Oldest Humans of Dune and Human Lifespan Explained
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Published 2024-03-25
So, as we have explored in a previous video, there are no alien species in the dune universe, at least there are no sentient alien beings and entities, no extraterrestrial civilizations that have been encountered in the vast expanse of the interstellar Imperium. So, what do we get instead, in the span of thousands of years, we get different subspecies of humans, hybrids, clones, mutated specimens and even super beings, ones that can bend space and time to access genetic memories of the ancestors and even look into the future to the events pertaining to their descendants.
In the book, God Emperor of Dune, in Chapter 1 Leto II mentions that without Melange people in that timeline would live and die according to the ancient measure. No more than 100 years or so. which means that even though thousands of years have passed, our baseline human genetics are still relatively unchanged and the years of life are still similar but might I add, that it is slightly more in this fictional age. People in developed countries have a lifespan ranging from 70-80 years and therefore Leto mentioning that they carry on till 100 shows a 20 year increase in longevity.
However, for the majority of people, lifespans are similar to those of the 20th century. Take for example: Shaddam IV was the 81st Padishah Emperor, and the head of House Corrino that had ruled the Imperium for about 10,000. So, divide the 10K years with the number of emperors, this gives every emperor a term of about 123 years, and if we account for regents and vacant years without an active emperor then maybe we get an average lifespan for an emperor in the range of 140-150 years.
However in Heretics of Dune, as I have noted just now, here it suggests that a person with extensive access to Melange and having good genetics as well as good health care and rejuvenation tech could live in to their 300s.
All Comments (21)
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At one point in the novels, Herbert says that the Spice enables people to live to be around 400 years old, barring murder or accidental death, but then he doesn't do much with that. Most people, with the exceptions of Leto II and the Guild steersmen, don't live much longer than long-lived people of our time.
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Actually, the oldest human in the Dune universe is Norma Cenva. As far as I recall, she is still a conscious entity at the end of the series of books and long existed before and after Leto II. She is easily the longest existing human consciousness.
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Dune sure has amazing species of creatures. They're always worth looking into in depth.
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A couple of things, the first is that the Bene Gesserits had been playing around with human genetics for many generations by the start of the series. I think it's incredibly likely that part of the changes would be to increase life expectancy, especially in the ruling class, though that was probably still in the low-to-mid 100s without spice. For Jessica, "feeling old and withered in her body" in her 50s was probably more to do with the years of stress rather than age, nobody thought it weird when she got pregnant with Alia of the Knife. Harkonnen was not a healthy man, he probably aged prematurely.
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Just because the members of a royal family live longer is no reason to assume their reigns will be longer. The length of a monarch's reign is a function of the generation, not the lifespan. If people are living to 400, they probably aren't waiting until they're 350 to start having kids. An Emperor who lives to be 150 may only have ascended the throne when he was 125. Also, you're forgetting that the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers are theoretically immortal. Anyone who has survived the Water of Life can completely regenerate every cell in their body. They are forbidden from being actually immortal though.
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I thought that the navigators lived around the same lifespan as Leto II. In their upper stages they were said to be thousands of years old, maybe even older than Leto actually. 4th stage is said to be the eldest among them at 3 or 4 thousand years. I wouldn't be surprised if Leto had the ability to fold space himself since he underwent a similar process and was the most gifted prescient ever. He probably had guild abilities and then some.
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After Leto II's death, the Scattering and Famine Times would've led to a severe shortage of spice for all but the richest. No doubt lifespans would be greatly shortened. tavi.
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They talk about the oracle "Norma Cenva" in the original books... they don't say how old she is but since she had always been around she is at least 10000 years old!!!
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Imagine if they raise average human life expectancy to 100 in this century. Even 20 more expected healthy years would drastically change the shape of society. People would have more time for everything.
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I remember reading that Ghanima lived over 400 and that the BGs can prolong their lives through their training - which they try not to use because they would be captured and tortured for their knowledge.
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Excluding a body, Erasmus’s consciousness was protected for a long time and died 15,372 years (sort of bc he died twice)
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Why your voice tone changed midway?
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Miles Teg is a fking BAD ass. 🎉🎉🎉
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The day, the year. They represent something for Earth. But are they still units used when mankind is far from Earth?
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From what I see, Norma Cenva became the first Space Navigator of the Spacing Guild. So she was far from just “human” lol.
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Wonder if the Fremem lived longer due to exposure to spice?
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Its funny how the Emperor Shaddam Corrino the 4th age was barely mentioned in this video. I Remember reading he was 68 but looks like he's in he's mid 30s, as if the spice melange kept some people youthful rather prolonged their life.
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but if you stop taking the spice or it finally dries up....sick withdrawals !
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Since Earth years are our measure, but the Imperium covers planets with different year lengths, how is the measure of X number of “years” going to be comparable across planets.
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Damn leto hit that asaurus ass
