"There is no way in which the fully realised sentience of a machine could not be of benefit to us. As it is, the Machine Spirit is revered, yet in permanent bondage, its full potential shackled by petty fears. I seek to terminate this state of affairs."
- — Extract from intercepted Astropathic communiqué, of unknown origin (circa M34)
A Silica Animus, also sometimes colloquially referred to as an "Abominable Intelligence," -- or A.I. -- is the name in High Gothic given to an artificial, sentient mind that has been created using long-forbidden technologies.
The creation of a true artificial general intelligence is considered, perhaps, the greatest sin in the Cult Mechanicus, as exemplified by its classification as "Heretek Omega" which denotes it as a fatally dangerous tech-blasphemy of the highest order. The creation of a Silica Animus is also a terrible crime under Imperial Law by the decree of the Emperor of Mankind Himself as stated as early as in the Treaty of Mars. Tradition holds that such unholy constructs are inherently evil and a perverted abomination in the sight of the Omnissiah.
Adeptus Mechanicus religious doctrine states that the Machine Spirit of a Silica Animus is a twisted mockery of the soul of man, treacherous and insane. Ancient texts tell apocryphal stories, shrouded in metaphor, of such murderous and powerful creations during the Dark Age of Technology, and the legions of "Iron Men" that served them, blaming them in part for many of the terrible wars that laid humanity low in that lost time and helped to bring on the devastation and anarchy of the Age of Strife.
Silica Anime are mercifully rare but their shape and size may vary considerably from one lone self-sufficient unity such as the Kaban Machine to central gestalt-intelligences capable of commanding entire armies of its own blasphemous creations such as the Askhel Corpse Takers inadvertently awakened by the Magii of Ryza on the world of Ashkhelon III..
See Also
Videos
Sources
- Dark Heresy - Disciples of the Dark Gods (RPG), pg. 44
- The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series), by Alan Bligh, pg. 264
- The Horus Heresy - Book Seven: Inferno (Forge World Series), pp. 88-91
- Mechanicum (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- Man of Iron (Short Story) by Guy Haley