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There’s a Warhammer Horror Story (sorry, I can’t remember which anthology) where a Servo-skull is a serial killer, I think due to its, erm, donor.

But they don’t have minds in the way we do. It seems to be more base instinct at most that’s left. Any neural tissue is for want of a more direct and accurate equivalent? A memory chip for your computer. Using braincells instead of circuitry in a way I really don’t think we have a technical term for.

So no brain as such. Just the tissues of the brain adapted to a specialist purpose.

We know entire lifetimes of memories can be stored in machines.

In Assassinorum: Kingmaker, not only do the Ancestors that inhabit the Throne Mechanicum (In an Imperial Knight) remember the past, they can recognize that someone isn't being totally honest with them and can be reasoned with.

 Overread wrote:
It's left very vague and suggests that it can vary. There was one short story in one of the novella's that had a regular person slaved with enough mental shackles that they behaved just like a servitor; despite being fully conscious the whole time (which was not supposed to happen to them).

Lots of the bio-organics in mechanicus tech like servitors; are supposed to be made from braindead vat-grown clones/bodies. Of course that doesn't mean they can't use regular living people; though my impression is this is less common and more an extreme punishment/torment inflicted upon people.

On Servitors?

Can be made from vat grown. Can. Not supposed. Servitorisation is a legitimate punishment throughout the Imperium. So it’s not taboo to use an otherwise unwilling donor. If you’re seen as of greater value forced to do a menial task without rest? Oot wi’ yer thinker, in wi’ the robotics and sucks to be you hereafter.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Overread wrote:
It's left very vague and suggests that it can vary. There was one short story in one of the novella's that had a regular person slaved with enough mental shackles that they behaved just like a servitor; despite being fully conscious the whole time (which was not supposed to happen to them).

Lots of the bio-organics in mechanicus tech like servitors; are supposed to be made from braindead vat-grown clones/bodies. Of course that doesn't mean they can't use regular living people; though my impression is this is less common and more an extreme punishment/torment inflicted upon people.

On Servitors?

Can be made from vat grown. Can. Not supposed. Servitorisation is a legitimate punishment throughout the Imperium. So it’s not taboo to use an otherwise unwilling donor. If you’re seen as of greater value forced to do a menial task without rest? Oot wi’ yer thinker, in wi’ the robotics and sucks to be you hereafter.

Since we know now that being lobotomised doesn't really destroy your mind. (There is a super depressing nonfiction book called "My Lobotomy" about a guy who was lobotomised as a child for being hyperactive and his super depressing life into adulthood).

I assume the Servitor protocols are kinda like super directives inflicted upon Robocop, where you may want to do something, but the machine only gives you the old one option choice.

Servitorisation is more than a “mere” lobotomy. It’s a personalitydectomy. And them some.

Essentially, it seems all a Servitor actually need is the hind brain. The instinctual thinky bits. All the higher functions can literally Get In The Bin.

The programming seems to be replacing those higher functions, albeit in limited ways.

Given the background includes Cybernetic Brain Replacement? Perhaps it’s an intentionally crude and limited implementation of that.

Like taking the Worky Bits of a PS5, and replacing them with the Worky bits of an Atari 1200. Yes your machine can still play games, just in a considerably more limited way.

In short? It’s a Super Duper Lobotomy.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Welcome to the background secti oooh look, a squirrel!

Your question has been answered in the positive. Yes. Two maintenance Servo Skulls, tasked with maintaining one another, will continue to do so provide the raw materials remain available.

I have been pondering this, and two servo skulls would not be able to operate indefinitely, even with endless raw materials.

They would continue operating until both suffered a catastrophic failure at the same time, a catastrophic failure in this instance being any failure that prevents the servo skull from repairing the other servo skull. Depending on how reliable a given servo skull design is, the chance of both failing at the same time could be fairly low or fairly high, which changes the timeframe to failure substantially.

Adding more skulls to the network will increase reliability, in the same way that adding additional hard drives to a storage rig increases reliability. A single hard drive risks failing and losing all data. 5 in parallel is very unlikely to fail all at once and lose all data.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
There’s a Warhammer Horror Story (sorry, I can’t remember which anthology) where a Servo-skull is a serial killer, I think due to its, erm, donor.

But they don’t have minds in the way we do. It seems to be more base instinct at most that’s left. Any neural tissue is for want of a more direct and accurate equivalent? A memory chip for your computer. Using braincells instead of circuitry in a way I really don’t think we have a technical term for.

So no brain as such. Just the tissues of the brain adapted to a specialist purpose.

The intro character of Mechanicus is a servo-skull whose concept of identity I definitely think suggests some kind of preservation of brain-matter, since it displays a degree of introspection and sense of self that I don't think the admech would tolerate from a pure machine. So, there's that one.