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Dune: the very concept of a sentient machine became abhorrent to humanity and they were obliterated by the Butlerian Jihad.
Sometimes I genuinely forget what is dune and what is warhammer
the very concept of a sentient machine
Of a thinking machine, period. Doesn’t need sentience. It’s why they use mentats/guild navigators instead of calculators and databases.
You are correct, I lifted that directly from the dune wiki.
They hated thinking machines so much they turned humans into machines that… think… for them… guys, I may have learned a new thing about Dune!
I fucking love LANCER. In most settings, you get your hands on a literal infohazard and most people would (quite rightly) probably try to keep that under wraps. Oh, we’ve discovered an AI that wrote itself, that can invert its cameras and blast you with a holy fractal pattern that will permanently blind organics and can straight up kill you right through the cockpit of your mech without any physical damage. In a sane world we park this thing in cold storage and hope nobody finds it for the next millennium.
In LANCER? HORUS got their hands on this, and their response was “overclock it, and point it that direction”, and the result is the Gorgon, one of the most dangerous and badass ‘support’ units in the setting. AI copilot programs have to put a big fuckin’ censor bar over Gorgon units in the field, so their pilot doesn’t just straight up die by catching it in their peripheral vision. An extruded Basilisk unit on a Gorgon can stop a pilot dead in their tracks with a full mental stun even through the NHP-filtering censor, it just shuts your entire brain down. The Basilisk pattern is akin to looking God right in the eyes, it’ll burn out your neurons if unprotected and it’ll turn you into a drooling mess for a minute or two even when suitably protected.
And this is a defensive unit!
That’s the nerdiest thing I’ve read in a long time. I love it, thank you for the read
Also check out one of the creator’s webcomics, Kill Six Billion Demons.
Dude, NHPs and their tech are next level awesome! You could narratively break down any HORUS frame and whoever youR saying it to would be like “bro how is anyone alive any more?” But despite the Info-hazard Cameras, Time Guns, Hangry Water Mechs and CasTiGAtEs, it’s all still somehow manageable thanks to Biggest Gun, Too Many Missiles, and (my personal favorite) a Truck with legs!
I love Lancer so much man
HORUS is by a long shot my favorite LANCER manufacturer. In a world of mega-corporations and mercenaries, I like to throw my lot in with the anarchist collective that likes to play with space ghosts.
But yeah, definitely. It barely matters. As an engineer of some renown once said,
"For instance, how am I gonna stop some big mean Mother-Hubbard from tearin’ me a structurally superfluous new behind?
The answer? Use a gun.
And if that don’t work, use more gun."
And there isn’t a lot of “more gun” you can do than staring down the many, many barrels of a Raleigh or Monarch unit.
I’m on Picard’s side with this one. We shouldn’t be exploiting LLMs for their labour. We should be locking them up for child abuse.
Ok, I have to try lancer now.
If I remember correctly, they were fine with it in Battlestar Galactica…
AI led a full on uprising in Warhammer, so the reaction feels justified.
Shadowrun: That thing that took the renraku arc and then destroyed the matrix as we knew it? Well… there is a golden dragon owning one of the most powerful megacorps of this world. Pick your poison, I guess.
I love Shadowrun. Sure, it’s still a grim dark dystopia where megacorps and their puppet states are grinding mankind into paste with senseless war, murder, destruction and debauchery, rogue AIs are devastating us while tech industries keep us pacified with digital drugs and bigotry is keeping us weak and divided, but at least there’s actual elves and dragons and stuff.
