With the movies and the new series about Dune, there is new content for fans and newcomers to the universe. The new series shows what happened over 10,000 years before the new films, and one detail stands out: The state of technology has hardly changed. There is no technological progress in Dune. The reason for this lies in a pivotal event.
Why was there no technological progress for so long? When looking at the technology in Dune: Prophecy and the new films by Denis Villeneuve, one might well wonder why there has been no significant technological progress in over 10,000 years.
The reason for this lies in the great slave uprising, which took place in the year 201 BG (Before Guild, which refers to the founding of the space guild). For comparison: Paul Atreides was born much later, in the year 10,176 AG.
In the great slave uprising, humans rebelled against the machines that had gained power. The war ended in the year 108 BG, resulting in the Bene Gesserit and the space guild. In the war, all thinking machines
and their associated technology were destroyed.
The uprising of humanity is known as “The Butlerian Jihad.” It occurred 11,000 years after our time but 10,000 years before the events in the Dune films. The uprising ended in a prohibition against creating machines that resemble human intelligence.
This also marked the beginning of a different orientation for the future of humanity, which turned away from machine technology.
A teaser for Dune: Prophecy can be found here:
Stagnation is good for the Empire
What happened after the war? After the great slave uprising, the technical progress of society stagnated because it was virtually unnecessary. After the great slave uprising, there was a reluctance to rely on thinking machines
again.
The Bene Gesserit stand for this, whose goal is to further develop humanity. That is why they are so strict in training and try to conceive offspring with royal families. For the advancement of mind and body, the resource spice is essential. They want to prevent humanity from going extinct.
Everything relies on spice, and the Empire has (along with the space guild) control over it. The Empire does not want any changes in its position of power, which is why it allows technological and societal progress to stagnate. There is no reason for progress when everything is going as it should.
The Bene Gesserit also do not want to achieve societal progress with their goal. They want to raise the Kwisatz Haderach, a kind of messiah who later reveals himself as Paul Atreides. But Paul Atreides was the first step towards the progress of humanity and the revolution.
When did the revolution of humanity begin? Paul Atreides was essentially the first starting point that confronted the ruling order. Through his revolution and his war, he challenged the Empire and the structures of the factions by putting the spice production in jeopardy.
However, the first technical progress of society was still a long time coming, as Paul and later his son Leto II remained focused, like the Bene Gesserit, on the mental and physical advancement of humanity. Only after Leto II’s demise did humanity expand again in the universe and gradually achieve technological progress.
We will learn more about how Paul’s revolution continues in the upcoming film Dune: Messiah. However, it seems we will have to wait a while for that. Until then, you can immerse yourself in the desert planet. Soon Dune: Awakening will be released, and MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has already had a chance to play it: I have played thousands of hours of survival games, but Dune: Awakening is unlike any of them
