#listen i just think its not the animacy that should be laughed at its the way despotic regimes dress up their customs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

1ore · 2 years

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there's some kind of animacy and technology spectrum. On one end is the shinto-practicioner who fed her computer a grain of rice every time it booted (as thanks for its labor,) and on the other is the cult mechanicus breaking out the incense every time the printer makes a weird noise. and the difference is like night and day but im struggling to articulate What that is

#something something fear vs. gratitude #there's a degree of like Yes the joke is that the mechanicus are technologically backwards or w/e for the animism #so both the framing and the construction is colored by very western perceptions of The Primitive etc #but you could say something similar (but not nearly so unfavorable)#of the shinto lady story being told from the perspective of a tech support worker #there is some secret third thing and that's STEM people themselves having playful lab superstitions and rituals #i.e. we must appease the old centrifuge with offerings of water or our samples will get centrifucked #and also the less 'silly' and more invisible lab rituals of donning PPE washing hands cleaning flasks etc #stuff you're not used to thinking of as ritualistic because the effect (being clean and safe) is empirically proven in your mind #(in much the same way that prayer ritual etc is real and empirical when you practice it)#there's something there ';s something th #listen i just think its not the animacy that should be laughed at its the way despotic regimes dress up their customs #as somehow refined and exceptional #'haha look how backwards these fools are. they think rocks can think. when we ensoul something its for real tho'#🤔🤔🤔🤔#warhammer 40k tag

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