Chapter Text
Okay, gentlemen and ladies, come in, come in, and take a seat. In this meta-fic we're going to untangle a few things I hadn't included in 'Family', close some plot holes and open some new ones as well. There will be several chapters on different topics, kept separate so we don't mix everything into one go. Today we'll talk about the machine spirits. Here we go.
As a big fan of sci-fi literature, I've always liked this idea. Btw, any pal who works with machines will tell you each one has its own character, yknow. Machines and mechanisms really do have a soul – take it from me, a master's graduate in computer science☝️. Okay, now – on to the headcanon.
Throughout history, machine spirits have been a big part of human life. People knew they existed, and it was just an ordinary, everyday thing. However, up until a certain point - which I will discuss below - the spirits of machines and mechanisms were incorporeal and sometimes silent/invisible, but they were there.
More complex machines had more complex spirits and personalities, and as technology developed, the spirits became increasingly complex and more 'defined' as individuals. I hope you understood what I mean. Well, let's go through some examples.
Let's skip the Stone Age and jump somewhere into the Middle Ages. The machine spirit (from here on I'll just call it that, to keep things uniform) existed in everything humans created, though it varied from mechanism to mechanism. For example, a windmill had a more pronounced 'character' than, lets say, a plow. Oh, and yes, tools and weapons had spirits too. It's no accident swords were given names, heh, yeah? However, all this time they were literally bodiless spirits, without even any particular shape when they did appear to people. Their intelligence was also kind of low – they were more like concepts than smart or dumb beings. I'm probably not explaining this very clearly, but everything going on around me weighs on my head so much that I can't put a thought together properly. Anyway, in my head, they're something like fairies from european mythology, so in terms of appearance, they could take the form of little lights, small indistinct creatures, and so on. But things gradually changed, until the changes hit a turning point sometime close to the 19th century.
As humanity developed, the machine spirits developed along with it. And then a huge change happened after the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain (1760-1840). At some point, once progress reached a certain threshold, the machine spirits suddenly took on human form. Just like that. One day. So to speak, when the cup of progress overflowed from the last drop. They simply appeared. Now that's a brilliant explanation, isn't it? Let's call this event "The Shift."
Now, on to the specifics. The machine spirits that emerged visually look like humans, but there are a bunch of differences. First, as mentioned in the fic - grey skin. Second - increased stamina, strength, and agility. For instance, while an ordinary person might cover around 10–15 kilometers in a day, a machine spirit could walk 50 without breaking a sweat, for example. They also need ordinary food and water to live. Further, as also mentioned, they live more than 150–200 years and age differently. The closest comparison would be elves from fantasy. Of course, appearance varies from spirit to spirit - Edward, for example, already went gray at around 50, while Toby doesn't have a single gray hair at roughly the same age. Visually they also usually show no signs of aging, maybe just a few light wrinkles.
Now, on to the mechanisms themselves. As I already said in main fic- the engines exist on the island alongside their humanized versions. And that's really how it is. Machine spirits, unlike most people, have one important, defining trait – a subconscious, intuitive understanding of how mechanisms work. It's easier for them to grasp how and why something works, and they're always drawn to working with technology, which is why they are mostly employed in that kind of work. Of course, nothing stops them from living an ordinary human life - like going to university, training as a lawyer, and working at a law firm their whole life. But subconsciously, they'll still be drawn to working with mechanisms. You might come across a machine spirit clockmaker's workshop tucked away in some quiet corner of London, for example.
Also, machine spirits aren't attached to any particular machine, but they usually prefer to drive just one and feel a bit of discomfort when they have to switch vehicles. For example, Diesel loves driving his Class 08 #1 and can't stand switching to anything else, while Edward has no problem if he needs to change engines.
Well, that's how it is. So, at the current point in the fic's timeline - that's around the ~1955 - machine spirits look the way they've been described. Later on, as time passes and technology develops, they may change again. It's unknown when the next "Shift" will happen, but I could say we should look in the direction of computer technology. With the development of AI... Real AI! What exists right now is properly called an LLM - a language model. They have no human consciousness, no ability to react and make decisions on their own the way a person does. Yes, they're very smart, but they amount to an enormous number of weights (models like Claude or Gemini have billions of parameters), capable of processing huge volumes of information and giving you the result you asked for. LLMs have no goals in life, no personality, and no desires. Although, to some extent, that's a philosophical question.
That's it. Thanks for taking an interest in this fic.