[colbyn]

The title could have been a line out of Dune.

It’s interesting that many of us myself included once thought that the butlerian jihad was silly until now. Frank Herbert wrote something that is particularly prescient.

(Usually writers are just a decade ahead of their time. Whatever Podcasters are talking about today, has usually already been discussed in literature a decade ago. Prediction markets come to mind. Socially, over vs under population as discussed in popular books like the rationale optimist or the accidental superpower.)

[abnercoimbre]

> Frank Herbert wrote something that is particularly prescient.

Curiously enough the Dune books are a strong rebuke against prescience (read: humanity coveting precog abilities.) I'll leave it at that to avoid spoilering.

Keep an eye on the next movie this year!

[elric]

If you thought the Butlerian Jihad was silly, you may have missed a few important nuances in Dune. I mean I suspect the concept was originally a convenient way to explain why tech in Dune hadn't advanced all that much in 20k years, but the in-universe explanations are pretty good.

In fact they are somewhat similar to the reasons why the Melnibonéan empire fell in the Michael Moorcock Elric universe: people got lazy, spent their time drugged out of their minds, and cruelty seemed to be one of the few things to get a rise out of them. In Dune labour was delegated to (thinking) machines, in Elric it was delegated to slaves. Eventually such a society will collapse or be conquered.