In his 1984 study Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life—published shortly before the first edition of WH40K—philosopher Albert Borgmann provided an analysis of modern technology centered on the dichotomy between things and devices. For Borgmann, a device is an object that provides a commodity (energy, information, entertainment, etc.) while making the mechanism of that provision invisible. Cell phones and streaming services, for instance, are ideal Borgmannian devices. Devices make specific commodities widely and easily available, yet they keep our engagement with the world and each other shallow and superficial.
By contrast, for Borgmann a thing is an object embedded in culture, inviting its user into deeper physical connections and requiring skill to understand and operate. Because modern life is exemplified by the replacement of things with devices, Borgmann calls for a reemphasis on things as a way to maintain the connections and focal practices that make life meaningful in the midst of technology. However, Borgmann’s analysis becomes vague in his attempts to highlight specific things that resist the device paradigm.
This paper offers WH40K minis as an ideal Borgmannian thing. Minis represent a product of modern technology that meets and even (I argue) extends Borgmann’s definition of things and focal practices. By putting construction and painting in the hands of hobbyists, minis engage users in the full detail of their physicality, a complexity Borgmann refers to as a thing’s depth. In addition, minis extend Borgmann’s concept of things in at least two dimensions: engagement with minis as objects is also engagement with a rich imaginary construct (the WH40K universe); and minis provide the focal practice of a unique, complex, and social gaming experience. This analysis articulates what fans already feel: that physicality, detail, and complexity are not extras but essential to the WH40K experience.
Author bio
Stephen Case is a historian of science and technology. He is the author of Making Stars Physical (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to John Herschel (Cambridge University Press, 2024). His work has appeared in Physics Today, Asimov’s, Aeon, Pour la Science, and American Scientist.
