One of the most notable things aboutDuneis its utterly unique world-building. The future as it appears in Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 novel is completely unlike any other. The story is set thousands of years in the future, so far ahead that it could bear no resemblance to any time mankind has ever known. Instead,Duneborrows a bit from multiple eras and leaves a lot of each behind.
TheDunefranchise isalso known for being extraordinarily dense. Not just in its theming and scale, but almost every element of its history, tradition, and culture is explained in detail. In a world with such a complex backstory, there has to be a story behind its unique use of technology.
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More than 10,000 years before thebirth of Paul Atreidesand the events of the originalDune, the universe did operate with computers, thinking machines, and sentient robots. Conscious machines operated spaceships, robots served as personal assistants, and humans relied almost entirely on electronics for everything. This era likely resembledWall-Emore than it didDune. Humans were able to develop technologically as thinking machines handled everything simple for them. However, the psychological impact of artificial intelligence was deleterious to the human condition, and some humans finally rose up against their machine overlords.
An order of humanity called Butlerians waged a bloody war against the “god of machine logic.” Jihad, an Arabic word that literally means “struggling,” is here used in its colloquial “holy war” definition. The Butlerians were zealots who believed that creating a machine in the guise of a human was a sin. They believed that humans must govern themselves and thatmachines were replacing humanity. For more than 100 years, Butlerians and machines slaughtered each other by the billions.
Gradually, humanity grew tired of the conflict, citing the similarities in negative traits between both camps. The Butlerian Jihad and resulting peace culminated in a commandment in the Orange Catholic Bible, the most popular religious text of the era. That book insisted “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” As a result, thinking machines became illegal to create or own. There are no computers, robots, or AI inDunebecause their timeline has already gone through the full cycle of everystory about evil machines. One could make a season ofBlack Mirrorout of the background details ofDune.
What replaced computers inDune?
The gradual death of thinking machines left a hole in the lives of most people. Imagine if mankind suddenly had to do all the intense math we entrust to algorithms and computers today.The people ofDunehave much more to deal with. Though the teachings of the Butlerians weren’t all respected, they did instill humanity with a reverence for their own spirit. As a result, three complicated insular sects developed to complete the tasks that were once completed by machines.
First came the Spacing Guild, the group of navigators that claimed a monopoly on faster-than-light travel. Then there was theBene Gesserit, the Sisterhoodthat taught their all-female students a variety of superhuman techniques and religious rituals. Finally, there are the Mentates, humans who are trained to have perfect recall and advanced mathematical skills. The Spacing Guild handles navigation, the Sisterhood seeks to force mankind to evolve, and the Mentates are basically living computers. It’s hard to tell which universe is preferable. The former saw mankind rely too heavily on machines, the latter sees them forcefully altered by various illicit groups. TheDunefranchise combines a lot of different elements to make its unique tapestry.
From a distance, the Butlerian Jihad is a clever literary trick to explain a creative choice. A lot ofDune’s backstory exists as a justification for one strange element or another. Frank Herbert wasn’tparticularly interested inDuneas a metaphor for technology. Other sci-fi authors had already created stories very similar to that of the Jihad, but Herbert’s take on the concept treats it as an eventuality. Technology mostly exists as a background detail in theDunestories. Psychic powers, on the other hand, are very important to that universe. This arguably dampens the science aspect of the science fiction story, but it also introduces an element of mysticism that makesDunemore iconic.
Duneisn’t a story about robots or computers. It’s astory about fated heroes, ancient traditions, cycles of destiny, and magical journeys. It’s key to the lore that everything from advanced math to deep-space cartography must be completed by people.Duneis a world in which segments of mankind can learn to have perfect objective recall, verbal hypnosis, and brief glimpses of the future. They don’t need the internet, they have access to superpowers. The Butlerian Jihad would be a great story to dig into someday, but it mostly serves to get Frank Herbert out of writing about robots.
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