Necrons==Transhumanism

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Necrons
NPCs eager to improve material life transform themselves into soulless automatons.
Technologically replacing all biological tissues with inorganic matter will make one a robot, a dead AI-powered body with no living spirit in control - an imitation of life. A NECRON from warhammer...

Armed with weapons of god-like power and starships that could cross the galaxy in the blink of an eye, the Necrontyr stood ready to begin their war against the Old Ones anew. But the C'tan had another gift for their mortal subjects. They offered the Necrontyr a path to immortality and the physical stability their race had always craved. Their diseased flesh would be replaced with the living metal of Necrodermis that made up their Star Gods' own physical forms. Their discarded organic husks would be consumed and their cold, metal forms would then be free to pursue their great vengeance against the Old Ones and the rest of a hateful universe, freed forever from the weaknesses of their hated flesh.

With the pact between Necrontyr and C'tan sealed, the Star Gods revealed the form that immortality would take for the Necrontyr, and the great biotransference process began. Colossal cyclopean bio-furnaces built by Necrontyr artifice roared day and night, and into these the Silent King's peoples marched according to the terms of the pact he had made with the C'tan. What blasphemous procedures the Necrontyr were subjected to within the raging bio-furnaces cannot be known, but certainly, each was stripped of flesh and of soul, his body replaced by a shell of living metal animated by what remained of his guttering self. Above each furnace swooped and dove the ethereal true-forms of the C'tan as they glutted themselves on the cast off spiritual detritus and life energy of an entire species; growing ever stronger. It was only when the Silent King himself emerged from the bio-transference process and looked upon what had become of his people that he saw the awful truth of the pact he had made. As Szarekh watched the C'tan feast on the life essence of his people, he realised the terrible depth of his mistake. In many ways, he felt better that he had in decades, the countless aches and uncertainties of organic life now behind him. His new machine body was far mightier than the frail form he had tolerated for so long, and his thoughts were swifter and clearer than they had ever been. Yet there was an emptiness gnawing at his mind, an inexpressible hollowness of spirit that defied rational explanation. In that moment, he knew with cold certainty that the price of physical immortality had been the loss of his soul. With great sorrow the Silent King beheld the fate he had brought upon his people: the Necrontyr were not but a memory, and the soulless, undying Necrons had been reborn in their place.

Yet though the price had been steep, biotransference had fulfilled all of the promises that the C'tan had made. Even the lowliest of the Necrontyr was now blessed with immortality -- age and hard radiation could little erode their new mechanical bodies, and only the most terrible of injuries could destroy them utterly. Likewise, the Necrons now enjoyed a unity that the Necrontyr had never known, though it was achieved through tyranny and the complete loss of individuality and emotion rather than by consent. The biotransference process had embedded command protocols in every Necron mind, granting Szarekh the unswerving loyalty of his subjects. At first, the Silent King embraced this unanimity, for it was a welcome reprieve from the chaos that had consumed the Necrontyr Empire in recent years. However, as time wore on he grew weary of his burden, but dared not sever the command protocols lest his subjects turn on him seeking vengeance for the terrible curse he had visited upon them.

"Uploading a mind into a machine" doesn't grant immortality. It just creates a limited, crippled imitation of a mind that obeys machine laws.
The original mind and spirit are still in biological form.

>>3
The "uploading of a mind" in Necrontyr-transhumanist process.
1.First, they're scanned and all their memories and brain structures are replicated into a hardware form template - in software.
2.A replica of their body is constructed inside their own body, replacing biological tissues step by step.
3.The original biological organism replaced part by part, pushed out of the new body. Their spirit is forced out of inorganic shell of the replacement body, now controlled by software from step#1.
4.The machine that replicated the biological entity is now replacing the role of the original.

The NPCs will agree to the process since they don't introspect and observe their own mind, they will assume its a purely material entity(the Brain) and can be upgraded cell-by-cell without losing integrity and original consciousness.

The brain will be the last to be replaced due its complexity. First will come cybernetic eyes/ears and artificial limbs. Then cybernetic digestion/life support systems, cybernetic nerve systems and next to last, brain implants that enhance thinking capabilities with integration into computer networks and VR.
The last step is replacing specific brain regions with inorganic analogues that don't age and get brain damage. Consciousness, barely holding on in the last scrap of organic tissue in NPC Brain is snuffled out with the final upgrade makes the NPC transition into a machine imitation of his former self with no organic tissues to support a soul.

What if NPCs are subconsciously suicidal and resent organic life expirience? They would probably view it as some sort of "release"/"reboot", deluded that they're not actually killing themselves, just upgrading.
A NPC would even reframe it as transcendent experience, if programmed by the media.

At the last moment of NPC life, he will see his soul leaving the cybernetic shell, like the Necrontyr becoming Necrons and realize his fundamental misunderstanding of life(limited by NPC programming of course). In effect transhumanism grants them freedom from NPC mental slavery and they would not realize there organic beings who aren't mental slaves - that life experience is much more rich and complex than NPC life. In the NPC eyes, the cybernetic replacement has no downsides, only positive aspects, since denying their humanity and soul is a second nature to them due NPC programming presenting cybernetic upgrades as replica of organic life(NPCs can't sense the wrongness and lack of spirit in inorganic mechanisms replacing his body - in his mind the body is also a machine devoid of any soul).

NPC dominance is the last stage before transhumanism takes hold. All the "NPC" programming is to create obedient robots and making drones out of men.
A literal Cyborg will be much easier to control and will be as efficient as a robot - perhaps much smarter due biological programming that is more effective than any neural network software.
And the rulers of transhumanist world would enjoy a world with much less population and ecological impact, since cyborg-robots only need electricity and don't reproduce(manufactured drones).
I guess the NPCs will become something like servitors, not Necrons.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Servitor
While many are vat-grown, often a criminal, particularly one who has offended the Cult Mechanicus, will be sentenced to "Servitude Imperpituis" and will be handed over to the Tech-priests to be mind-wiped, reprogrammed, and cybernetically-enhanced to serve some specific, rudimentary function. Servitors are mindless, possessing only the most basic of instincts. Their brains are programmed to perform only the task they were designed for. The altered and fragmented brain of a Servitor functions poorly unless constantly supervised. Most will go into a state of mindlock, babbling incoherent nonsense as the Servitor tries to assert some form of awareness.[3]

Servitors are created by the Adeptus Mechanicus, and supplied to departments of the Adeptus Terra such as the Administratum, and to the Inquisition. Servitors make up the vast bulk of the population of Mars and other Forge Worlds, where they fulfill the role of workers.[1]

There are many types of Servitor, each designed for a certain task. Typical Servitors are "Technomats" which operate and service machines, "Holomats" which act as holographic recordists, "Lexomats" which are like human computers with tremendous calculating powers, and "Drones" which are living robots - stupid and essentially mindless slaves ideal for menial work and little else.[2]

Servitors are often used to carry out the more dangerous or labourous duties, such as heavy mining. They also accompany Tech-priest Enginseers on the battlefield with the Imperial Guard, as well as Space Marine Techmarines. These types aid in the repair of vehicles or sometimes carry large and dangerous weapons such as plasma cannons. For both forces, the Servitors are practically identical cybernetically, although the servitors of some Space Marine Chapters are created from failed Marine Initiates. Perhaps the most feared of all the Servitors are the Praetorian Servitors, a class of heavily armed and armoured Servitor deployed by the Adeptus Mechanicus to guard the Tech-priests and temples dedicated to the Machine God.[N

Machine God

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Machine_God
The Cult Mechanicus, the religious hierarchy of the Adeptus Mechanicus that upholds the worship of the Machine God, believes knowledge to be the manifestation of divinity, and holds that anything embodying or containing knowledge is holy because of it. The supreme object of devotion is therefore the omniscient Machine God, an eminent and omnipotent spirit governing all machinery and knowledge in the universe. Generally, this deity is held to be an aspect of the God-Emperor (or, most commonly within the Cult itself, both are held to be aspects or faces of the same divine being). The Omnissiah is believed to be friendly to humanity, and to be the originator of all human technological and scientific knowledge. Subservient to the Omnissiah are the animistic Machine Spirits, who are believed to inhabit all machinery and which must be appeased before a piece of technology is used or repaired, lest the machinery fail.

Ray Kurzweil, Roko's basilisk and Singularity are preparing a Machine God cult.

NPCs think that NPCs (they don't consider themselves NPCs) are like robots.
But that's not true - NPCs are more like trained animals, completely in tune with their nature. This can be very clearly seen in their obsession with having social circles, progeny, position in social hierarchy, recognition etc.

It's the humans who are robotic and detached.
To be human, the player character, is to be like a detached spirit that rides a body, body that is nearly identical to one of an NPC.
This cold, mechanical thought is anathema to NPC's organic, religious existence.
A player can experience NPC-like state on certain drugs or after certain kinds of brain damage.

NPCs think that NPCs (they don't consider themselves NPCs) are like robots.

Robot as in slave, not as an "cold-thinking, rational" AI.

This cold, mechanical thought is anathema to NPC's organic, religious existence.

I have enough self-control to not post my stream of consciousness thoughts and emotions. This is a forum. Not an emotional dump like facebook.

It's the humans who are robotic and detached.

We're not robotic or detached. Just Logic > Feels. You can "entertain a thought/emotion without accepting it".
Being ruled by emotions is a horrible experience and it would compare to animal existence. But i don't think NPCs are animals or emotion-driven: they are programmed to think stuff they absorb without critical thinking - like a videogame NPC is programmed to answer all queries with a preset script.
A NPC can be smarter than a PC, but due programming being easily controlled by a PC. Its hard to explain intuitively.
Consider the NPC is like a computer that has trojans and allows multiple logged users and PC is a locked-down box that only has one user.
The PC box can be slower or less intelligent, but its free from external control. Its not like all NPCs are brainlets - they're just not in control, programmed and brainwashed.

>>13

We're not robotic or detached. Just Logic > Feels.

Except that necessarily results in detachment from nature, where feels override logic.

A NPC can be smarter than a PC, but due programming being easily controlled by a PC.

Best controllers are NPCs themselves, fully into it. Think businessmen with interest in keeping things insincere, not shadowy cults with abstract motives.

Its not like all NPCs are brainlets - they're just not in control, programmed and brainwashed.

That's another common view that is wrong about NPCs: that they have to be brainwashed.
NPC is the natural state. Brainwashing only keeps them from awakening, keeps them in the simplified world, governed by mystical, untouchable being that the brainwashers get to describe.
NPCs aren't fallen angels, it's PCs who are rising beasts.

The control of own mind and thought-process is the one thing that strikes one as fundamental gap between NPC and PC.
The NPC reading/absorbing data isn't processing it(this is actually more effective for pure memorization, e.g. speed reading), only exhibiting reflexive emotional reactions. Once its in NPC's memory, NPC has lost control over the data.

A PC can*(the key is PC can skip this with some conscious effort to force one to just absorb stuff) analyse and contemplate during the 'reading/absorbing' step, integrating/filtering the information into a most useful form(usually a very condensed/filtered version without the fluff and irrelevant stuff) and most importantly the PC controls how its used(not blindly recalling memories and thinking according the them, but more like using them as tool to construct new thought). Schools forcing rote memorization discourage this, because it requires time to understand and contemplate the information.