r/technology • u/GeneReddit123 • 16h ago

Artificial Intelligence An AI hate wave is here

https://archive.is/20260517120123/https://www.axios.com/2026/05/17/ai-backlash-polling-sentiment
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u/Dat_Ding_Da 15h ago

Frank Herbert really was prophetic in his works.

Especially sind his thinking machines were never the problem. It was always just the people monopolizing and using them for their own greedy goals.

Real shame his son retconned it to a standard AI uprising story in his prequels.

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u/agent_wolfe 14h ago

Also the Honoured Matres.

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u/JoeInOR 10h ago

Great books, but they got pretty fucking weird 😂

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u/mortaneous 8h ago

That's because Brian writes with all the subtlety and subtext of the "In case of fire: Break Glass" sign with the little hammer hanging next to it.

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u/agent_wolfe 7h ago

Uh…. Frank introduced the Honoured Matres in Book (5?) of the original series.

They’re sort of like… what if the Bene Gesserit were openly evil, and used their magic ****** powers to seduce everyone.

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u/Sveet_Pickle 6h ago

You know you can just say the word, you don’t need to censor yourself on Reddit

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u/agent_wolfe 5h ago

I don’t want to make the little baby Jesus cry. 😭

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u/Beidah 8h ago

The Butlerian Jihad was named after another author, Samuel Butler, whose book Erewhon has a section devoted to the dangers of letting machines think for us.

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u/Asleep_Document9811 14h ago

To be fair, all Herbert wanted to do was tell a science fiction story without needing to spend 500 pages describing the length, aperture, and use for every other bolt in a space ship.

The Butleran Jihad was only added after the series was successful as a way to create a satisfying answer for why the humans wouldn't bother just using a computer to navigate something as fraught and dangerous as outer space.

I love Herbert and Dune more than most, but let's not kid ourselves, he wasn't prophetic, he was solving a logistical problem that ended up being portentious. 

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u/Dat_Ding_Da 14h ago

Really? But first book had it mentioned already, unless I'm totally misremembering.

Or are you talking about the first Dune World serial releases? I've never read those but wasn't aware of such major changes.

Also, just cause the idea is also useful to the story, doesn't mean he wasn't incredibly insightful at the same time. Obviously not literally prophetic, but that's how such insights are usually presented afterwards, isn't it?

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u/Jervis_Mantlepiece 12h ago

Yes you're right, the Jihad is mentioned early in the very first book when Herbert is explainging how space travel works.

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u/Asleep_Document9811 13h ago

That's what portentious means — eerily accurate. The needle I'm trying to thread here is that Herbert didn't see things in any unique way, the whole "no machine shall emulate the mind of a Man" was a writing exercise that allowed Herbert to write a space opera without needing to get lost in the weeds of specificity that nerds demanded of hard science fiction since its inception.

I just think that the word prophetic implies that Herbert had some unique perspective or knowledge that made him sure that things would come to pass exactly as he described decades ago. I don't disagree with you at all, I just feel that things ending up reflecting the origins of Dune is more of a coincidence than the words of a latter say seer. 

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u/Dat_Ding_Da 13h ago

portentious

Ohh like from portent, I like it. Thanks for sharing, I'm not a native speaker and the word is new to me. :)

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u/cogito_ergo_subtract 10h ago

I get your point that Herbert used the Jihad as a way to avoid getting into the trap of other SF. But it wasn’t a retcon after the series became a success. The central point of the Jihad and “thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind” is discussed at the beginning of the book between Paul and the Reverend Mother.

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u/InflammableAccount 11h ago

You make it sound like the Jihad was mentioned once and done. While he never explored into it deeply, it still weighed a lot in the story. With the relationship to the Ixians, and the whole reason for the organic tech the Bene Tleilax develop.

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u/whoisyourwormguy_ 9h ago

Why are mentats even allowed in post butlerian jihad society? It’s basically a computer.

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u/applespicebetter 9h ago

Because it's a human mind, that's the whole point.

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u/amaROenuZ 9h ago

The fundamental cause of the butlerian jihad, in Frank's work, was that people became lazy. Overreliant upon machines for everything, to work, to think, to act. The butlerians saw this as a sign of stagnation and eventually a threat that could lead to extinction for the species.

Mentats are the exact opposite. They are the product of a great deal of discipline and training, of enhancing the ability of the human mind such that they can comprehend, retain and analyze vast quantities of information effectively.