#machine spirits

[titleknown]

Stupid Fanfic Idea: What if Warhammer 40K Machine Spirits were actually Digimon?

Even Stupider Fanfic Idea In The Context Of The Previous Stupid Fanfic Idea: What if Ciaphas Cain got a Digivice?

[sophieinwonderland]

do you think the Machine Spirit from 40k is plural thing too?

From Soul Hunter

There is alot of books in 40k

I know the machine spirit and the Omnisah is up to imagination abit. So some think it's just Fragments of AI from the dark age of tech. Other theorized it literally just what ever ritual is just a maintainance protocol and there isn't any "religious" other than holy oils that could be lubricant for guns or something.

I think it's a actual spirit but I don't know If it'd limited to weapons and or vehicles? (Augments I don't know would have a spirit?)

From your follow-up ask:

Woah!

Yup! That sounds super plural to me! 😁👍

As for what it is, I don't know nearly enough about Warhammer 40k to contribute to whether it's a literal spirit or AI or something else.

But I do personally believe that plurality can manifest in mechanical forms too in fiction, as seen in Blue Beetle. I would still consider plurality involving sapient AI in someone's head to be a form of plurality.

[ytcomments-archive]

[gwenthebard]

Honestly if I think anything is extremely realistic in 40k, it's Machine Spirits

You ever had a piece of machinery start fucking up, and then once you start talking to it soothingly it works again?

You ever talked to something you're fixing, rather than cursing it out, only for it to work even better than before?

You ever asked a new machine permission to use it and then have it work fucking immediately like you want it to?

I don't fucking care, machines can hear us and they have fucking praise kinks. The sewing machine only starts fucking working right after I ask it nicely and compliment it the whole time, and I'm fucking blaming ghosts in the machinery. My keyboard's right shift key only works consistently if I say thank you after words most of the time. Somethings going on there

[karhs]

was thinkin the other day about how weird it is that, out-of-universe, machine spirits in WH40k tend to get dismissed out of hand, even tho like... it’s still a fantasy universe?

Like, when we hear that eldar technology runs on ghosts, or that orks can believe something so hard that it becomes true, we go “oh yeah cool.” but when we hear the humans say that machinery has souls, and that mistreating the soul leads to malfunction, we say “well... that’s silly! what a goofy way of looking at things, those poor dumb techpriests don’t even know what they’re working with,” or we start digging for explanations about how, “oh, a ‘machine spirit’ is actually a very old AI that was limited enough in scope to slip through the cracks,” or other such science-fiction justifications, as though the fantasy and magic of the universe abruptly ends when you reach the imperium. which is silly.

esp when u consider how interesting the idea is if you apply it to the whole setting! like, to the Mechanicus, ork tech shouldn’t be a mystery, but a tragedy, right? A techpriest pops open an orkish bolt pistol, and finds the inside full of random scrap. The conclusion here is clear: the orkish inclination to cruelty and coercion is so strong that even their machine spirits are bullied into servitude, forced to work without proper maintenance or structure!! How awful! And of course it only follows that their technology is comically dangerous and unreliable; all those machine spirits are just _waiting_ for a good chance to rebel, even self-destructively.

i have way more i could say about this but i aint in the business of three-page-long tumblr posts lol, and i know that some 40k fiction leans in this direction already, but it seems to me like most of it is firmly in the “machine spirits are nonsense” party, n i wanted to just get the thought out there

[constellationswh40kau]

Military nose/hull art exists in 40k

Allow me to take this one off-hand mention and turn it into A Thing.

It probably has to be approved by the Enginseer, just in case it offends the Machine Spirit, but...

I'm not into the model/tabletop side of things but for those who are, this opens up so many possibilities.

Named vehicles with their titles marked in roaring typography.

Imperial Aquilas and Saints painted triumphant for a blessing on crew and campaign.

A regiment/naval wing with their homeworld's fiercest beasts in rampant.

Keeping traditions and arts of their cultures close with intricate patterns and markings of ritual passage.

More religious groups might inscribe prayers and blessings, or even whole sermons. Letters and borders to put any illuminated manuscript to shame.

Warrior cultures seeing their vehicles repaired to good as new, then painting jagged, whirling stripes where the damage used to be, so the machine can wear it's scars with pride like the rest of them.

Names of victorious campaigns and notable kills as a roll of honour on the hatches. Medals painted on the inside because Machine Spirits need to be acknowledged for valour and endurance too.

Crews spending time in transit between campaigns working alongside the Enginseers to polish out scratches and dents, reapply paint and add fresh pictures.

Crew members writing hopes and wishes in cracks and crevices, knowing that the machine will carry them long after they die.

Old vehicles that are as much art and history in motion as they are a weapon of war. They are tended to like sacred warbeasts of old, predators anointed with the works of a myriad hands and lulled to restful sleep with stories and traditions even as they praise it's courage and ferocity with lines of bright colour.

[socialpoison]

Okay I keep going back to this idea but:

Anime world with giant monsters and what protects people from them are these giant mecha, each housing an AI.

Each AI is sort of unique, not because they're designed to be, but because to pilot it, one has to interface with the AI through a neural link, and whenever they do so, a bit of the pilot's memory, skill, experiences, and emotions, are retained by the AI causing it to acquire new knowledge.

The best and most skilled AIs are actually the oldest ones who've had many pilots and have the most developed skillsets and instincts, but the more developed the AI is, the more tricky it is to find someone who's compatible to neural link with it, since the AI has its own mind and emotions that people need to be able to vibe with to pilot, oftentimes looking for hard to predict and nearly invisible traits, such as drive to protect others, ambitions of self-mastery. Some wrathful ones can only be piloted by others similarly stricken with grief or rage, and never part with their pilots until death. Until they find a compatible pilot they slumber.

[piefraction]

I do personally semi-believe in machine spirits ie magical creatures and souls that inhabit things between factory assemblers to laptops and whatnot. Most of the ones i’ve encounter within pc’s have been rather uncooperative sadly.