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Basically assume for one reason or another, all males on Earth grow to eight foot tall Primaris Marines in terms of physical capability. And females turn into 7.5 foot tall Standard Marines. But still retain their feminine beauty and not become bodybuiler look-a-like. All babies are birthed will be Astartes grade as well.

How well will our modern day world adapt to this change?

Well, we don't have the psycho-indoctrination, gear or other training that Astartes do, so we're basically talking increased physical capabilities. In that respect, if everyone gets it? Short-term - nothing changes.
In the wise words of Incredibles-villain Syndrome:



Longer term, there are going to be some odd side effects. For starters, we'll live longer and we'll be damn near immune to most diseases we have right now, so over-population could become a really big issue. That directly increases pollution, which is also increased by the fact that each individual one of us uses more resources to survive, and needs bigger things to continue living in the same way.
On the other hand, productivity is going to get a sharp boost on account of us not needing to sleep nearly as much any more. So we might just be able to put extra work and increased brainpower into solving these problems.

And instantly every vehicle and building and piece 9f furniture needs to be bigger. I think it would not go well. Also food wise, marines probably need a lot more calories. On the other hand they might be able to live o vegetation we currently cant process, so it might go either way.

Tyzarion_Kronius wrote:Basically assume for one reason or another, all males on Earth grow to eight foot tall Primaris Marines in terms of physical capability. And females turn into 7.5 foot tall Standard Marines.

What about the men who are shorter than women? Are they 7.5 foot tall too?

But still retain their feminine beauty and not become bodybuiler look-a-like.

Do feminine men keep their feminine beauty too?

Honestly, this whole "WE GOTTA MAKE SURE THE MENZ AND WIMMENZ LOOK DIFFERENT" tangent is the most alarming thing about this hypothetical.

All babies are birthed will be Astartes grade as well.

I was under the impression Astartes were infertile.

How well will our modern day world adapt to this change?

People live longer, are more physically able, weaponry eventually becomes more powerful to accommodate for the increased durability, food production plummets with less requirement to eat, if it's an instantaneous change, expect a lot of revolutions as people use their newfound strength and resilience to firearms to storm police/government facilities in the immediate aftermath, people become more aggressive and violent as a result of neurochemical hormonal changes.

The biggest changes basically come from the fact that people live longer and need less to maintain their bodies. Food become less important, waste products recyclable, sleep less needed, and now traditional "enforcement" tools are less effective on the general population. Coupled with heightened aggression, I don't think a massive rejection of consumerist and capitalist culture would be impossible.

EDIT: I'm seeing a lot of people saying that Astartes would need more stuff to eat. I'm not sure that would be quite as much as everyone is saying. Astartes seem to be able to go without food and stuff for pretty good extended periods of time, their bodies seem to process waste far more efficiently, and can now eat a lot more previously inaccessible food options thanks to that same waste filtration. And before anyone mentions how larger bodies would scientifically need more calories to maintain, I'm fairly sure the whole pseudo-science of 40k bypasses that?

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

EDIT: I'm seeing a lot of people saying that Astartes would need more stuff to eat. I'm not sure that would be quite as much as everyone is saying. Astartes seem to be able to go without food and stuff for pretty good extended periods of time, their bodies seem to process waste far more efficiently, and can now eat a lot more previously inaccessible food options thanks to that same waste filtration. And before anyone mentions how larger bodies would scientifically need more calories to maintain, I'm fairly sure the whole pseudo-science of 40k bypasses that?

I always assumed that marines don't need much food because their power armor recycles all their waste into nutrient paste (yum!) so they can keep going for a while. I don't think they have any implants to boost/replace their intestines or kidneys.

Recycling might help a bit but if the body has removed the relevant nutrients, then just running it through the body again wont magically create more to be absorbed. If you have taken all the energy out of a chunk of food, then recycling it wont enable more to be gained from it.

Claiming that we'd eat less because Marines need less is missing a vital point about us. A lot of the time we eat because we want to.
With these wonderful new bodies making exercise easier, and I'm assuming more efficient ways of sloughing off excess fat, we're going to eat more if anything, simply because we can.

 Flinty wrote:
Recycling might help a bit but if the body has removed the relevant nutrients, then just running it through the body again wont magically create more to be absorbed. If you have taken all the energy out of a chunk of food, then recycling it wont enable more to be gained from it.

Hey no fair! You're not supposed to apply actual science. It's space techno-magic.

Marines carry a nuclear fusion reactor in their backpack. I'm sure there's enough energy in there to bake some protein back into the paste.

 Tyzarion_Kronius wrote:
Basically assume for one reason or another, all males on Earth grow to eight foot tall Primaris Marines in terms of physical capability. And females turn into 7.5 foot tall Standard Marines. But still retain their feminine beauty and not become bodybuiler look-a-like. All babies are birthed will be Astartes grade as well.

How well will our modern day world adapt to this change?

It won't - it will be a whole new world. Corona Virus would no longer be an issue.

Do people have the same drives, emotions and desires - just in a super durable frame = cos that might not go well.

Marines are not normally identical in size and shape either, its never been clear that Marines can have sex so why would there be any babies?

What is the gene seed heritage as that will effect what sort of population you have for the new world.

We'd eat a lot more and we'd have to adjust building codes.

Lots of doorways would be too small, beds would be too short and cars would be too small.

Also men and women wouldn’t be able to use the same vehicles if men were Primaris sized and women were old marine size.

Ofcourse we can still have babies. regardless of fluff, it's clearly implied that for the sake of the topic that it's possible.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Aash wrote:
Lots of doorways would be too small, beds would be too short and cars would be too small.

Also men and women wouldn’t be able to use the same vehicles if men were Primaris sized and women were old marine size.

Now THAT is a problem. This is the type if issue that causes revolutions. Chances are, the men will cull the women or the women will simply upgrade into Primaris men

123ply wrote:
Ofcourse we can still have babies. regardless of fluff, it's clearly implied that for the sake of the topic that it's possible.

Thinking about it - they have to have babies as there is no-one left to implant the gene-seed into.

 Flinty wrote:
Recycling might help a bit but if the body has removed the relevant nutrients, then just running it through the body again wont magically create more to be absorbed. If you have taken all the energy out of a chunk of food, then recycling it wont enable more to be gained from it.

Except it does. That's what plants and bacteria do, done for billions of years. All you need is external power supply - sun for plants, backpack for recycling system. Though, it's true some nutrients would be lost, but that's why old SM armor drawings shown supply of nutritional pills that could top up tanks for a few weeks.

On a side note, this is also why SM not wearing helmets is comically stupid - we lose tons of carbon and water by simply breathing out, which means your typical Space Wolf would have endurance measured in days, not weeks like an Ultramarine.

But the bacteria and plants pull in various chemicals out of the environment as well.as energy. Marine armour would need to be carrying around feedstock, or else require some other way of recharging the recycled goo.

If you use something it's used and needs to be replaced.

ITT
>Lolwut

 Flinty wrote:
But the bacteria and plants pull in various chemicals out of the environment as well.as energy. Marine armour would need to be carrying around feedstock, or else require some other way of recharging the recycled goo.

If you use something it's used and needs to be replaced.

If we're talking about vitamins and minerals, the quantities needed are small enough that weeks or months of supply can be stored somewhere in the armour.

Concerning energy, technology in the grim dark future has apparently advanced enough to miniaturize a fusion reactor:

(zoom in to see the people!) into something that fits into a backpack. I think they may have figured out how to synthesize sugar and protein from organic matter...

People thus far are taking a very first-world look at this right now.

There would be an awful lot of death - mass murders would be a huge thing.

Here's an example: Orangi Town, Karachi, Pakistan (yes, I just googled it).

It's a slum with 2.4 million starving people who are deprived from fresh water, and who are probably feeling (understandably) pee'd off at their lot in life. Now, let's just snap our fingers to turn this into a 2,400,000 person strong army of angry superhumans who have spent their whole lives being kicked by those "above" them. What's th first thing they'll do? Will they be content to continue living in slums and scraping for fresh water now that they are strong enough to pick up a car, and capable of sustaining multiple bullet wounds without being slowed? Do you think any military force could hold that back?

there are (yep, google again) 736 million people living in poverty - and I'd say most of those aren't happy about it. If everyone suddenly became superhumans, I expect a lot of privileged heads will be twisted off of shoulders by the angry masses.

I think predicting anything other than 'complete shitshow' is wishful thinking.

 some bloke wrote:
People thus far are taking a very first-world look at this right now.

There would be an awful lot of death - mass murders would be a huge thing.

Here's an example: Orangi Town, Karachi, Pakistan (yes, I just googled it).

It's a slum with 2.4 million starving people who are deprived from fresh water, and who are probably feeling (understandably) pee'd off at their lot in life. Now, let's just snap our fingers to turn this into a 2,400,000 person strong army of angry superhumans who have spent their whole lives being kicked by those "above" them. What's th first thing they'll do? Will they be content to continue living in slums and scraping for fresh water now that they are strong enough to pick up a car, and capable of sustaining multiple bullet wounds without being slowed? Do you think any military force could hold that back?

there are (yep, google again) 736 million people living in poverty - and I'd say most of those aren't happy about it. If everyone suddenly became superhumans, I expect a lot of privileged heads will be twisted off of shoulders by the angry masses.

Yeah, that was my first thought on the matter (aside from the bizarre 'men are all inexplicably taller than women, and the women look feminine' tangent, which I'm still wondering as to the inclusion of).

If we're taking some of the feats of Space Marines sans armour, they're *terrifying*. Modern police weaponry would be wholly unequipped to handle Astartes, and the moment someone realised that, you'd either have military coming in pre-emptively, or people rioting harder than ever before.

"Raid Area 51, they can't stop us all" isn't looking much like a joke now, but a serious possibility.

 some bloke wrote:
Do you think any military force could hold that back?

Considering that the military force would now also be comprised of said giant superhumans, yeah, I think they would.

Little would change because everyone would still be on a level playing field. Weaponry would need to be adjusted to be higher caliber than it currently is to effectively kill other astartes so the logistics of that could become an issue I guess.

Soemone’s taken this to /tg/
It’s plaguing the 40k threads

 Void__Dragon wrote:

 some bloke wrote:
Do you think any military force could hold that back?

Considering that the military force would now also be comprised of said giant superhumans, yeah, I think they would.

Their weapons don't change though, and their armour now doesn't fit, and good luck getting them in a vehicle.

Short of missiles and actually just outright bombing people, the military would simply be outnumbered.

Little would change because everyone would still be on a level playing field.

Exactly - everyone's on a level playing field, but the military are still outnumbered.

Weaponry would need to be adjusted to be higher caliber than it currently is to effectively kill other astartes so the logistics of that could become an issue I guess.

And that's going to take time and resources - and do you really think the military have that time when they're faced with Astartes?

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 Void__Dragon wrote:

 some bloke wrote:
Do you think any military force could hold that back?

Considering that the military force would now also be comprised of said giant superhumans, yeah, I think they would.

Their weapons don't change though, and their armour now doesn't fit, and good luck getting them in a vehicle.

Short of missiles and actually just outright bombing people, the military would simply be outnumbered.

Little would change because everyone would still be on a level playing field.

Exactly - everyone's on a level playing field, but the military are still outnumbered.

Weaponry would need to be adjusted to be higher caliber than it currently is to effectively kill other astartes so the logistics of that could become an issue I guess.

And that's going to take time and resources - and do you really think the military have that time when they're faced with Astartes?

It's not like it takes exotic weaponry to kill unarmored astartes. A heavy machine gun might be enough. If not, an autocannon should do the trick. And now the soldiers can just carry these on their own instead of having to put them on vehicles.

Yeeeeah, the weapons we have now are more than capable of taking down Marines without armour, and especially Marines without armour or training. We're still going to feel pain, and we don't have the indoctrination built up to ignore that pain - nor to override our basic instincts.
Even with these powerful new bodies, an untrained civilian is going to do one of two things faced with a gun:

- realise it's still folly, and back down
- get themselves shot, and realise "Oh hey, this was still a really bad idea. Who knew?"

Now, it must be said that you're much much much more likely to survive being shot with that Marine body - but that isn't going to help you immediately in a fight. You're still gonna be on the floor, clutching whatever's just been shredded to fleshy bits and screaming.

Tiennos wrote:It's not like it takes exotic weaponry to kill unarmored astartes.

Not sure on that. From my understanding, just a basic lasgun is vastly more capable than our rifle fire, and Astartes walk off lasfire quite well.

A heavy machine gun might be enough. If not, an autocannon should do the trick. And now the soldiers can just carry these on their own instead of having to put them on vehicles.

Yes, but there's only a finite amount, and then the logistics in getting those guns, the ammo, the training, and now maybe those guns are inoperable due to Astartes hands being so much larger.

My point stands on anything beyond a well organised military - they get bodied.

Super Ready wrote:Yeeeeah, the weapons we have now are more than capable of taking down Marines without armour, and especially Marines without armour or training. We're still going to feel pain, and we don't have the indoctrination built up to ignore that pain - nor to override our basic instincts.

Now, the basic instincts probably IS the kicker, but I don't think the pain suppression will be so bad, as Astartes enhancements dealt with the worst of that, I believed.

But yes, morale is the weak spot.

Even with these powerful new bodies, an untrained civilian is going to do one of two things faced with a gun:

- realise it's still folly, and back down
- get themselves shot, and realise "Oh hey, this was still a really bad idea. Who knew?"

Or... get shot, walk it off, and beat the tar out of the person who fired it. And let's not forget the morale of the person pulling the trigger too - they shoot someone, and they don't go down, and just go harder, that's gonna shake you.

Lets not forget that game rules do not = real life. An assault rifle doesn't have a 3/6 putting a human out of action. Also we don't have power armour.

In WW1 a few machineguns could hold off hordes of soldiers; now we have lots more machineguns.

Also, bear in mind that a Marine without armour is still basically just flesh and bone. Hardened bone, admittedly, but a pointed metal shell travelling at ridiculous speeds is still going to ruin that bone's day.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

Tiennos wrote:It's not like it takes exotic weaponry to kill unarmored astartes.

Not sure on that. From my understanding, just a basic lasgun is vastly more capable than our rifle fire, and Astartes walk off lasfire quite well.

No sir. A lasgun is roughly equivalent to a modern rifle, and they can kill Astartes.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
Not sure on that. From my understanding, just a basic lasgun is vastly more capable than our rifle fire, and Astartes walk off lasfire quite well.

Can you show me a single example of an Astartes tanking a hail of lasgun fire with no armour?

They walk through lasgun fire because their armour is almost impervious to it and the few times a shot gets through it is very rarely fatal.

Without the armour to walk through small arms fire a coordinated military lighting up a mob of unarmed and unarmoured posthumans with their rifles and heavy machine guns are going to massacre the ones in front and then the rest of the mob are going to scatter like cockroaches. Or die, lol.

Also, there's no reason to assume the lethality of a lasgun is vastly greater than our own rifle fire. It's the better weapon by far because logistically it's a dream come true, but in terms of actually killing things? I've never seen any real comparison.