I take off my critic hat and put on my scientist hat to see how the science of Dune holds up. And…it’s not too bad.
Michael Siegel
Michael Siegel is an astronomer living in Pennsylvania. He blogs at his own site, and has written a novel.
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on I Told You SoYou're familiar with the old saw from the War on Terror days, right? "A Muslim extremist wants to ki… on I Told You SoMy original thesis is at the very root comment. We've got a bunch of Conservative Types who are comp…
on I Told You So*sigh* You are all over the place, Jaybird. You utterly fail to actually state your thesis so no one… on I Told You SoIn any case, I was under the impression that if Trump was, in fact, Hitlerian, that it would put obl… on I Told You SoIt's weird looking back at the year, huh? There were a handful of people who said "if Biden is the c… on I Told You SoMen + College are the only ones who stepped up. Put the blame where it belongs: Men Without College… on I Told You SoYes, continue to blame the Muslims in Michigan despite the vote in Michigan not actually being any d… on I Told You SoSo you agree that it is a quotation that exists? on I Told You SoI'm okay with just Trump being Hitler too. Saddened, I suppose. But it's okay. At least we have *ONE… on I Told You SoYou realize that's a quote by Erik Erickson, right? A person who voted for Trump and presumably does…
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Another good episode.
Regarding the section on psychic powers… my (long ago) reading of that was less psychic than hyper genetic… the key (for me) was the ‘Mitochondrial Inheritance’ of the Bene Gesserit (literaly both ‘Do Gooders’ & ‘Good Bearers’) that enabled them to inherit the fullness of the previous lives via their genetic inheritance. It struck me as a balance between pure science and mystic discipline (powered by spice)… like a breakthrough that required proper breeding/genes to have access to the mystic discipline — which was then unlocked by a chemical, spice, via a mystic ritual that either granted access to the DNA memories or death. The absence of the Mystical Training/Discipline is the madness that overtakes Aliya. It’s all very rational; hyper rational; mystically rational.
[We can ignore, if we wish, Brian Herbert’s next evolutionary discovery regarding male orgasms… and insect like reflexes… but that’s part & parcel of their hyper genetic approach to mysticism.]
I like the pre-cognition comparing it to a hyper-mentat state… plausible… but oddly, here I’m not entirely sure how it reconciles with the Golden Path… the Path is Teleological, the computing the grains of sand is mathematical. I guess I just reduced the Teleology to preventing extinction… but that’s a pretty monstrous Teleology, all things considered.
Of course, the Teleology and Hyper-Genetics come together under Leto II rather spectacularly.Report
Good points!Report
I love this interpretation. I also quite enjoyed how Herberts children expanded his universe and at the same time rationalized many of the events as being, in a way, aberration caused by a historic schism (the human from AI schism caused by human cruelty and greed) and resolved by resolving that schism (rapprochement between human and artificial intelligence).Report
i very much enjoy these videos Michael!Report
An unfortunate choice of terminology: you said, more or less, ”Arrakis has no seasons because it is tilted 90°; Earth has seasons because it is tilted 23°.” That should be either 0° and 23° or 90° and 67°.Report