Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-25618639-20150220210346/@comment-6078851-20150226145848

stc's were initially created in the dark age of technology, long after humans had encountered eldar and had had prolonged contact with their superior technology. so anti-grav vehicles will all be based on certain stc's, but that doesn't mean that the basis of an stc design, like anti-grav, wasn't first reverse engineered - to reverse engineer is to simply take something alien and create the same thing with human techniques and materials. but since i havn't yet found where i read about this i can't really call this anything but opinion.

the eldar term mon keigh came into popular eldar usage when humans betrayed the alliance between their species. but before that they were actually peacful to each other and apparently got on quite well. and the chances are extremely likely that the mechanicum of 20,000 years ago, and possibly more, was considerely different from what it is now - the previous empire was complete allies with the eldar (until humans broke the alliance), so the mechanicum would've been also, and reverse engineering tech from friendly allies wouldn't have been heretical. the previous empire clearly didn't have the same xenophobic issues the imperium does.

yes, isolated, rebelling worlds would probably pick up from where the mechanicum left off but they wouldn't be constrained by the mechanicum's myopic zealotry. amongst the rebellers there will be those who have had technological learning and can pass on, openly and freely, such learning - are you forgetting that members of the mechanicum also rebell/turn their back on emps worship? even the most loyal and faithful are not certain to remain loyal and faithful.

i already agreed that individual worlds would lack the resources to stave off barbarism. but there are plenty of systems consisting of multiple worlds, and there will be systems close enough to each other for non-astronomican travel to be viable and as such the attainment of resources could be achieved from trade. remember also that the imperium is truly vast, and when the astronomican goes out and cuts off the fringes from viable travel those fringes will amount to thousands of systems, possibly tens of thousands, and while many will remain faithful, many will be conquered, many will revert to barbarism, many will rebell and fail, some will assuredly survive and thrive without emps or the mechanicum.

and i already made mention of the time required for such advancement - centuries at the  very least, but even if they did have to relearn the basics from 'sticks and stones' upwards, what of it? you imply that without the mechanicum then science ceases to be, but i imbue the human race with a greater capacity for learning than you seem to, and the scientific principle of trial and error can always be used, and learned from.