
Frank Herbert's seventh Dune novel (2005) - pmoriarty
http://www.iwriteiam.nl/Dune7.html
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m12k
It has occurred to me that the Foundation and Dune series actually deal with
the same philosophical material, regarding the predictability of human actions
and the danger of subjugating humanity to the will of an individual. And
there's parallels in how they deal with the topic, yet they're also very
different takes on the matter - in both series, centralization of power is
seen as a bad thing, but in Foundation predictability is a good thing, while
in Dune it's the very means by which humanity is subjugated. A quick recap:

In the Foundation series, while an individual is unpredictable, humanity's
actions as a whole are predictable at a macroscopic level through a science
called psychohistory (like how an individual quantum mechanical effect is
unpredictable, but can be aggregated to a higher level into Newtonian
mechanics, which are very predictable). This allows the inventor of the
science to predict the downfall of our galactic civilization, but also to
create a cache of advice to be released over time to help shorten the
following dark age before the next renaissance. However, eventually a single
individual (a mutant) develops the power to influence minds en masse and
starts conquering the galaxy, thus bending humanity to the will of a single
individual, which then also effectively makes humanity unpredictable again.
Which is a bad thing since it causes the plan to help us out of the dark age
to go askew. It takes another individual with the power to change minds to
undo the damage by manipulating the conqueror to give up his plan.

In the Dune series, all of humanity's actions are predictable by a single
person (the result of a millennia long selective breeding program combined
with a psychotropic drug to trigger the ability), which is a bad thing since
it also gives that one person unprecedented control over humanity's destiny by
using his knowledge of the future to manipulate events - effectively ending
"free will" for everyone and putting all our eggs in one basket. It takes
another millennia long breeding program (based on a tyrannical empire
providing evolutionary pressure) to undo the damage by breeding true
unpredictability into humanity again.

I find it fascinating how two great sci-fi series deal with the same
philosophical question in a way that is so similar yet also so different.

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jesuslop
I would've been positive if Brian Herbert would have left us the option to
peek at the unedited legacy notes, whatever the crude state the were left in.
It's also sad that the literature Art is in a state that no contemporary or
posterior work can dispute the quality rank of this saga in its genre.

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josteink
This reminds me I’ve only read the first three novels.

Maybe it’s time to do something about that :)

~~~
dugditches
The 4th book is different than the others, in that it's told from the
perspective of a 'God'.

5th and 6th are also interesting in that they explore the Sects and universe
more in depth.

Personally I found 2nd and 3rd books the worst.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" Personally I found 2nd and 3rd books the worst."_

I absolutely agree. _Children of Dune_ and _Dune Messiah_ are by far the
worst. The series picks up with _God Emperor of Dune_ , and my favorites are
the last two: _Heretics of Dune_ and _Chapterhouse Dune_.

The original _Dune_ book was also good, but overrated compared to the last two
in the series.

