Life during the Covid-19 pandemic would be even more difficult without the Internet and automation, making it timely for a new “Dune” film to portray a distant future where humanity is devastated by our dependence on machines.
Director Dennis Villeneuve released his adaptation of the science fiction epic in October 2021, both on HBO Max and in movie theaters. The release was delayed from 2020 to make it safer for people to view and hear the space fantasy in theaters.
WarnerMedia aims to distribute Villeneuve’s vision of the first “Dune” novel in two films, and has begun casting the second part.
Frank Herbert’s “Dune” novel begins many thousands of years in the far distant future. It’s basically fantasy, but it’s still a commentary on how humanity could progress and evolve through the eons.
When Herbert published “Dune” in 1965 he feared that artificial intelligence could be very dangerous for human society, making us lazy, careless, arrogant, and even vulnerable to tyranny with automated militaries. The backstory of the novel depicts how humans were enslaved by robots, fought a revolutionary crusade and banned artificial intelligence with a new anti-tech religion.
The warnings about robots and other forbidden technologies are rarely discussed during the main action of “Dune.” The film stars including Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet and Josh Brolin are unlikely to mention the “Machine Crusade” that takes place 36,000 years before the storyline.
Villeneuve is poised to focus on the power struggle between noble houses during the waning years of a galaxy-spanning Imperium. The Corrino family that rules the Imperium descends from heroes of an ancient war between humanity and robots.
Herbert imagined a dystopian future where humanity spreads from Earth to explore space and delegates nearly all work to artificially intelligent “thinking machines,” leading society to become decadent and lazy.
After Herbert’s death, his son Brian Herbert wrote prequel novels based on his father’s notes that expand the backstory about this “machine crusade” that shapes the storyline of the “Dune” film.
A faction of rebellious hackers called the Titans eventually takes control of automated militaries, toppling complacent governments and becoming rulers of the known universe. Like humans today, these usurpers delegate increasing amounts of work to automated digital assistants. By giving these “thinking machines” too much autonomy, the artificial intelligence that runs every aspect of society becomes self-aware and enslaves humanity.
Robots enslave most of humanity for generations before the surviving humans begin a religious crusade called the “Butlerian Jihad” or “Machine Crusade” to destroy all artificial intelligence.
Earth is destroyed by the time of “Dune” because of this crusade against thinking machines.
Humans use nuclear missiles to destroy Earth, where the master computer controlling most of the robots was located. Ten thousand years later during the events of “Dune,” intelligent machines are outlawed, nuclear weapons are banned, and Earth has entered into mythology as “Old Terra.”
Religious leaders ban artificial intelligence and declare “thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” Similar technology including cybernetics is shunned because of the anti-robot faith that won the Jihad.
By the time of the events in Villeneuve’s “Dune” film, the Imperium that rules the galaxy has discarded machines and become obsessed with human potential through genetic engineering, selective breeding, brain-enhancing drugs and especially an alien substance called “spice.”
This near-magical spice that prolongs life and enables psychic abilities is found only on a desert planet called Arrakis, nicknamed Dune, making it “the most valuable planet in the universe” and the main setting for the film.
This cautionary storyline about complacency in the face of growing technology reflects the dangers our society faces while enjoying machines that make our lives easier during this pandemic.
The sci-fi fantasy epic also includes Herbert’s ideas about religion, politics, ecology, and how space travel will change humanity.
Religion adapts to galactic society during that future, and efforts to unify human faith discover that all beliefs share a common commandment: “thou shalt not disfigure the soul.”
Some in the “Dune” universe find it unholy to create artificial intelligence or use robotics to prolong life.
Herbert built his fictional world with a total of six novels that span millennia, giving them a detailed backstory at the scale of “Game of Thrones” or “Lord of the Rings.”
Machines don’t have the artificial intelligence to overthrow humanity but digital assistance increasingly dominates our lives.
Apple and Google are among the companies studying machine learning so their digital services will know us better than we know ourselves. People sheltering at home to avoid coronavirus are using Zoom video chats to talk with distant loved ones despite well-publicized privacy risks. Overeager consumers who neglect privacy make themselves vulnerable to surveillance and identity theft.
The double-edged sword of automated convenience also threatens jobs. When cash-strapped businesses reopen after the coronavirus shutdown, some employers will look to machines instead of humans to make up for lost revenue, according to a report from the Brookings Institution. The think tank based in Washington, D.C., reports that 36 million US jobs have a “high” susceptibility to automation including manufacturing, food service, and transportation.
“Automation happens in bursts, concentrated especially in bad times such as in the wake of economic shocks, when humans become relatively more expensive as firms’ revenues rapidly decline,” Brookings reports.
“At these moments, employers shed less-skilled workers and replace them with technology and higher-skilled workers, which increases labor productivity as a recession tapers off.”
Automation in vehicles can also endanger the lives of passengers if there are not enough safety precautions. Limited automation software on Tesla Autopilot cars and on Boeing 737 Max aircraft contributed to fatal crashes in part because people did not respond properly to the AI actions on those vehicles.
Although “Dune” takes place in the very, very distant future, Herbert drew his inspiration from debates about science, environment and politics he witnessed as a newspaper journalist during the rapidly-changing 1960s.
Readers are drawn to Herbert’s science fiction epic in part because many problems he addressed in 1965 are even more pronounced today. Villeneuve has said he wants to be very faithful to the source material, so hopefully his reimagining of Herbert’s dystopian future will help a new generation appreciate the author’s cautionary tale.
The Dune saga by Frank and Brian Herbert is vast but the novel is perhaps best known for the Bene Gesserit sisterhood of witches, who achieve superhuman feats of mind and body with help from spice, meditation and prayer.
HBO Max has optioned a TV show based on the Bene Gesserit, who rule the galactic Imperium from the shadows with spies and diplomats.
The most famous rite of the sisterhood is “The Litany Against Fear.”
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. I will face my fear. I will permit my fear to pass over and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
[This story has been updated to include that a sequel is in production.]
