No Computers, No A.I., and No Androids: Why the Future SciFi of Dune Is So LoFi

One of the central tropes that distinguishes Dune from most sci fi is that it eschews artificial intelligence, computers, and robots.

In the novel, which takes place 8,000 years in the future, we learn that there was a time when humanity nearly perished in a great war for survival with A.I. (here there are echos of what is currently happening at Facebook).

Herbert left the specifics of the war vague in his original books but they are detailed in The Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002–2004) by his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Legends is about the “Butlerian Jihad.” The jihad was a conflict that took place over 1,000 years in the future (and 7,000 years before the events of Dune), which results in the total destruction of virtually all forms of “computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots”.

With the prohibition: “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind,” the creation of even the simplest thinking machines is outlawed and made taboo, which has a profound influence on the socio-political and technological development of humanity in the Dune series.

Herbert refers to the Jihad several times in the novels, but does not give much detail on how he imagined the causes and nature of the conflict.

Critical analysis has often associated the term with Samuel Butler and his 1863 essay “Darwin among the Machines”, which advocated the destruction of all advanced machines.

The Butlerian Jihad aka the Holy Jihad aka The Great Revolt – two generations of chaos (200 BG – 108 BG). The god of machine-logic was overthrown among the masses and a new concept was raised:

“Man may not be replaced.”

The series explains that humanity had become entirely complacent and dependent upon thinking machines; recognizing this weakness, a group of ambitious, militant humans calling themselves the Titans use this widespread reliance on machine intelligence to seize control of the entire universe. Their reign lasts for a century; eventually they give too much access and power to the AI program Omnius, which usurps control from the Titans themselves. Seeing no value in human life, the thinking machines—now including armies of robot soldiers and other aggressive machines—dominate and enslave nearly all of humanity in the universe for 900 years, until a jihad is ignited. This crusade against the machines lasts for nearly a century, with much loss of human life but ultimately ending in human victory.

GQ: At long last, the spice flows. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune hits theaters today, and it does an excellent job exporting the eccentricities and sci-fi shenanigans of Frank Herbert’s novel to the big screen. Sand worms, space nuns, slow blades – it’s all there. But if you’re watching closely, you may also notice what’s not there—screens. Timothee Chalamet’s character Paul Atreides learns about Arrakis with a fancy projector; people carry books with them. But even though there are extremely powerful spaceships in the Dune universe, there are no computers. There’s a reason for that, and it’s key to understanding why everything is the way it is in Dune.

Villeneuve’s movie doesn’t dip as deep into expanded Dune lore as it could. So: A little more than 10,000 years before the events of the movie, there was an intergalactic war between humans and artificial intelligence. (Does this sound like The Matrix? No, The Matrix sounds like Dune.) Regardless, the humans won, computers were banned, and the events of the movie were set up.

The psychic space nuns, led by Charlotte Rampling’s Reverend Mother? Those are the Bene Gesserit, and they emerged to preserve humans after computers wiped a lot of humans out. Stephen McKinley Harrison’s character and his weird mental math tricks? He’s what Herbert called a “mentat,” basically a human computer. Even the whole quasi-Medieval political setup – the Emperor, the “houses,” the weird galactic feudal system that sends the Atreides family to the desert planet – it’s a reactionary arrangement that moves the universe back to a simpler time, not forward into a technological future.

This is one way Dune separates itself from a lot of science fiction media—it leans lo-fi. Unlike 2001 or an Asimov story or Villeneuve’s last outing, Blade Runner 2049, there isn’t much hi-tech futurism. It’s a dude on a hero’s journey dealing with some serious intra-family feuds; he happens to be in outer space. The tech – the stillsuits that retain water, the thumpers that distract worms, so on – is mostly mechanical. Unlike warp drive in Star Trek, space travel in Dune is a mystical experience, conducted by “navigators” who can “fold space” after huffing a nonstop stream of spice. You can see a few of them when the Emperor’s herald arrives to send Oscar Isaac and crew to Arrakis.

Dune is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max now.