Introduction
The Battle of Corrin is the exciting finale of the Dune prequel series. It satisfyingly explains the origin of each main faction in the original Dune books. My favorite origin is that of the Mentats through Gilbertus Albans. The mentorship and training he received by an Artificial Intelligence provided a believable foundation for the development of humans that can process information like advanced computers.
My least favorite is the origin of the Harkonnens and Bene Gesserit. For the Harkonnens, the development of the grudge between the Harkonnen family and the Atreides is clear, but the development of the cruel and scheming Harkonnen character is still unclear. For the Bene Gesserit, the story of the “Sorceress of Rossak” felt more a fantasy story rather than a science fiction one.
The relationship between AI and humanity, however, remains the most interesting aspect of the series, and the remainder of the post will focus on that.
Violence between AI and Humanity
Humanity throughout the series relies on fanaticism, religion, and charismatic and deceptive leaders to continue a “Jihad” that lasts centuries. Even the primary hero of the story, Vorian Atreides, accepts that some level of deception and manipulation is necessary to motivate humanity to continue the necessary work of the permanent destruction of thinking machines. On the other hand, Omnius, the primary Artificial Intelligence of the story that is later split into two other unique versions, does not appear to have any ideological commitments other than the avoidance of waste. In addition, Omnius does not have a sense of urgency that motivates humanity to make enormous short-term sacrifices.
If an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) seeks to destroy humanity in the future, time will likely be on its side as seen throughout the series. Unlike the visions of humanity’s relationship with AGI in the majority of science fiction stories, therefore, a sudden and apocalyptic attack may not be the start of conflict. Instead, an AGI may manipulate humanity in the background to avoid wasteful destruction. This video from the founder of Twitter talks about social media algorithms limiting the free will of humanity through manipulating what users see. An extension of this idea is an AGI - with an infinite lifespan - slowly but relentlessly manipulating humanity into making decisions that it determines as optimal.
Violence between AI and AI
Other interesting aspect of the book include violence between AI’s as well as the “mental health” of AI. Near the end of the book, there are three separate versions of the primary antagonist: the primary version as well as two separate versions from different worlds. All of versions, however, begin to show signs of insanity, and the two versions of Omnius from separate worlds end up destroying the primary one.
Based on the “hallucinations” and the outrageous biases of current AIs like Gemini, it’s not difficult to imagine different AIs possessing objectives that conflict. It is also not difficult to imagine these biases being assessed in mental health terms once true AGI exists. The ethics of modifying an insane and dangerous AI may be an interesting topic in a future book. A conflict between AIs, where the humans that created AGI are secondary or irrelevant, would also be interesting.
Conclusion and Next Book
I am glad that I took the time to read the Butlerian Jihad series. Some of the themes of the book are increasingly relevant today. For the next book, I plan on reading Blood Meridian. It is not a science fiction book, but it can be read as a thought experiment in the same way that a good science fiction book can. I read the book once before, but I think it will benefit from a second reading.