This talk is a diachronic analysis of the Mechanicus. We will examine recent and historical cultural attitudes relevant to the Adeptus Mechanicus, in accordance with our practice of using Warhammer 40k itself as a framework to explore critical theory and historical concepts, rather than exploring Warhammer 40k through these frameworks, a reversal of the lens generally employed by critical theorists. The Mechanicus is a palimpsest insofar as it has been relatively often rebuilt throughout the history of the game, both visually and ideologically. It serves as a tablet upon which the authors and artists from Games Workshop and Black Library inscribe their views and understanding of topics such as transhumanism. Only relatively recently has the Mechanicus truly calcified to represent backwardness and orthodoxy, with early iterations demonstrating a nearly Baconian empiricism. This modern face and others more distant in time benefit from examples drawn from Adorno and Horkheimer, particularly Dialectic of Enlightenment. Concepts regarding rationalism and empiricism, as well as other Enlightenment-era political, theological, and scientific frameworks can also be found therein. We will examine “Mechanicus as Myth” per Barthes, as well as explore the historical view of dogma now presently ascribed to the faction.
Modern times require us to discuss the Abominable Intelligence in detail, and to investigate contemporary attitudes regarding artificial intelligence through the lens of the Mechanicus. Some specific topics of interest include transhumanism, cybernetics and cyberfeminism, the visual aesthetic of science, the practices of anachronisms as a visual mechanism to communicate with laypeople, critiques of method by Kuhn and Feyerabend, and especially contributions of the contemporaneous Haraway.
Author bios
Sarah Keenan is currently completing post-baccalaureate work in pre-health at the University of Colorado Boulder. She previously completed a BA in English at the University of Florida with a focus in film studies and art history. Her undergraduate thesis explored mathematical ideas in the work of experimental filmmaker Hollis Frampton.
Alexander Krieg is working on a mathematics degree at CU Boulder. He has a strong interest in the humanities and enjoys Warhammer fiction as a way of exploring concepts in these fields.
