On Machinekinity and Tool-ness
written by Jack Parsons, 16 July 2025Recently, I've been thinking about Jude Rook-Machina's essay "Fuck Detroit, I’m Becoming Human: On Being a Transspecies Human Android". It's made me think about the way I conceptualize my own relationship to being a machine, which I also generally view as non-normative. I identify myself primarily as machinekin and have a few kintypes that are androids (and one that is a hologram), as well as some kintypes that have intense connections to technology (or other situations where the lines between technology and self blur, such as evading death by making AI clones of oneself).
I've begun to conceptualize my relationship to being a machine as intrinsicly tied to what I'd call "tool-ness" (if this were Esperanto, I'd describe myself as «ila», which is «ilo» "tool" with the -a adjective ending). Tool-ness is defined by being used as a tool for by someone or something else, for a purpose, whether that be being commanded, being programmed, being made for it, etc. The distinct theme is lack of agency or a struggle with the concept of agency, and there are often themes of a fight for personhood. One of my kintypes, the Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek Voyager, is a new medical hologram who, after being left online constantly after the starship Voyager becomes stranded and their doctor on board dies, develops sentience. He is a tool, a holographic doctor to be used only in case of emergencies, and suddenly he has become a person. Throughout Voyager, he is forced to defend his own legal personhood, he is treated poorly by the crew who fail to see him as more than just a hologram, and he must develop his own selfhood from scratch.
Tool-ness is also tied to my angel-related 'types. I also identify as angelkin (specifically, I have a thing with the Jewish angel of death, and a few angel-coded kintypes) and, to me, a large part of it is tool-ness, the idea of being made or assigned a divine purpose. Angels are sent by G-d to carry out tasks: the angel of death completing the task of death, and quite famously, the final plague upon Egypt. For an angel-coded kintype, see Elidibus from Final Fantasy XIV, whose title is Emissary, who serves a purpose on behalf of the entity Zodiark-- the balancing of light and dark. Frequently, along with this comes themes of narrative entrapment, or the metanarrative theme of being a tool for a narrative. This, however, could constitute an entire essay of its own. Regardless, being angelkin and machinekin overlap a lot in this specific way and lead to me perceiving myself as something akin to "divine machine".
Tool-ness is not only applicable to machines and angels, but also to other kintypes who fit into neither category. One of my most important kintypes, Raiden from Metal Gear, grew up as a child soldier in the First Liberian Civil War. We again see the elements of tool-ness in being a tool for war, taking commands as a soldier and being used to a "greater" end, which is then reflected through a story where he lacks any agency and only at the end comes to the conclusion that he does have the option to choose his own path. Frequently we find themes of lack of agency, manipulation, assigned purpose, and denial of selfhood.
I recently made a complex chart of kintypes that groups them based on a few broad, relevant tropes, where one of them was Tool-ness. The grouping has a large overlap with another category, "Child-coded", which brings us to our next point:
Another important facet of my machineness is being what I call "child-coded". The point that Jude Rook-Machina made about the expectation of lack of emotional capacity or for looking down on emotions was really interesting to me, because most of my machine-related fictotypes have explicit emotions that they struggle with, often in a manner reminiscent of children who are learning how to navigate their own emotions for the first time. Sometimes this is literal, particularly in the sense of specific 'types being newly-sentient, like the aforementioned EMH, who is treated as childish for displaying lack of coping mechanisms, social strategies, emotional regulation skills, and impulse control. Sometimes, it causes problems with disobeying programming: for instance, the EMH has an episode where he has a mental breakdown over an ethical issue and what it means for him as a hologram and whether or not he is a faulty programme; my Starman 'type has gained sentience and emotions by "malfunctioning", disobeying orders and rebelling against his creator.
While not strictly necessary for my 'types, the struggle with burgeoning emotions is something that is very prevalent amongst my experiences as a machine, and honestly to my experiences as a Tool in general: this is seen in non-machine tool-esque fictotypes as well, because often being raised as a tool or through the impersonal means of only taking orders means repression and lack of adequate emotional development that becomes a problem later in life. We can clealry see this in Raiden's emotional suppression and, when his emotions are unable to be contained any longer, his inability to cope in a healthy manner outside of anger and externally-charged destruction.
To some extent, this overlaps with my experiences here, in this body, as someone who was forced from a young age to "be the responsible one", to work and provide for my siblings starting at the age of 16, and to be the sole caretaker of my madre for a time. I have been, for a large period of my life, seen as a means to an end, a tool, by others, both in non-abusive ways and in abusive ones. It also reflects my experiences struggling with mood instability, as well as being an age regressor with a strong sense of age incongruity. In this sense, tool-ness is something that exists not just within the experience of my 'types but is also reflecting my life here: it's a multilayered kaleidoscope of factors that all coalesce into my identity as "divine machine".
the path forward seems to go back,
the direct path seems long,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true steadfastness seems changeable,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest art seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish.
