Are There Aliens in Dune?

The Dune series needed no intelligent alien life. It was playing around with the idea that given enough time and isolation on various disparate worlds, WE would eventually develop into alien life.

It's a common scifi trope to have an ancient civilization, extant or extinct, that the younger races learn from or suffer because of. In the Dune saga, it feels like WE are the ancients. As if life in the universe will grow from us and our actions. A nice departure.

I like that even with all the power to travel the stars, humans so desperately want to find proof that we aren't alone. It's beautiful and sad.

The idea that the worms evolved the spice to make us symbiotic/dependent is…eerily similar to how cat gut bacteria will make mice less afraid of cats.

In the Dune Universe, Humanity have no sentient aliens to be bother with. In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Humanity are working very hard to have no sentient aliens to be bother with.

I assumed by only allowing atomics to be used against 'none humans' that they were referring to thinking machines.

I've delved into Dune lore, and it seems that the Imperium is largely confined to the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy, and the Scattering led to the colonization of other galaxies. That would explain why we don't meet non-human intelligent life -- maybe it's not in our cosmic neighborhood, and we have no idea what all they encountered in the Scattering. There is alien life in the books though, just not sentient aliens. I'm thinking of course of sandworms/sandtrout/sandplankton.

Back in the mid 1980s, I was stuck in Singapore, not interested in the fleshpots and only able to eat so much in a day, with not having time to sightsee on weekdays, I found a Second Hand Bookshop that specialised in Science Fiction. I’d read Robert Heinlein previously, but having access to his work on a buy/read/exchange basis allowed me to consume and become a life time fan. This, naturally, led me to Frank Herbert and I discovered a whole new style of writing and subjects, to my joy.

This is one of my favorite aspects of the series. 10,000s of years in the future and we are still our biggest challenge. We mutated/evolved ourselves, created the AIs which nearly destroyed us, and clash with each other over a highly addictive commodity.

During our water outages in Texas, I was able to tell my girlfriend, "water is life."

The divergent evolution of humans, especially with spice involved, makes some of these future versions of our own species utterly alien enough.

I have never pondered that before, but I agree that it IS a terrifying "sidenote" that is cool to think about. The vaguery of it all is compelling. How COULD the Sandtrout just "end up" on Arrakis? Was it an accident? Was it a deliberate action by Humans long gone who discovered the Spice and its benefits long before the events of the Saga? Or where Aliens responsible? It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but it is an interesting itch to scratch. Thanks for this video, Quinn. Great stuff, as always!

The lack of alien life is one of the things I've always loved about the Dune series. Apart from adding a sense of loneliness, it makes the human cultures feel more distinct from one another and makes their collective fate feel more important.

Not involving alien life meant that the entire focus was on humanity. It also shows that one of humanity’s biggest enemies doesn’t come from outside, but within. We are our own worst enemy.

I don't think you get how amazing this youtube channel is. Like you have no idea how fun it is to listen to you explain books i've never read

This topic reminds me of discussions about the non existence of Aliens in the Battletech and Mechwarrior RPG settings. The general answer in those discussions can be summed up as..."Mankind has always been its own worst enemy. An outside threat is not needed."

The fact that Leto knew about the introduction of the sandworns to Arrakis tells us that humans did it. He could see the future possibilities, but the past he saw through genetic memory. So the "someone" who brought sand trout to Arrakis was human and an ancestor of Paul. This opens the strong possibility that the sand worms themselves were not truly alien, but a creation of humanity (or the thinking machines) before the butlarian jihad.

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” ― Arthur C. Clarke

I love your dune videos. I’ve found my new love in dune. The new movie introduced this series to me, but I’ve been a fan of your Chanel for longer. Thank you for sharing, absolutely in love with this new universe.

Top quality content, thanks indeed. Spent my early teenage years pouring over The Encyclopaedia so this is great viewing.