Calcified Technology
Throughout the Imperium, science has stopped. All technological knowledge is controlled by the Adeptus Mechanicus, a religious order that treats technology as a form of magic and deems scientific thinking heretical.
Mechanicus "tech-priests" build and maintain almost all of the Imperium's advanced technology, but they understand little of its workings and oppose any attempts to study and improve upon it. They blindly follow ancient instruction manuals: these designs are not considered the product of human inventiveness, but revelations of a being known as "the Machine God" or "the Omnissiah". The Mechanicus believes that in pre-Imperium days, the Machine God gifted humanity with all the knowledge there is to know; whether or not the Machine God is the Emperor is glossed over. They also believe that every machine is inhabited by a "machine spirit" that must be appeased through proper rites, or else the device will malfunction. These rites are as likely to involve incense and prayer as they are to involve lubricants, cogitator (computer) repairs, or pressing buttons.
The Mechanicus refuses to innovate on the set designs, viewing mortal modifications as sacrilegious. It considers only ancient, forgotten knowledge to be pure, and regularly sends archaeologists on expeditions for ancient blueprints – such rare discoveries are the only occasions when Imperial technology may progress. The Imperium's most powerful machines and ships are often ancient devices which the tech-priests do not know how to replicate, only maintain. Alien technology is viewed as corrupt, and the Mechanicus refuses to reverse-engineer and redistribute captured devices, even when such technology outclasses the Imperium's.
As a result of these superstitions, Imperial technology has progressed very little since the Great Crusade. Knowledge proliferates so slowly that many Imperial worlds remain primitive, and some are in fact regressing.
Read more about this topic: Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power ... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)