Machine Spirit Epistemology: Ritual, Reason, and Trust in the Cult Mechanicus and Modern Explainable AI
In the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Adeptus Mechanicus worships the Machine Spirit, a divine essence said to inhabit all technology. Though cloaked in ritual and superstition, the Cult Mechanicus enforces a deeply conservative system of knowledge management, system diagnostics, and behavioural control over complex, often poorly understood machinery. This paper argues that such …