The Truth About Why There are No Robots in Dune

The YouTube algorithm is what actually sparked the Butlerian Jihad.

I love the pure scope of Dune. Often in futuristic stories we stop at the first big civilisation-shattering threat and spend the whole narrative there. But Frank Herbert imagined a world in which that's already happened, humanity survived, but so did our species' flaws. We didn't just become a utopia after the fall of the machines. We just moved on to the next crisis

The Butlerian Jihad is the lynch-pin to this series for me. It allows for the medieval fantasy esque stylization to be set in a distant future sci-fi setting. I love it so much

I’m sad you didn’t get an early viewing. You deserved it with the marketing support you’ve given this movie.

I read the first Dune book back in the early 1990's when I was finishing high school. It had an enormous effect on me as it was the longest single book in English (not my native language) I had read by that time. One of the things I remember quite clearly was the quote for the exact subject of this video: “Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” I remember using this in an essay about technology but, since I was not quoting an acceptably "classic" book such as Dickens or whatever, my teacher wasn't as impressed as I thought they'd be. PS: Reading Dune back then had another quite profound yet unintended effect: the paperback version I read had a quote on the back by Arthur Clarke, saying "I know nothing comparable to it except Lord of the Rings." Seeing how impressed I was with Dune after reading it, this led to me reading Lord of the Rings as well. While I admire Tolkien's masterpiece, Dune still remains my favourite book and I remember watching Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and thinking, "Dune deserves this kind of film adaptation!" I sincerely hope Denis Villeneuve gets to complete it!

Quinns knowledge and understanding of the Dune universe is unparalleled.

It’s worth mentioning that human society post jihad was dominated by the Zen-Islamic religion. One of the basic tenets of Islam, similar to Judaism and Christianity, is the taboo on graven images of god. In Islam, this extends to images of any living creature. An electronic computer or robot, anything without life that can do what any living creature can do, is also interpreted at a fundamentalist level as a graven image, and is therefore haram (forbidden). That is why most orthodox Islamic art is abstract.

The Butlerian Jihad is brilliant for another reason - it ensures the books will never be dated because Herbert didn't predict some future technologies (like the Internet or virtual reality). It's hard to avoid this in science fiction. For example, William Gibson didn't foresee everyone would have cell phones & pay phones would be uncommon when he wrote Neuromancer.

Never forget that typing in 80085 into a calculator is a crime punishable by death in the world of Dune

I remember it was briefly mentioned in "Dune: Chapterhouse" that on one of the planets (Junction, the planet of the Guild) people were using robots again; more as a primitive sweepers without AI but still it sugested humans didn't care about ramifications of Butlerian Jihad anymore (at least on some worlds).

I saw this headline and thought, "The Butlerian Jihad, of course!" But then I realized that you're making videos for people who are new to the series. Can't wait till this weekend.

I love the way Herbert left the computers out. What a brilliant way to say you don't know how technology will evolve. I think that is the biggest reason his story still holds up.

Keep in mind that Herbert wrote Dune in the 1960s. Computers were still large and clunky, and the notion of home computers were a far flung fantasy. The idea of tech like what we have today was just a dream! By getting rid of them, he could run rampant with what he could do.

Don't normally do this...but...less than 10 minutes since the drop. Dune is so close now (01.30am UK 20th October 21). YT is where I live until the IMAX in 36 hours time!

This is one of the topics in the novel that I absolutely love. It digs deep into the philosophical aspect of slavery. Wonderful work as always.

See, this is why this channel is so great. I saw the title and I thought: “That’s easy to answer. It’s because humans were enslaved in the past by men with thinking machines, and they later rebelled against them.” But then Quinn goes into the whole explanation about Herbert’s motivations to distinguish his story from every one else’s and that this was a human story, not a about technology. This was such a great analysis.

I love your content man! I've been listening to you for years. I can remember running on the treadmill listening to your shorten versions of the books! Keep up doing what you do! You have a fundamental level of understanding and I so appreciate that in you man! Keep rocking!

Wow. Just found you today and I’m enthralled by all your videos. Amazing work! I can’t wait to hear your review of the new movie!!!!!! Thanks for all the great videos. I’m a fan now!

It’s kind of funny that the warhammer 40k Imperium and Dune don’t have robots or AI for basically the same reason of “it went horribly wrong and we’re better off never doing that again”.

"Drone Wars" or Black Mirror "Metalhead", heck even Metal Gear Solid 4 ventures into the dystopia where humans used AI and machines to kill other humans with efficiency.