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Alright so as a relatively newbie to 40k I have tried to find out what those tech-skulls are in all the pictures, I even got 4 of them with my Devastator squad but I have no clue what they are or what they do. I have no doubt if I could figure out what they are called it would help but at the moment I'm having some problems with that. I have some ideas based on some looking but again, not really sure.

So any help with this would be appreciated. I'm certain this has been discussed before and I appreciate those of you who answer the question even if it's something you've done before. The search function is my friend but I need to have a real good idea as to what I'm searching for for it to help me.

thanks.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Servo_skull

They're basically a kind of 'honor' granted to great Imperial Servants, so that they may continue to serve the Emperor even in death. They're basically used like flying PDAs, and do lots of menial tasks, some recon, message carrying, etc. etc.

Think of it as kinda like getting turned into a dreadnought, except instead of being a kick ass walking tank, you're a flying skull.

Oh awesome, thank you. So then if I mounted one onto a small auto gun emplacement I custom built then that would be something normal for a Servo-Skull to do because it could act as the eyes for the gun and it's possible that before the humans demise perhaps he was a tech marine who operated the bolter on a Rhino or something.

I don't think it's an honour as such, I recall servitors tend to be criminals and traitors turned into something useful, servo skulls are the next step down (or maybe up) from being a lobotimised servitor; they have no will of their own.
Don't see why a servo skull couldn't be left to operate an auto gun emplacement though, sort of an AI system.

cadbren wrote:I don't think it's an honour as such, I recall servitors tend to be criminals and traitors turned into something useful, servo skulls are the next step down (or maybe up) from being a lobotimised servitor; they have no will of their own.
Don't see why a servo skull couldn't be left to operate an auto gun emplacement though, sort of an AI system.

I'm certain a fully trained Astarte has better things to do for sure. And thanks for the additional info on the difference between the Servitors and the Servo-Skulls

Lexicanum wrote:Servo-skulls are drone-like devices fashioned from human skulls - often those of pious Imperial servants, low ranking tech-adepts, or loyal adepts of the Adeptus Terra - and then given a rudimentary Machine spirit, support systems, and anti-gravity engine to allow them to hover and drift bodiless through the air. Presumably this chance to continue their work even after death is a great honour in the Imperium.

I'd think it's a step up from a servitor, as a servitor is a punishment, your mind is wiped and you're put into hard labor. Servo skulls are only made after the person in question is dead, and the honor comes from being allowed to serve after your official death, kind of like a Space Marine being placed in a dreadnought.

cadbren wrote: sort of an AI system.

not in the IoM would it be, AI is banned

BluntmanDC wrote:

cadbren wrote: sort of an AI system.

not in the IoM would it be, AI is banned

They have a semi-AI which i lke to cal a DAFAI (Dumb as Artificial intelligence)
They can do things on their own but they can't do anything else apart from what thir main task is e.g. shooting at people or lifting boxes.

yer i should have put that, the servo skull can perform defencive tasks but only under its programming, it can't think for itself

The so called machine spirit that keeps getting mentioned is a form of AI in my opinion. Maybe not as advanced as the AIs that ran amok during the Dark Age of Technology, but still thinking machines.

Shhhh! The imperium doesn't know that!

cadbren wrote:The so called machine spirit that keeps getting mentioned is a form of AI in my opinion. Maybe not as advanced as the AIs that ran amok during the Dark Age of Technology, but still thinking machines.

It pretty much is.

From my understanding it is just a computer packed into a skull and intended for a specific task and that task only.

Computers in 40k are complex.
You have the traditional data terminal thing which gets typed on and isplays info lke a computer these days.
Then in other sci-fi settings you have the AI except in 40k you don't. In 40k you have the machine spirit which frm most accounts seems to be present in most things as some kind of basic low level AI though not AI as it can't learn and can only do what it has been told what/how to .
E.g. Rynns Might destroyed an ork warband during the invasion of Rynns world without it's crew. This seems to suggest that Machine Spirits become more and more complex the more elaborate the vehicle/thingy is.
In essence all the crazy talk the AdMech do seems to be rooted in some form of truth but is bureid so far under religious dogma and superstition than it is unlikely it will ever be known again.

And that explains why the machine spirit is an AI. But because of all the layers of gobbledygook that is there is meant to hide that fact, however I am almost certain that the masters of the Adeptus Mechanius know the truth but choose to hide it much as the Clergy hide the truth from their masses during the real dark ages so as to prevent another civil war, and this time one free from the corruption of chaos.

Hmm. Is there a brain in there or what?


(In the servo skull?)

Fafnir wrote:Shhhh! The imperium doesn't know that!

In short story Mechanicum in Collected Visions,Adeptus Mechanicus createes an AI on Mars for Horus and also we have Khamrians of which some have created intelligent robotic servants.

Fafnir wrote:Shhhh! The imperium doesn't know that!

Quiet, you fool, the Inquisition will hear y- what was that?

Oh no, they've found me!

ChrisWWII wrote:They're basically a kind of 'honor' granted to great Imperial Servants, so that they may continue to serve the Emperor even in death. They're basically used like flying PDAs, and do lots of menial tasks, some recon, message carrying, etc. etc.

Think of it as kinda like getting turned into a dreadnought, except instead of being a kick ass walking tank, you're a flying skull.

i lol'd

115th Cadian Shock Troops wrote:

ChrisWWII wrote:They're basically a kind of 'honor' granted to great Imperial Servants, so that they may continue to serve the Emperor even in death. They're basically used like flying PDAs, and do lots of menial tasks, some recon, message carrying, etc. etc.

Think of it as kinda like getting turned into a dreadnought, except instead of being a kick ass walking tank, you're a flying skull.

i lol'd

It's not like dreadnought as none of your bodyparts are inside it,in short the skull is a cogitator.

The theory behind it is roughly the same, a great servant of the Imperium is allowed to serve on longer as a servo skull, and a great Space Marine will serve longer as a dreadnaught.

Now, yes the Dreadnought actually preserves your conciousness to some extent while the servo skull preserves none of it, but the basic basic theory behind the two is the same.

They are closer to servitors. While servitor's brains (along with added mechanical parts) becomes like a computer with the control of a servitor being it's job, a servo skull uses its computer to moniter / transmit.

Basicaly the IoM use wiped and rebuilt human brains as Basic AI like other sci fi races would use AI drones.

It gets around the fact the Admech have a phobia of AI and it lets psykers control them easily.

GalacticDefender wrote:Hmm. Is there a brain in there or what?


(In the servo skull?)

No just a computer is in all of them and in some cases you will find a hover system, and on other occasion repair tools or some type of small weapon.
There is no essence of the person in a servo-skull it's all gone, simply there polished dome is being honored for use, again, unlike in a dreadnought where the consciousness and the essence of the person is very much still there.