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Had those idea about "crewless" weapons when looking at droppods.
Where a BT droppod had a machine spirit,those DA/BA and codex-marine ones had not.
And the passengers have to leave at arrival and cannot reenter.No crew.

But how can those guns (stormbolter or deathwind) fire without a gunner ?
no machine spirit
no crew
only a empty vehicle.

Simple a computer that controls it, just AI on it. We have that capability now why shouldnt they have it.

Yeh they do (edit: have that capability. as apposed to need a gunner.). In horus rising i seem to remember loken destroying an unmanned weapon which fired when it sensed motion.

@ ghost in the Darkness:

any computer or AI would be called "machine spirit" in 40k.

@ whatwhat:

those weapons the luna wolves had encountered were old tech (not only pre-heresy but maybe pre-age of strife).

With the actual fluff only Land Raiders and some super-heavy Tanks have "computer operated guns" aka a machine spirit.
The IG uses humans or servitors as gunners for their vehicles. Therefore only WS 3.
Space marines may crew their weapons themselves or use a machine spirit (has evovlved to WS 4 ).
Some techmarines also field servitors. Again WS 3.

Since EVERY vehicle has a crew (and some a machine spirit to help the crew) there would be no question about who
is directing/loading/firing a vehicles weapons. Sometimes it could be done by passengers.

But: with the droppod we have the first empty vehicle.
A gun-emplacement would have a machine spirit and be fine.
A new droppod may have nothing to operate the guns-so it may not fire.

machine spirit: only noticed for rules but always installed in some form in 40k vehicles?
or
machine spirit: only available in a few old high-tech vehicles.Any other vehicles are pure "controlled by crew",no AI inside.

Erm? There are plenty of references to computers in 40k if you want me to find them. Not everything is operated by magic and fairy dust you know.

edit: and by the way "machine spirit" is just another name for an automatic system in a vehicle, its not magic.

whatwhat wrote:Erm? There are plenty of references to computers in 40k if you want me to find them. Not everything is operated by magic and fairy dust you know.

edit: and by the way "machine spirit" is just another name for an automatic system in a vehicle, its not magic.

Magic? WHFB ?
isn't it 40k here? =>

Changed
any reference on weapons NOT operated by living creatures or the "machine spirit" in Imperial vehicles,but fully functional?

By magic i mean this belief you seem to have that the "machine spirit" is something paranormal. It is in fact just a name for a highly advanced piece of AI. You don't need tech that advanced to make a weapon fire on its own on something as simple as a drop pod, which is not really a vehicle at all.

"any computer or AI would be called "machine spirit" in 40k"
you need to scrap that nonsense out of your mind, then you might understand me.

whatwhat wrote:
"any computer or AI would be called "machine spirit" in 40k"
you need to scrap that nonsense out of your mind, then you might understand me.

To scrap nonsense out of minds is not available to me,even its my own.

But rest assured, I know about tech.

And I may add that 40k has a really religious take at technology for the imperium.
Is it sane to use oils and saliva at machines,uttering prayers and hope the best? Would such behaviour not be the reason to
think about AI-tech as "machine spirit" ?

1hadhq wrote:Would such behaviour not be the reason to
think about AI-tech as "machine spirit" ?

Machine spirit. Not machine with a spirit.

If they can come up with that tech they can make unmanned guns.

What answer were you looking for when you asked the question? Because you don't seem to like the most realistic one.