Technology stagnancy in the 41st millenium

>religion
Causing Dark Ages since way back

What if there's a point where technological advances become impossible without resorting to abominable intelligence or Tyranid's style evolution?

This is the correct answer. There are things that can be called machine spirits, but most things do not have a machine spirit and they're superstitions that keep you into actually keeping your shit in shape.

if there is, the imperium isn't anywhere close to it, considering how badly they're outperformed by eldar, dark eldar, and tau.

and considering the eldar are nowhere close to their might during the eldar empire, and the tau are special snowflakes who will just keep getting better...

There's technological advances, but they are rare and the Admech punish you for innovating instead of scavenging. Databases are hopeless corrupt, full of bugs, and ancient programs that they don't understand.

On the other hand, toys from the Dark Age of Technology are incredibly dangerous. Imagine the Romans getting their hands on a badly maintained, ancient nuclear reactor and start pushing buttons.

Sort of.

In 40k Technology causes shit like the Men of Iron rebellion or the Fucking Eye of Terror. It wont be long before the Tau have deamons grabbing onto their ears and riding them like horses.

Due to (relative to Roman times) high wages and the proliferation of iron throughout the intervening millennia, technology ramped up again in The High Middle Ages which saw the introduction of cranks and wheelbarrows, European copies and improvements upon the mechanical clock, Arabian-style windmills, and the re-introduction of the old three-crop rotation system; the medieval world changed a fair bit in its time, not least because the population of Europe nearly returned to the level it had been in Roman times until the decades before the Black Death, which were marked by population stagnation. Even the so-called "Dark Ages" were just a western European phenomenon. In the Eastern Roman Empire, the Arab world, the Indian subcontinent, and the Chinese realms were, though constantly in flux—with major fluctuations in population and general prosperity levels due to the wars and chaos accompanying the rise and fall of several different empires—largely as militarily and culturally sophisticated as ever, their empires having done much better to resist the encroachment of the peoples of the Steppes (Mongol-led Empire of the Yuan aside). The idea of a medieval decline is a trope in itself, which has been around since the Renaissance.

Many forms of media focus on historical inventions because it seems logical that scientific advancement and inventions result in economic growth. As far as they are concerned, this is the story of human development—Science resulting in Modernity. Actually, the opposite is true; necessity dictates the adoption, or not, of technologies with practical applications. This fact of history is why engineers, historians, and economists alike laugh at the idea that Archimedes alone could have started the Industrial Revolution two millennia early. The Roman Empire, the Empire of the Song, and the Mughal Empire were all pretty damn big and culturally sophisticated, but their populations didn't craft precision optics or found joint-stock companies or use square-rigged sails because there was no reason for their peoples to use those things. In other words, necessity is the true mother of invention.

Technically, they're holding it back. Much like the monks who preserved as much ancient literature as they could, the Tech Magi are desperately copying and preserving everything they can, and very carefully parsing what's safe to produce and what's not because the last time someone opened a tech vault all willy-nilly, it released the Scrap Code which tore Mars apart and decimated the AdMech's archives.

Without knowing how things work, or even without knowing just how an STC pattern is going to come out, you might manufacture a personal hazard that's going to lose you a hand, or a world-ending catastrophe the likes of which would be just as fitting for Eclipse Phase.

Actual technological advancement does happen, but it's a long, arduous process, and it's often outperformed by the kinds of things you find patterns for, since Dark Age humanity kind of perfected these efficient designs with the STC.

Although they do sometimes produce workable stuff. The Red Scorpions built themselves a custom Razorback pattern to break a siege, and when turned over the the Adeptus Mechanicus, it proved to be so thorough and elegant a design that they slated it for manufacture and distributed its plans to other Chapters.

>we don't know how this works
>AI/computers are banned
>Claim it is a spirit
>Avoid heresy

Homo Erectus adopted the technology of fire not because Prometheus told him to invent technological wonders to rival God; it's simply because fire defended humans against nocturnal predators, and also made food easier to digest, parasite-free and safer to eat, thus more families and less roundworms. Desert civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt invented farming because hunting-gathering in a desert will just kill you, square-rigged sails became popular because of inter-continental trade that involved loads of down-wind sailing (using the so-called 'trade winds') rather than the usual cross-winds, and Renaissance Europe and the Soviet Union had to be forced into a Lensman Arms Race as their incentive for invention (if there was no Colonial Era/Cold War to force a Lensman Arms Race, the sheer amount of anti-intellectualism in the Inquisition-era/Communist Countries would have forced them back into a famine-ridden dark ages)—arguably the only major (material) difference between Europe in 1500 and Europe in 1800 was the presence of the million-plus muskets. Then again, for us modern humans, inventing nature-controlling technology for the sheer pleasure of it may count as a necessity too.

Scientific progress, moreover, was 'very' slow-paced from c.1400 to about c.1800 (even at which time the use of the so-called 'Scientific Method' was still far from universally accepted) and had no practical applications beyond navigation, time-keeping, and of course war—most European people, even in the more advanced parts of Europe like the Dutch Republic, were dirt poor and died young just like their compatriots in Colonial America, Bengal, the Sudan, Java, and Guangdong. The nature of most changes that occurred in that period concerned weaponry, the deployment of weaponry, and institutions for making and using and acquiring the money to make and use weapons—it was only with the advent of the industrial revolution that people started becoming better-fed, living a bit longer and dying less. Indeed, it was only in 1865 that London completed its public water- and sewer-works; the first of its kind in the world, it was decried by the scientific community as a shameful example of governmental spinelessness in caving in to the demands of the so-called 'sanitarian' pseudo-scientific movement, which was making wild and unsubstantiated claims that the use of soap and general cleanliness would reduce the incidence of disease.

Hey girl I got somethin' real important to give you
So just sit down and listen
Girl you know we've been fighting such a long long time (such a long time)
And now I'm ready to lay it on the line
(Wooow) You know it's Commorragh and my heart is open wide
Gonna give you something so you know what's on my mind
A gift real special, so take off the top
Take a look inside -- it's a black hole in a box

(Why do you need technological progress when you can put a mother fucking black hole in a box?)

Continual technological progress has never been inevitable in human history, even though modern capitalism makes it feel inevitable in developed countries today. Different societies adopt and phase out 'technologies' according to their needs for survival/pleasure/social status. Even if something's a cultural-legal tabboo, if using something better suits a society's needs (e.g. accepting the wealth of non-noble merchants, radios in North Korea) it'll be done anyway and will almost inevitably become acceptable in time. Many peoples never invented writing, ceramics, wheeled vehicles, and some not even agriculture. Cultural anthropologists and archaeologists don't have one universal answer for why this is—reasons can include lack of necessary resources (minerals, animals, plants, population, climate, energy, etc.), cultural aversion to a particular technology, or (and this is the biggest one) just plain not needing to adopt something new. Many a method and/or tool ('technology') has been abandoned when others are more profitable and/or convenient, such as the gradual abandonment of firewood in England in favour of coal note While all human cultures continually adapt the technology they already have to environmental and social changes—and thus true stasis never happens—people don't tinker with, much less adopt, entirely new technologies without significant economic, military, social, or other incentives making it a good idea for at least some of them to do so. Anthropologists are just as interested in figuring out why various technologies were invented at all, as in why some societies didn't invent or adopt them until others had a marked competitive advantage.

the dark eldar are fucking great.

So... you want us to proof read this essay before you submit it for your class?

Nah user, remember that Tau souls are nearly invisible to Daemons, as well as not having true warp travel.

>History essay without citations

he'd get a 0/10 see me after class

Tzeentch is about personal ambition, not cooperation.

>Ethereal
Nope deamons love to rape them
>Watercast
Nope Daemons love to rape them
>AI in their battle suites
Nope Chaos loves to taint it.

Because Dark Age stuff have guns that shoot Black Holes.

Like the Knight Atrapos' Vortex Cannon that can cause black holes.

>Nope deamons love to rape them

Daemons find it hard to rape or possess them. Or even see them.

>Nope Chaos loves to taint it.

Only powerful and unique daemons can taint machinary willy nilly,

>Nope Daemons love to rape them

You cannot rape something you cannot see.

Shooting a black hole is one thing, but putting it back in the box after is another.

Does your Wraithknight's Suncannon blow shit the fuck up? Yeah probably. Does it literally hang two captured suns in the sky to heat your world and (major spoiler for the Path series) melt your fucking enemies as a focused beam of pure FUCK YOU?

Forgot my picture.

Why would I ever write this myself?

During one of the Commander memesight books the Tau opened a Chaos portal on Arthas Moloch all of the daemons that came pouring out were drawn to the ethereal cast. Coincidentally this resulted in the farsight enclaves. They are already being played.

Actually, the Ethereals put themselves in danger by insisting to accompany the Tau forces against this new alien threat.

Why did they do that i wonder and far sight running around with that Warp tainted blade of his. Fucking Maleficarum. This is how corruption begins.

Technological decline is a plot point in 40k. The setting breaks if the Mechanicus understands the Golden Throne, so knowledge, as a whole, must shrinking.
The justification of this is that the engineers joined Chaos and the engineering technicians banned new designs. Masters of the Forge or radical tech priests regularly and easily make small improvements, but they almost never share them. When an STC fragment is discovered, the techpriests don't understand the design, so they are no closer to understanding the Golden Throne. While there are many examples of new designs getting approved and widely distributed, these are counteracted by designs made unusable due to unavailable resources.

Because the Ethereals presence help them in the fight against daemons. The Tau get headaches when daemons are around. Ethereals banish these headaches away and make the Tau focus.

And about the sword? Farsight's Inquisition allies are helping him out with it.

>headaches

It's possible they just singled out the leadership. It's also possible the Tau have their own sort of WAAAGH! field that gives the Ethereals control over the Tau. Of course, the Tau have a habit of slipping into rage and barbarism when they don't have Ethereals to sort them out, but if their Ethereal is killed they become sullen and then go berserk. Whatever it is that the Ethereals do, it's odd.

Farsight seems to have stumbled on a societal structure that works without the Ethereals, the Tau within the Enclaves living fine while Farsight goes wandering the desert for years.

That blade of his actually bears a number of similarities to one of the Blades of Vaul, the Eldar god. Considering the way they described Arthas Moloch, the statue that held it seems to fit the description of a Wraithlord. Even the name, Dawnblade, is reminiscent of Vaul's blades.

Plus the thing's never whispered to him, and so far has only ever extended his lifespan while also being good at cutting things. Even other Tau get "static" feelings in their head when the warp tries to communicate with them. Whatever Farisght's Dawnblade is, it appears much more benign in nature than an insidious warp blade, or is uncharacteristically quiet and passive for a warp-fucked weapon.

And that'd make him even more of a mary sue. An alien that gets to run around with a Daemon blade and suffer no consequences? Even that Grey Knight has to out-willpower that Daemon sword he holds.

>And that'd make him even more of a mary sue. An alien that gets to run around with a Daemon blade and suffer no consequences?

There is consequences. Drawing the blade made him the central part of prophecy that could see him transform into an abomination known as the "Mont'shaar" aka "The Terror that Burns dark"

>It's also possible the Tau have their own sort of WAAAGH! field that gives the Ethereals control over the Tau.
they do.
ethereals use pheromones to control the tau.

has that actually been confirmed?

In one of the FFG books (Jericho Reach), a Tau commander on the other side of the world felt the Ethereals die.

It cannot be pheromones.

I've always found this answer unsatisfying because how can an entire planet go sullen instantly. Even just hearing about it over radio? Do all their helmets have artificial pheromone producers to keep them complacent, or programmed behavior?

It seems impractical at best and bizarre that it functions even in the many adverse circumstances we find this behavior exhibited in.

Apparently theorized in the xenobiology book and from Imperial sources in the Tau Codices, but the xenobiology book was riddled with errors and contradictions and it's never been confirmed, only proposed as theory.

But have you considered quantum entangled pheromones

>Implying that the Tau arent being babysityed by some mysterious benefactor.

Just as planned.

>how the fuck has tech not changed for anyone but the tau in the last 10,000 years?
a large portion of the space marine arsenal is new tech

or was new tech, until forgeworld started scrambling around for weapon options to add into their 30k books

That's a reach. Consider for a second you are an inquisitor (not a corrupt shit one) how would you view the evidence piling up?

>That's a reach

You don't say.

What if the Ethereals are vessel or avatars and not real independent individuals?

They seem to have their own identity and personal politics, even going so far as to have heated debates and disagreements with each other.

Aun'Shi himself is an example of an Ethereal who's perpetually too old for this shit, but is drawn from the edge of retirement again and again to be plunged into some new fresh hell because he's a relatable figurehead and a legend that inspires a whole lot of loyalty in all who he fights alongside. Guy just wants to retire on a quiet planet and live out his life in peace.