jealous of it. They cloak its use in
occult mysticism to occlude and protect it from the masses. Every
machine has a spirit that must be kept happy lest the machine break
down. Innovation, alteration, these risk warping or tainting a machine
spirit and are therefore abominations. Tried and true designs taken
from the STC blueprints of the ancients are
the only pure manifestation of technology. Furthermore, the technology
of the far future is so complex that only the most cogitator-enhanced
Tech-Magi can really fully understand it. Most Tech-Priests maintain
and operate their devices through elaborate rote rituals that act as
esoteric maintenance checklists. In this way, relatively unskilled
individuals can operate and maintain ancient devices without needing to
understand entirely HOW they work.
But
what of the common people of the Imperium? Hive worlders live in
massive mega-cities that simply could not exist if not for highly
advanced technology. How does one live one’s entire life surrounded by
technology and still not know how it works?
It’s quite
simple, really. We do it all the time. Think of a 747 aircraft. Few of
us know how to build one. Few of us know how they’re maintained. Few of
us have any idea how to operate it. Many of us make use of them
trusting fully to the specialists that DO know how to make, maintain,
and operate them. Humanity in the 41st millenium uses technology all
the time in the way we use air-travel, or our computers, or the
air-conditioning in our office high-rises. Most of us have no idea how
the technology that fills our world works, we just know how to operate
it. The technology in the 41st millenium may be far more advanced than
what we have now, but it’s all template-built, crafted for-purpose, and
fairly standardized. Your Imperial Guardsman doesn’t have to understand
the exact mechanics of HOW his
standard-issue lasgun works, he just knows how to make it do what it’s
supposed to do (often after a rote prayer to its machine spirit,
particularly if he REALLY needs to shoot
that guy over there). If something breaks, you call in a Tech-Priest
specialist to fix it. Most consumer-technology in the 41st millenium is
built to be easy for normal people to use, and is built to last. With
the proper maintenance rituals, a well-crafted weapon could last for
thousands of years and maintain full functionality.
While this is all very true, and I agree with a great deal of it, there is the question of familiarity and daily use. After a certain length of time even a guardsman will know or figure out how his equipment works or is constructed. The question is not would he dare challenge the religious tenants of the Machine Cult, but how far is blasphemy from practical application and what constitutes the acceptable limitations on the work done in the first place? Would not the machine spirit be pleased to extend it's temporal powers or abilities beyond that it was confined to? Soldiers in the trenches will always do all kinds of things to a weapon, but the difference is in what is done in plain sight openly and what is not.
Eh... the flaw in the 747 Argument is that even schoolkids know how an aircraft works, and the principals behind it flying. They might not be able to build a 747, but a simple aircraft, like a Sopwith Camel? Easy.
The problem with 40k is it's based off people's misconception of Europe in the Dark Ages. The backsliding of Europe was not caused, in as much, by the actual fall of Rome as the constant warfare between petty tyrants. One has merely to look to the Eastern Empire to see that the 40k idea of how cultural collapse works is false. The great Crusade would actually have hastened the total collapse of humanity as a galactic player rather than consolidated it.
It's a nice article, and I agree with the ideas of tech-understanding.
I'd say the main problem is conveying the difference between knowing and understanding. We know how planes work, the average man in the street would say something like:
"Oh, well it accelerates forwards, you get more air flowing under the wings lifting it up."
But ask him why air behaves that way and he'll say:
"Um..."
To convert it into 40k, you ask an experienced guardsman how his lasgun works and you might get an answer like this:
"The energy from the power cell arcs across the barrel here, growing in strength before being converted into a las-beam by the focusing lens and flying off towards the enemy. With the machine spirit's blessing."
ask the guardsman why energy behaves that way, and he just says:
"Through the will of The Emperor, of course."
The citizens who use technology get a thorough understanding of cause-and-efect, and how certain components work together. They take most of it on faith though, exactly like modern science to you and I.
Everything is made of atoms, you say? It seems to explain everything but I wouldn't know how to disprove it.
It's a nice article, and I agree with the ideas of tech-understanding.
I'd say the main problem is conveying the difference between knowing and understanding. We know how planes work, the average man in the street would say something like:
"Oh, well it accelerates forwards, you get more air flowing under the wings lifting it up."
But ask him why air behaves that way and he'll say:
"Um..."
To convert it into 40k, you ask an experienced guardsman how his lasgun works and you might get an answer like this:
"The energy from the power cell arcs across the barrel here, growing in strength before being converted into a las-beam by the focusing lens and flying off towards the enemy. With the machine spirit's blessing."
ask the guardsman why energy behaves that way, and he just says:
"Through the will of The Emperor, of course."
The citizens who use technology get a thorough understanding of cause-and-efect, and how certain components work together. They take most of it on faith though, exactly like modern science to you and I.
Everything is made of atoms, you say? It seems to explain everything but I wouldn't know how to disprove it.
... there is the question of familiarity and daily use. After a certain length of time even a guardsman will know or figure out how his equipment works or is constructed. The question is not would he dare challenge the religious tenants of the Machine Cult, but how far is blasphemy from practical application and what constitutes the acceptable limitations on the work done in the first place? Would not the machine spirit be pleased to extend it's temporal powers or abilities beyond that it was confined to? Soldiers in the trenches will always do all kinds of things to a weapon, but the difference is in what is done in plain sight openly and what is not.
The officers, Commissars, priests, techpriests, and conservative Sgts in a regiment would all be vigilant in preventing such heretical thoughts as "wouldn't the machine spirit be happier if I did this?" I take the opinion that a form of Orwellian social conditioning (in the form of the Imperial Cult) keeps people, especially soldiers, from thinking outside the STC box. Innovation breeds abominations, ignorance is strength. Opening your mind to new ideas will invite the demons of Chaos to plant ideas in your head. That's why the techpriests are there, to protect us and tech from ourselves. And I agree that they, too, mostly work from rote. They have self-brainwashed themselves to believe their own dogma. The scientific method, as we know it, is gone.
Of course, some heathen will eventually do something to his lasgun anyways, but he'll inevitably be found out and shot, if he survives that long.
BaronIveagh wrote:
The problem with 40k is it's based off people's misconception of Europe in the Dark Ages. The backsliding of Europe was not caused, in as much, by the actual fall of Rome as the constant warfare between petty tyrants. One has merely to look to the Eastern Empire to see that the 40k idea of how cultural collapse works is false. The great Crusade would actually have hastened the total collapse of humanity as a galactic player rather than consolidated it.
I like your point about the Great Crusade. However, one thing I noticed about 40K and other GW settings is that it dosen't use actual sociological theories, but rather it borrows from the multitude of previously published sci-fi, fantasy and other literature, as well as popular conceptions, whether accurate or not.
Thanks for the article it was really usefully in general and in particular for an adventure i've got coming up.
Also agree with what Vorkuta said warhammer 40000's sociology - as far as it has one - is really just a mixed bag of ones taken from different science fiction novels in the main and popular conceptions on the dynamics of empires. Then again most academic notions on the fall of Rome and its effects aren't really very accurate either.
The problem that I see with the interpretation is the juxtaposition of contradictions all black-boxed behind "STC" and the idea that the Imperium functions. The majority of it revolves around the idea that the "average person" doesn't understand technology and science, and, of course, in the 40k universe even the scientists don't understand... sorta kinda.
Thankfully the 40k universe is far more open to interpretation than the vanilla look that you get with the wargame books.
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