What I find interesting about thinking machines in Dune, is that in a lot of sci-fi the artificial intelligence itself is what decides to destroy humanity. In Dune, humans in charge of the machines (technocrats) are the ones that come close to destroying humanity. The Jihad was a fight against them, as much as it was against the machines themselves.

So, in a way, we're more likely to see the Dune version of "machines taking over the world/universe" than say, Terminator's even though many joke about ChatGPT/Claude being Skynet.

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AlotOfReading 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm not sure we read the same story. By the time of the inciting incident, the technocrat cyborgs (Titans) have been enslaved by the machine leader, which has no humans in charge of it.

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duskwuff 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You did, in fact, read a different story. You're thinking of the story told in the books by Brian Herbert and KJA - which were a distinctly pulpier take on the Dune universe than Frank Herbert's.

	▲	qingcharles 25 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Those last books were a lot easier reading! I actually enjoyed them, but I'm still suspect about the whole "finding a floppy disc" thing, seeing as they've been so secretive about it.

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Mobius01 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We did. Brian Herbert’s expansion of his father’s work is best left in the shelf.

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joeblubaugh 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think you read a lot of books that are post-2000. IMO the original 4 or 5 books imply strongly that it’s man v man, not man v machine

	▲	duskwuff 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's left fairly ambiguous by Frank Herbert's books. The Jihad is implied to have taken place over ten thousand years before the beginning of Dune - it's ancient history to everyone involved, so it's only natural that the details are a little hazy. : except Leto II, and he doesn't say much about it

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madrox an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

A lot of long time Dune fans don't consider those books canon when discussing them in the abstract. Frank Herbert had a vision of what the jihad was and what it meant, and its eventual book depiction was fairly base.

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2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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