The Dune series is vast and expansive covering six books, one movie, two miniseries, several video games, board games, and spinoffs penned by other authors. I could write a few thesises on the themes, and subject matter of the series. Dune is an epic in the traditional sense: it is a lengthy narrative, revolving around heroic struggles, and a serious subject matter. ’s setting is the most fascinating. Placing the wackier aspects of the series, such as giant city eating worms, and hallucinogenic spice which gives users powers on the back burner, the Duniverse it is used to explore transhumanism, technology, and religion. It analyses what happens when a post human superman intersect with the human condition.
Over 20,000 years into our future, the human race has colonized many planets throughout the universe. Ten thousand years prior to the first events of Dune, there was a war against the “Thinking Machines” called the
Butlerian Jihad. Human society had become guided to the point of complacence by machines, similar to I, Robot’s
“The Inevitable Conflict”. The Jihad took on a religious context, with humans struggling for freedom and self determination. It nearly decimated the species and as such left a profound impact on society and religion for millennium to come.The supreme commandment of the religious scripture of the Dune universe is “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” The rejection of technology causes society to evolve backward into a feudal system. Great House, or royal warlords have reign over the known universe. Technology is replaced, by human beings specially developing their potential.
Mentats are humans who minds function like computers. One of the major political powers is the
Spacing Guild who has monopolized interplanetary travel. Their navigators are the only ones capable of preforming the complex mathematics allow space folding. The matriarchal quasi religious order, the
Bene Gesserit influence human evolution though a eugenic breading program. Their goal is to create the Kwisatz Haderach, an ubermensch , with unparalleled powers who they could control as the universes messiah. Aside from intentional engineering, natural evolution has an effect on the human condition. People who live on harsher worlds come to be superior physical specimens. The Fremen of
Arrakis, (the titular “Dune”) a harsh desert world, and
Sardaukar of the
Salusa Secundusa prison planet with a 60% mortality rate, are shaped by natural selection. Only the toughest of the tough survive to reproduce. Human beings are capable of controlling every muscle and chemical in their bodies, space folding, enhanced agility, super strength, and precognition.
Though the super-hero level abilities people develop in Dune are unrealistic, and partially influenced by the fictional drug spice melange, their effects on culture and society are not. Dune makes for some very interesting speculative fiction when religion meets trans-humanism. There is a theory that in the future human beings will be able to influence our own evolution through science. We already manipulate our abilities and strengths with pharmaceutical drugs, surgery, genetic engineering, and technology. As technology develop how much further will we push out own potential? What happens when you have someone who is recognized as a superior or better person? They are treated as such. Our nature to elevate that which we do not understand to divinity takes control. The first novel in the series follows the story of Paul Artredes. To make a VERY long story short, Paul’s family is deposed from ruling the desert planet Arrakis. To survive Paul and his mother escape into the wilderness, and join forces with the Dune’s indigenous humans. Paul is part of the Bene Gesserit breeding program and as such is a super-person. The Fremen have a religious prophecy of the Mahdi. The prophecy was planted in the culture by the Bene Gesserit and said that savior would come from another world and lead the Fremen to paradise. Paul convinces the Fremen heis Mahdi, raises an army to reconquer the planet. By the end of the novel he has undergone a transformation emerging as the Kwisatz Haderach, free from the control of the Bene Gesserit. He rises to the role of Emperor of the Known Universe and is revered as a living god. Though Paul is a hero and a “good guy”, he is still a fallible human. The problem is he is recognized as an infallible omniscient leader. As a god he is worshiped to the point of idolism. The general human populace is crippled and pacified by religion that develops around Mahdi. This degenerates into a system of control. Instead of determining their own destiny humanity is manipulated through this religion by the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, the Great Houses, and the Kwisatz Haderach’s family. This is the same manner of control the Thinking Machines exuded, over humanity that inspired the Butlerian Jihad 10,000 years before.
Though Dune’s Vision of the future can be a bit fanciful at times, it does make a good point. It envisions the dangers of trans-humanism intersecting with evolution, and religion. When people are elevated above others in ability and importance, it undermines the self determination of the regular people. The moral of Dune is “beware the superman”. As science develops will a superman or a Kwisatz Haderach be possible?
