The Prophecies of frank herbert and Dune
My favorite cover!
It may seem like I’m over stating my opinion. And Frank Herbert wasn’t trying to be a prophet. He, like any writer, was writing what was in his heart and on his mind. But I really have the belief that quite a few of the science fiction authors of old were secular prophets, and in my opinion, Frank Herbert was one of the foremost “prophets”. In fact, one of the “major” prophets of science fiction, like a Jeremiah, an Ezekiel or a Daniel.
I first read Dune many years ago , when I was in high school. It was my second trans-formative experience as a young writer. The first was The Lord of the Rings. Like the Lord of the Rings, this book was foundational in my desire to become a writer. After I’d read it, I wanted more stories in this world. Thankfully, Herbert had written five more books in his dazzling desert world and a few earlier tangential books that later influenced the series. Unfortunately, he died before he could finish the series.
But, that’s not what this post is about. This is about his prescience in what could happen to human civilization when it relies too heavily on machines. It’s moral decay, its decline in knowledge and education within the population towards a primitive way of life. It’s a warning and a theme that can be seen in the Terminator films, but addressed in a very different way; it creates the making of a dystopian, bleak future. One is also reminded of the first Matrix film.
When men become too dependent on machines to think for them they cease being humans. They become slaves or worst, unthinking beasts, as Reverend Mother Mohaim in Dune, might put it. Today, many years after the author’s death, we have become that very corrupted, decaying society. We have lost our gods, our heroes, our vision of a bright future, our cultural roots and the belief in the good of our society, but, we have our “new” god - The Machine, or as some might put it, the god in the machine. You even have those who truly believe in this new, fey religion; that the human mind and consciousness can be downloaded into the “machine” and exist there and they work feverishly to achieve this for humanity whether the rest of us want to come along or not. This worship of the Machine is a transcendental belief that has stripped off the moss and the bark of the old religions but has retained the idea of customs, rituals and vestigial appendages of the times of old, without the roots, the foundation and the archetypes that made religions what they were - and still are. And what is religion? It is the system of knowledge that necessarily wrestles with and does its best to answer the big questions of: Why? It is the entity that embraces and incorporates philosophy, the ecstatic experience, the mystery of the Supernatural, the spiritual, the holy ritual and it binds humans together within a culture like glue to create and maintain strong families, a strong society and therefore a strong civilization.
What does the Machine do? When not put in its proper place, like anything, and when under the control of those with strange and dark desires, it becomes destructive. We have become so dependent upon machines that often society ceases to function properly when things break apart or go down temporarily. Artificial Intelligence has taken this problem a step further. So many have become so disconnected to reality in the cyber world that they interact with A.I. as if it is a sentient intelligence instead of a thinking tool, which is what it really is. Many young people coming out of primary school and college see A.I. as an all free pass out of work and learning. They don’t want to learn anything because A.I. will do it for them. Why bother with the work of becoming educated when you don’t have to? I’m afraid to say, some years down the line these same young people are going to feel the harsh belt of reality when they can’t think or perform and are relegated to poverty and serfdom because they chose not to be educated. I know this is not true of all of them and the ones wise enough to understand that they need to be able to think critically, be curious about the world, read and use their brains will come out on top.
A.I. is not true intelligence, not in the way that humans understand intelligence. Honestly, we still don’t even know how to define intelligence well or explain where it comes from. We haven’t even been able to create life out of nothing. So, to enslave the human race to what is, in essence, a machine, to put us under the yoke of something we ourselves don’t fully understand how to use responsibly is anathema to human wisdom and survival. Those who are responsible for this problem have made sure they are still in control but they may not understand how precarious their own position is. This is always the way, if one reads history. Life has a habit of turning the tables on the greedy and powerful. This too happens in Dune. A scripture comes to my mind about these very kinds of people. Revelation 6:15-17. Read it sometime. It is a very interesting scripture in light of what is happening today. After all, there are reports that these tech geniuses and captains of new industry are the same ones building underground cities and lavish survival bunkers. What in the world are you doing building such things if the future is so bold and bright, as they try to tell us, if they aren’t gloating about how A.I. will eventually destroy humanity ( and oh, by the way, they’ve made billions of dollars because of it)? Because the one they are building isn’t bright. They are ushering in a new Dark Age and they know it. One where most of the population will be reduced once again, to peasantry, serfdom and slavery. And I have news for them; if the dirty, unwashed masses go, so will you. You don’t get to rid the planet of most of humanity and think that it will go well with you. It won’t. Those underground bunkers are simply fancy tombs. I’m sure Herbert is turning over in his grave over what society has become.
Look for part two if this series next. Happy reading.
