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When an STC is found and distributed to worlds to create 2 things surely some smart person would oh i don't know write down the schematics and hmm spread the information to other worlds and they too could record the schematics? this way when an STC is lost NOT A PROBLEM we wrote it down and during the process of reading the schematics we (woops) learned a lot about engineering forgive me for innovating sire but after reading all these schematics i have come to know A LOT about engineering and could probably create a fkin death star if i wanted to.

How does this make sense? could someone clear this up because by uncovering stc's you also answer a million questions about engineering and other feats.

useally when they talk about STC fragments that's what they're talking about.

as for how it could get lost... it's not too hard.. I just wiped out the factory that created your cell phone, the scientests behind it are dead, and the infastructure is gone...

you still have your cell phone, can you build more for me? a lot of the advanced knowledge in a human society tends to be somewhat in the hands of specialists. lose those specialists and you can lose the knowledge

an STC isnt like a physical blue print. its like a computer module and trying to copy all of that is beyond the means of most 40k engineers.

edit: (IIRC honestly cant remember sources)

How to contain innovation? Lots and lots of religious dogma enforced by an organisation that takes the phrase "knowledge is power guard it well" very seriously.

Don't they shoot people who do what you suggested?

 Dwarfmorf101 wrote:
Don't they shoot people who do what you suggested?

Indeed. Fear is a great motivator. The Inquisition, the Echlisiarcy, the Mechanicus. These aren't organisations to be trifled with. When for example the Mechanicus believe technology to be divine, they aren't likely to take well to some clever spark altering designs or taking crib notes. These people are persecuted and come to very sticky ends.

I mean who wants to end up as a Servitor for the sake of trying to redesign part of an engine. The religious dogma is such that your design would never be used (it's heresy) and the consequences for your infractions are far too dire. Better to shut up and get on with doing everything how the ommnisiah intended.

The Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus hold as their dogma that the STC system is the epitome of technology (or more precisely all human technology). Anything worth knowing is supposedly already in the STC system. Whether or not this is true doesn't matter, but it is what they believe. Alien technology is dismissed as being unclean, corrupt, or perversions of the "true" way of the Machine God and the Omnissiah.

Sound ridiculous? No more so than other times in history that technical developments have been dismissed on ideological grounds. This has occurred as recently as in WWII when Germany attempted to dismiss parts of physics as "Jewish science" unsuitable for their nation.

The Imperium's attitude toward technology mirrors that of the Dark Ages and Middle Ages, in looking back to a past perceived Golden Age. Even though there had been technological developments since that time, the ideology again was that the ancients had discovered everything worth knowing and therefore recovering what they knew was what tech development was about, not original research. Similarly in the Imperium, even though there may be original research, due to the dogma, it has to still be couched in terms of "rediscovering what the ancients knew", as to claim to have discovered something the ancients had not is perceived as hubris.

The other factor to consider is what enabled the STC system in the first place: a rationalistic humanity that presumably was at least somewhat transparent in sharing knowledge. Being able to advance technology, especially high technology, is dependent upon having a lot of infrastructure and trained educated people. Simple technology like the wheel might be easy to reinvent if lost, but higher technology may require infrastructure and personnel that the Imperium in its current knowledge hoarding state cannot achieve. A person might reinvent the wheel at home, but to reinvent a computer from scratch? Not only do you require the actual knowledge relating to computers, you need also the production facilities to produce the components. Wait, those production facilities require building and maintenance too, so you need the engineers and architects and other people necessary to make the production facility. And so on... For the super high technology that the Adeptus Mechanicus salivates over, the infrastructure requirements may just not be there. It also explains why some societies in 40K can regress so far. If enough infrastructure is destroyed, and your physicists are having to farm to feed themselves (or any other struggle for survival), they may very well die without passing on their knowledge.

The scientific mindset seems to have died or become corrupted by the 40K era. Even those that dream of progress, like the Dark Heresy RPG group the Logicians, are more like wild eyed mad scientist tropes conducting "experiments" of dubious scientific value rather than real research with peer review and sharing of information. In the 40K universe, the 21st century viewpoint would be viewed as full of hubris (for daring to aspire to be more than the ancients), impious (for not honoring machine spirits), and dangerous (for sharing knowledge and technology with the common people rather than keeping it in the hands of those that know better).

The lone bright person in a remote village might get away with tinkering with their tractor engine. Nobody might care enough to check in on that village. The Imperium sometimes doesn't check in on worlds for years even centuries. However any lone tinkerer or inventor would not have enough resources or time to be able to reverse engineer and build something really advanced.

I just don't understand why they don't slap a land speeder system on a bike, poof! There's a Jetbike!!! What about stuff like Titans? Make a reaver Titan bigger, and have it carry more guns!!! Poof! Emperor class Titan! I just don't understand the nothingness of it.

lliu wrote:
I just don't understand why they don't slap a land speeder system on a bike, poof! There's a Jetbike!!! What about stuff like Titans? Make a reaver Titan bigger, and have it carry more guns!!! Poof! Emperor class Titan! I just don't understand the nothingness of it.

Compact anti-grav technology is little understood high technology for the Imperium. We also don't know the power requirements for such a system or whether the Land Speeder is the smallest chassis the Imperium can make that can support these requirements.

An Emperor class Titan uses a high output plasma reactor (more output than a Reaver) to power its bigger weapons and more numerous void shield generators. Again building compact yet high performance things is what the Adeptus Mechanicus struggles with. They can do big high output things like big starship reactors, or giving artificial gravity on a starship. Trying to squeeze things down in size without impacting performance isn't that easy. Even the Tau have only gotten to around speeder size in terms of anti-grav vehicles.

lliu wrote:
I just don't understand why they don't slap a land speeder system on a bike, poof! There's a Jetbike!!! What about stuff like Titans? Make a reaver Titan bigger, and have it carry more guns!!! Poof! Emperor class Titan! I just don't understand the nothingness of it.

Because its heresy. Thats why.
Clearer answer: Nobody knows how to do that anymore, so its heresy.

Also: The Titans are Godmachines. They are quite perfect by definition. Do not tamper with perfection.

Because a bike the width of a landspeeder is too wide for anyone, even a Space Marine, to sit on. You can't just cut the grav-plate that keeps a Landspeeder in the air in half and stick it on the front and rear rails of a motorcycle and expect it to work.

 Psienesis wrote:
Because a bike the width of a landspeeder is too wide for anyone, even a Space Marine, to sit on. You can't just cut the grav-plate that keeps a Landspeeder in the air in half and stick it on the front and rear rails of a motorcycle and expect it to work.

Well, they don't have to make the seat the same width as the bike.

The other factor to consider is what enabled the STC system in the first place: a rationalistic humanity that presumably was at least somewhat transparent in sharing knowledge. Being able to advance technology, especially high technology, is dependent upon having a lot of infrastructure and trained educated people. Simple technology like the wheel might be easy to reinvent if lost, but higher technology may require infrastructure and personnel that the Imperium in its current knowledge hoarding state cannot achieve. A person might reinvent the wheel at home, but to reinvent a computer from scratch? Not only do you require the actual knowledge relating to computers, you need also the production facilities to produce the components. Wait, those production facilities require building and maintenance too, so you need the engineers and architects and other people necessary to make the production facility. And so on... For the super high technology that the Adeptus Mechanicus salivates over, the infrastructure requirements may just not be there. It also explains why some societies in 40K can regress so far. If enough infrastructure is destroyed, and your physicists are having to farm to feed themselves (or any other struggle for survival), they may very well die without passing on their knowledge.

This.
Technology reaches a point fairly quickly where all aspects of the science required for even a fairly simple device does not fit in one person's head during a lifetime.

Getting to the cutting edge of M.3 science (today!) requires something like a decade of focussed study (undergraduate degree + postgraduate degree + doctorate) and will only cover a tiny, narrow facet of the science in question - which does not permit you to exploit said knowledge.

The age of strife plus the death of innocence cost the imperium millenia of technological development, and - not to put too fine a point on it - it can't afford the time or risk to redevelop it from scratch.

They have, for example, the STC to build the Mars-pattern Baneblade. En masse. They could spend decades taking apart the few remaining examples of the more sophisticated Fellblade to try and figure out how that works and they might be able to fill in the gaps and produce new ones. But whilst they're doing that:

a) the magi in question aren't producing new tanks to replace the continuous losses in baneblades the Imperium suffers

b) the priceless relic-tank fellblade isn't busy killing the Emperor's enemies

c) The chapter you took it off is going to want it back, and there's a pretty good chance you won't be able to put it back together in working order - detailed reverse-engineering unknown equipment is a fairly destructive process.


Not to mention that it's really not safe. The Imperium did try, for example, reverse-engineering and developing an improved warp engine core. The moon Ganymede isn't there anymore as a result.



Also, there's a mind-set to it; the adeptus mechanicus guards tech very jealously because it doesn't like other people having access to technology; that's its big stranglehold on imperial politics. Unfortunately, it's been sufficiently successful that to cope with a new STC you kind of need to call them in to assist.


This doesn't mean innovation doesn't occur, but it's almost invariably "what happens if I bolt STC element A onto STC element B" - the answer to which is ususally "it works", because STC tech appears ridiculously 'plug-and-play', which is why umpty-ump variations on the predator and land raider and leman russ exist. True 'I wonder if' research is very rare, and tends to be done at the behest of the Inquisition (who are just as aware how dangerous innovation can be) - the Anphelion research programme (which developed the Hellfire round to fight tyranids) is a good example.

I just don't understand why they don't slap a land speeder system on a bike, poof! There's a Jetbike!!!

Because if you want to fit an engine capable of moving at a decent speed, control systems to avoid crashing, and a power source capable of powering the repulsors, and space to fit the repulsors in the first place, you have.....a land speeder. With one seat.

It's very simple: the machine god has told you the rules for working with technology, and they do not allow innovation or unauthorized copying. If you attempt to innovate you will be executed for heresy, your blasphemous works will be purged from the universe, and everyone you have ever spoken to will be mind-wiped and turned into servitors to ensure that your corruption is safely contained. If you even hint at thinking of questioning the infinite and perfect wisdom of the machine god you will be tortured to purify your mind and grant you the peace of knowing your place of submission before those who know better than you.

Inaphyt wrote:
When an STC is found and distributed to worlds to create 2 things surely some smart person would oh i don't know write down the schematics and hmm spread the information to other worlds and they too could record the schematics? this way when an STC is lost NOT A PROBLEM we wrote it down and during the process of reading the schematics we (woops) learned a lot about engineering forgive me for innovating sire but after reading all these schematics i have come to know A LOT about engineering and could probably create a fkin death star if i wanted to.

How does this make sense? could someone clear this up because by uncovering stc's you also answer a million questions about engineering and other feats.

This isn't a 5 page instruction manual that comes in your IKEA box, these are extremely complicated schematics built to be used a certain way.

On top of that, the Adpetus Mechanicus is insanely secular, secretive, and jealous. It doesn't matter if one forgeworld had a lasgun design that costs the same as the bog standard version but can shoot through a land raider at 500 meters, they would guard that secret to the grave rather than give up the prestige of having a special STC design to themselves.

How long dit it take to get the approvement for the Macharius heavy tank?
Centuries?
Well....Thats Mars for you.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:

Inaphyt wrote:
When an STC is found and distributed to worlds to create 2 things surely some smart person would oh i don't know write down the schematics and hmm spread the information to other worlds and they too could record the schematics? this way when an STC is lost NOT A PROBLEM we wrote it down and during the process of reading the schematics we (woops) learned a lot about engineering forgive me for innovating sire but after reading all these schematics i have come to know A LOT about engineering and could probably create a fkin death star if i wanted to.

How does this make sense? could someone clear this up because by uncovering stc's you also answer a million questions about engineering and other feats.

This isn't a 5 page instruction manual that comes in your IKEA box, these are extremely complicated schematics built to be used a certain way.

On top of that, the Adpetus Mechanicus is insanely secular, secretive, and jealous. It doesn't matter if one forgeworld had a lasgun design that costs the same as the bog standard version but can shoot through a land raider at 500 meters, they would guard that secret to the grave rather than give up the prestige of having a special STC design to themselves.

Just to amplify this a bit; an STC system is nothing like a blueprint. They can make blueprints, sure, but they are not in themselves blueprints, or containers for blueprints. They are intelligent systems, just a touch shy of artificial sentience, that accept input parameters such as "I want a lightly armoured personnel ground transport that can navigate rough terrain without using grav-lifters (because we don't have any of the rare mineral needed to make those) and it needs to be made of wood because our smelters broke. Oh and I need a wood fired smelter that's also made of wood." and then spit out a set (or two) of schematics that detail the exact construction process for the requested item from base raw materials.
Or that's how they worked 10-20 thousand years ago.
In the modern era of 40k and even in the Heresy era, STCs are ancient and, almost without exception, lost to the universe. Generally you might find a tattered and worn third- or fourth- generation hand-copied page excerpted from one of those sets of schematics that was dutifully translated into the local dialect of low gothic millennia ago.
If you're very, very, very lucky, no-one made any typos copying the numbers, nor did anyone "helpfully" mis-translate a word they didn't understand properly in the given context into one that made "sense" to the translator at the time but to exactly no-one else ever.

People can barely grasp what a century of entropy does to things and they want to know why someone can't just "copy" a document that's been subjected to 200 times as much…

 Ankhalagon wrote:
How long dit it take to get the approvement for the Macharius heavy tank?
Centuries?
Well....Thats Mars for you.

Wasn't there a similar situation with the Predator destructor? IIRC the Wolves did some field mods to replace the auto cannon with lascannons and the Mechanicus only approved it decades/centuries later because loads of other chapters had nicked the idea.

 Mr_Rose wrote:
People can barely grasp what a century of entropy does to things and they want to know why someone can't just "copy" a document that's been subjected to 200 times as much…

Yeah a bit like having a detailed schematic for a particle accelerator but its in latin and its been copied by hand by novice Jeb who cant change a fuse but can draw lovely pictures in the margins, when he's not distracted by shiny things. And that's just the first copy.

See dark ages.

Age of Technology.
Age of Strife(Data got corrupted/destroyed....).
Great Crusade(Some data could be reconstructed/found again/created.....).
Horus Heresy(Data got corrupted/destroyed......again.).
Age of the Imperium(A.k.a. Age of we found a warehouse full of....).
Also, print-outs are not that much usefull. An STC-waver much more. Because the data on it must impossible complex, like 3-dimensional, hololithic data. Including machinespirit-templates and something like that....

 Backspacehacker wrote:
See dark ages.

Yup. When the powers that be see innovation and initiative as heresy (i.e., a threat to power), they burn heretics at the stake, and kill their families. That's how you get 1000 years of stagnation. Carl Sagan claimed but for religious persecution, we could have put a man on the moon 1000 years ago. China stayed fairly primitive for more than a 2000 years, despite some technological progress, because disseminating technology was considered dangerous, or unnecessary. Not to mention over a 2000 years of internal disunity. Japan was just the opposite, highly unified in purpose. It maintained a feudal society in isolation for 600 years. Still fighting with swords and spears after the American Civil War. Sadly, fear and greed are also human nature.

 Gobbla wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
See dark ages.

Yup. When the powers that be see innovation and initiative as heresy (i.e., a threat to power), they burn heretics at the stake, and kill their families. That's how you get 1000 years of stagnation. Carl Sagan claimed but for religious persecution, we could have put a man on the moon 1000 years ago. China stayed fairly primitive for more than a 2000 years, despite some technological progress, because disseminating technology was considered dangerous, or unnecessary. Not to mention over a 2000 years of internal disunity. Japan was just the opposite, highly unified in purpose. It maintained a feudal society in isolation for 600 years. Still fighting with swords and spears after the American Civil War. Sadly, fear and greed are also human nature.

Actually, the lack of innovation in the Dark Ages had nothing at all with it being repressed by authorities (in fact, there existed no authorities capable of such a feat during that era, thanks to the decentralisation of power that comes with feudalism), but it was due to the fact that people did not have the free time and resources neccessary for innovation. Virtually all people in that time were subsistence farmers. Their entire life was focused on survival, they spend all their time on making sure they had enough food to pay taxes to the local lord, enough to sow next year and also have something left to eat. It was not until the rise of a merchant middle class in the late Middle Ages that innovation picked up again. Carl Sagan's opinion is as good as worthless in this regard. He was no historian and should have stuck to areas he was actually knowledgable in. It goes to show that even smart people can be totally slowed when they speak about things they have no knowledge of. Historically there has been little to no religious persecution of scientific progress, that is mostly just a myth. In fact, for most of history religion formed the driving force behind scientific progress. The Renaissance and Enlightenment were fundamentally religious movements that led to the formation of modern science as we know it today, And if monasteries had not preserved so much knowledge in their libraries during the Dark Ages, we would still be living in the iron age today.
Also, the lack of innovation in China and Japan (or anywhere else except Europe for that matter) is the result of the feudal or tribal societies of those nations. Again, innovation only tends to come when there is a affluent middle class that has the luxury of free time and thus the opportunity to try out new things. The subsistence farmers and warrior nobilities of feudal and tribal societies simply do not have that. Their entire lives are dedicated to their work.


As to 40k, the AdMech does see plenty of innovation. In fact, innovation is encouraged as long as it is based on an STC.

I'd be curious to know what would happen if the Imperium rediscovered a world that was lost, isolated for some reason but otherwise intact. Imagine such a world that had existed since the Heresy?

How would the Ad Mech react to this treasure trove of ancient tech? How would they react when they saw that this tech had indeed been improved on by a scientifically literate, knowledge embracing society? Surely they wouldn't lay waste to it but at the same time they'd have to confront the fact that all their mysticism and secrecy was redundant. That you could run an advanced, human tech based society/planet without all the ritual and nonsense. How would they act? Kill every living soul and steal the tech? What if they couldn't? If the planet had achieved Culture like (or even Bolo like) levels of tech?

Personally though, what I find most incongruous about the whole 'suppress how it works' philosophy is that so much time is spent at war, and war breeds innovation. People will work out that the Leman Russ turret stops turning if you damage a certain conduit. It's simply implausible that any military could operate in any prolonged capacity without basic maintenance, even in peace time, let along the forge of war.

 Kojiro wrote:
I'd be curious to know what would happen if the Imperium rediscovered a world that was lost, isolated for some reason but otherwise intact. Imagine such a world that had existed since the Heresy?

How would the Ad Mech react to this treasure trove of ancient tech? How would they react when they saw that this tech had indeed been improved on by a scientifically literate, knowledge embracing society? Surely they wouldn't lay waste to it but at the same time they'd have to confront the fact that all their mysticism and secrecy was redundant. That you could run an advanced, human tech based society/planet without all the ritual and nonsense. How would they act? Kill every living soul and steal the tech? What if they couldn't? If the planet had achieved Culture like (or even Bolo like) levels of tech?

Personally though, what I find most incongruous about the whole 'suppress how it works' philosophy is that so much time is spent at war, and war breeds innovation. People will work out that the Leman Russ turret stops turning if you damage a certain conduit. It's simply implausible that any military could operate in any prolonged capacity without basic maintenance, even in peace time, let along the forge of war.

IIRC in the skitari codex where it talks about all there old battles, the final entry is something along the lines of "World previously isolated by warp storms is discovered with fancy toys that they really really want but there are also tons of bad guys there", also, if the adeptus mechanicus found a world that had improved on the tech they would surely destroy it, they believe in there tech like a religion, and there religious radicals at that.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

Also, the lack of innovation in China and Japan (or anywhere else except Europe for that matter) is the result of the feudal or tribal societies of those nations.

You're kidding right? China historically has been one of the most innovative societies on Earth as has been extensively documented and proven by historians, both Chinese and Western. It was not until about 1500's that they started falling behind. China was so far ahead that the issue of why China didn't develop the modern scientific theory and mindset first is the puzzle and the so-called "Needham Question", because for most of humanity's history China was one of if not the most advanced society on Earth, at times centuries ahead of everyone else.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Needham#Science_and_Civilisation_in_China

Credit for some of those inventions in that list was originally falsely claimed by the West, until historical work revealed that China had invented it first. One big example is the movable type printing press, which only a few decades ago was still being taught as being invented by Gutenberg around 1450 in Europe. Now it is known that China had invented it as early as 1098 and refined by 1298.

The myth of a stagnant non-innovative China is one of those racist cultural stereotypes perpetuated by European colonial powers to justify their aggression and land grab during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Personally though, what I find most incongruous about the whole 'suppress how it works' philosophy is that so much time is spent at war, and war breeds innovation. People will work out that the Leman Russ turret stops turning if you damage a certain conduit. It's simply implausible that any military could operate in any prolonged capacity without basic maintenance, even in peace time, let along the forge of war.

You're looking at it too 'low down' the technology scale. Enginseers (fairly uneducated Mechanicus priests who are basically the guys at Halfords with the addition of a Servo-arm) know enough about 'The Holy Motive Force' (electricity) to figure out that if you get the wire shot through, the turret's buggered, and you need to replace the wire.

Mechanical, even electromechanical, tech, is fine, because you can see it working, and understand it with even simple knowledge built from experience.

The problem is that so much is dependant on things above that in the technology scale; in 41st millenium tech, high-tech gets into everything, as it does today.


Let me give an example: a car. Imagine one not a million miles different from a luxury saloon today.


The engine is going to be electromechanical. An enginseer - or even someone who's got experience using and maintaining one without formal training, like a competent chauffeur - probably knows enough to know "engine makes power, drive shaft moves power to wheels, gearbox changes power ratio". If it stops working, you can pop the hood, look for loose wires, broken belts, or bits of loose metal, fluid leaks, etc. If you find one, you can bodge it.

So far, so 1980's car. But instead, you trace the problem back and (as with annoying regularity you do now), you find that the thing with burns on it is the sealed black plastic box of the "engine management system" (probably machine spirit in this case) - it's a solid block of electronics with no displays or instructions, and whose contents are proprietary to the manufacturers and not on the schematics you were sold with the car.

Using publically legal tool, there is no more detailled diagnosis you can give than "it's buggered", and the car won't work without it.

This is why - today - the independent mechanic has so much trouble with higher-end cars (and increasingly normal cars) - without the appropriate tools and training (controlled by the manufacturer), he can't do anything to fix things at a component level.

Cars today are increasinly are designed to 'fix' a fault by pulling the modular block containing the faulty component and replacing it with a fresh one, which doesn't require knowledge of how to fix said component. You'll notice that the panel-beater has almost disappeared as a skill; cars (even the ones with metal not plastic or carbon-fibre) usually just replace the panel with a fresh one.

Equally note that modern high-end cars usually have the engine block fill the bonnet space far more completely because (a) they can design the components to pack together better and (b) they don't care about making it easier to maintain at home because they actively don't want you to do that.

How long dit it take to get the approvement for the Macharius heavy tank?
Centuries?
Well....Thats Mars for you

Still faster than the DVLA.

It was about 'half a millenium' to get approval for the Lightning Fighter as well, as I remember.

lliu wrote:
I just don't understand why they don't slap a land speeder system on a bike, poof! There's a Jetbike!!! What about stuff like Titans? Make a reaver Titan bigger, and have it carry more guns!!! Poof! Emperor class Titan! I just don't understand the nothingness of it.

Well for starters messing around with tech you don't understand can be dangerous...If you don't know how nuclear reactor works how you avoid frying yourself with the radioactivity in there? Hard to also experiment with it.

tneva82 wrote:

Well for starters messing around with tech you don't understand can be dangerous...If you don't know how nuclear reactor works how you avoid frying yourself with the radioactivity in there? Hard to also experiment with it.

Have an exalt for truth, friend.

Also, hello, mechanical engineer here *pushes glasses up nose*


Now, while all of the afformentioned about 40k, how STC's work, etc. is true, I just want to address one thing about blueprints: they are not comprehensive guides to how a thing functions or how to fix it. It is generally all of and only the information required to fabricate and assemble a specific component, thing, whatever.

Reverse-engineering off of a blueprint, while theoretically possible, is relatively improbable because all of the knowledge, information, etc. used to create that blueprint is contained elsewhere. So, give a blueprint of a mechanical component within my sphere of expertise to me, and I can probably figure out how it works and how to make it better. Give the mechanic who has to assemble the thing the blueprint, and he can make you one and possibly start whatever it is up, and maybe make suggestions for improvement based upon how his knowledge of fabrication overlaps with how some of the peices work together. And that is only if you need all of one mechanic to make the thing in question. Start having to have more than one person work on it, and most people become relatively confused over what they are actually even making. Give that blueprint to some poor sap far off in the distant future who maybe has rudimentary understanding of some of the concepts used to make the thing, and we have all of some glorified lines on paper.

Hell, give me a blueprint for an electrical system, and while I might be able to surmise small improvements (mechanical engineers are trained in rudimentary electical engineering since our systems are generally intertwined) based on my knowledge base, it is relatively likely that I will barely be able to figure out the purpose of the end product.

Of course, this is all assuming that someone just handed me a blueprint paper with no information - which I would assume is the scenario we are going for here since STC's were created a long, long time ago by long, long dead people.


Also, while human nature is awesome and leads to lots of innovation today, a few glaring differences between us and the citizens of 40k exist. Without the amount of practical knowledge floating around today due to our rigorously designed schooling systems (no, they are not perfect, but most everyone gets a functioning understanding of a lot of important concepts), and with a government that openly oppresses or kills the different, and with a heavily indoctrinated culture taught to fear pretty much everything, there is a tiny chance someone would risk innovation... only to be reported by the first person that found out and *BLAMMED* by the nearest relevant authority figure.

How is innovation possible to contain? Given human nature?

Ask North Koreans. Oh wait, you can't ask them, they have no internet and don't allow foreingers.

And one has to remember that the heavy control of innovation isn't just religious dogma or stupidity, it's also based on previous experiences with going too far too quickly ie. the Men of Iron, robotic/AI servants that rebelled and almost wiped out humanity. Such can not be allowed again, which is why every improvement of existing systems goes through year- or even century-long testing instead of being rolled out the week after TechPriest Bob proposed it.

And when looking at Xeno tech one always has to be careful that it doesn't somehow corrupt the machine spirits of nearby sanctioned STC designs. Testing and possibly building a prototype based on such is a job for only the most experienced and trusted Magos who will spend centuries just on designing all the safeguards necessary.