Sandworms of Dune - Entry #17

     Now with all the knowledge and control from Erasmus, what should Duncan do?

     Jessica said, "Shut them down, Duncan.  Finish it now! Think of all the trillions they've killed, all the planets they've destroyed."
     Duncan looked at his hands in wonder.  "And is that the honorable thing to do?"
     Erasmus kept his voice carefully neutral, not pleading.  "For millennia I studied humans and tried to understand them ... I even emulated them.  But when was the last time humans bothered to consider what thinking machines could do? You only despise us.  Your Great Convention with its terrible stricture, 'Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.' Is that really what you want Duncan? To win this ultimate war by exterminating every vestige of us ... the way Omnius wanted to win the war by eliminating you? Didn't you hate the evermind for that fixed attitude?  Do you have the same attitude yourself?"

(Sandworms of Dune, p. 498)

     But Duncan would not have such an attitude.  Noble, loyal, patient, and, having learned from so many lives, wise.  I have to include here a long passage because this is really the climax, where the pieces fall in to place.

     Duncan turned to face Paul and the others.  "After the Butlerian Jihad, human civilization went too far by completely banning artificial intelligence.  But in forbidding any sort of computers, we humans denied ourselves valuable tools. That overreaction created an unstable situation.  History has shown that such absolute, draconian prohibitions cannot be sustained."
     Jessica said skeptically, "Yet eradicating computers for so many generations forced us to grow stronger and become independent.  For thousands of years, humanity advanced without artificial constructions to think and decide for us."
     "As the Fremen learned to live on Arrakis," Chani said with clear pride.  "It is a good thing."
     "Yes, but that backlash also tied our hands and prevented us from reaching other potentials.  Just because a man's legs will grow stronger walking, should we deny him a vehicle? Our memory improves through steady practice; should we therefore deny ourselves the means to write or record our thoughts?" 

... 

     Duncan let his eyes take on a far-off glaze.  "We can do much, much more.  I see it now.  Humans and machines cooperating fully, with neither side enslaving the other.  I shall stand between them, as a bridge."
     The robot responded with genuine excitement.  "Now you see, Kwisatz Haderach! You have helped me to achieve understanding along with you.  You have shortened my way, too."  Erasmus's flowmetal body shifted like a mechanical version of a Face Dancer, becoming again the wrinkled body of the kindly old woman.  "My long quest is complete.  At last, after thousands of years, I understand so much." He smiled.  "In fact, there is very little that interests me anymore."
     The old woman walked over to where the still-transfixed Paolo lay, staring blankly upward.  "This failed, ruined Kwisatz Haderach is an object lesson for me.  The boy paid the price of too much knowledge." Paolo's unblinking eyes seemed to be drying out.  He would probably wither away and starve to death, lost in the infinite maze of absolute prescience.  "I don't want to be bored.  So I ask you, Kwisatz Haderach, help me understand something I could never truly experience, the last fascinating aspect of humanity."
     "A demand?" Duncan asked. "Or a favor?"
     "A debt of honor." The old woman patted his sleeve with a gnarled hand. "You now epitomize the finest qualities of man and machine.  Allow me to do what only living beings can do. Guide me to my own death."
     Duncan had not foreseen this.  "You want to die? How can I help you do that?"
     The old woman shrugged her bony shoulders.  "All your lives and deaths have made you an expert on the matter.  Look inside yourself, and you'll know." 

... 

     "You want me to serve as a guide," Duncan said, "not just an executioner."
     "A fine way to put it, my friend.  I think you understand." The old woman looked at him, and now her smile held a hint of nervousness. "After all, Duncan Idaho, you have done this over and over again.  But this is my first time."
     Duncan touched her forehead. The skin was warm and dry.  "Whenever you're ready."
     The old woman sat on the stone steps.  Folding her hands in her lap, she closed her eyes.  "Do you suppose I will ever see Serena again?"
     "I can't answer that." With a mental command, Duncan activated one of the new codes he possessed.  From inside his own mind, reaching down to touch his own numerous death experiences, he showed Erasmus what he knew, even if he didn't entirely comprehend it himself.  He wasn't certain the ancient independent robot could follow.  Erasmus would have to make his own way.  He and Duncan parted, both of the traveling on utterly separate journeys.
     The aged body slumped quietly on the steps, and a long sigh flowed from the old woman's lips.  Her expression became utterly serene ... and then went completely motionless, with the eyes staring straight ahead.
     In death, the robot's human shape held.

(Sandworms of Dune, p. 499-502)

Sandworms of Dune - Entry #16

     Back in the "cathedral", Duncan was mind-melding with Erasmus so that he would have control over the machines and then would help guide the new future where humans and thinking machines do not oppose each other.  It is also the beginning of the scene where we really get to see what Erasmus had been looking for all along, why he studied humans for so long.

     Duncan knew this was the point of no return.  Do it.     The mental floodgates opened, filling his mind to bursting with the robot's experiences and coldly factual, regimented information.  And he began to see things from that entirely alien viewpoint.
     In thousands upon thousands of years of experimentation, Erasmus had struggled to understand humans.  How could they remain so mysterious?  The robot's incredible range of experiences made even Duncan's numerous lives seem insignificant.  Visions and memories roared around the Kwisatz Haderach, and he knew it would take him much more than another lifetime just to sift through it all.
     He saw Serena Butler in the flesh, along with her baby, and the startling reaction of the multitudes to what Erasmus had thought was a simple, meaningless death ... howling humans rising up in a fight they had no chance to win.  They were irrational, desperate, and in the end, victorious.  Incomprehensible.  Illogical.  And yet, they had achieved the impossible.
     For fifteen thousand years, Erasmus had longed to understand, but had lacked the fundamental revelation.  Duncan could feel the robot digging around inside him, looking for the secret, not out of any need for domination and conquest, but simply to know.

(Sandworms of Dune, p. 496)

Sandworms of Dune - Entry #15

     Meanwhile, Leto II and Sheeana are out in the dead city.  Destruction and stillness ... and the sandworms from the Ithaca ... surround them.  Sheeana had felt exhilarated at the apparent victory but not Leto.  His memories had returned.  He had given so much of himself to humanity, including his own humanity.

     With a sigh, the boy added, "I miss the people I used to know, especially Ghanima.  Your ghola program didn't bring her back with me."
     "We didn't consider personal costs or consequences," Sheeana said.  "I'm sorry."
Tears welled in Leto's dark blue eyes.  "There are so many painful memories from before I took the sandtrout as part of me.  My father refused to make the choice I did -- refused to pay the price in blood for the Golden Path, but I thought I knew better.  Ah, how arrogant we can be in our youth!"
     In front of Leto, the largest worm lifted.  Its open mouth looked like a cave full of rich spice.
     "Fortunately I know how to go back into the dreaming essence of the Tyrant, the God Emperor.  To the real son of Muad'Dib." With a glance at her, he said, "I take my last few sips of humanity." Then he entered the towering mouth and climbed over the maw-fence of crystalline teeth.

(Sandworms of Dune, p. 492-493)

So sad.

Sandworms of Dune - Entry #14

     When I was in Rome in March visiting my daughter who was studying architecture for a semester in Rome, we went to the MAXXI - a national museum of 21st century art.  An exhibit there was the "Erasmus Effect". Naturally, I had to look up why this exhibit was named this way.  Here is what I got from the press release:

     Italian architects abroad, realised by MAXXI Architettura, directed by Margherita Guccione, documents a specific aspect of contemporary Italian architecture: the ever-growing numbers of designers who choose to move to other countries. The title of the exhibition in fact derives from the name of the European university exchange programme Erasmus, created by the European Community in 1987 to permit students to undertake a period of study at a foreign university.
     However, the exhibition takes that literal meaning and expands on it to recount the stories of long-term expatriates such as Bo Bardi, Soleri and Belluschi and to describe a phenomenon that goes well beyond the confines of Europe and within which the desire for experience abroad is interwoven with the economic climate and the difficulties faced by architecture in Italy.

(www.fondazionemaxxi.it)

Exhibition at the MAXXI, Rome, Italy (March 9, 2014)

     So I did a little research to find out about the name "Erasmus".  In the context of the exhibition at the MAXXI, ERASMUS stands for EuRopean community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (The Erasmus Programme Moves Ahead - A First Series of Community Aids to 240 Inter-University Cooperation Programmes, European Commission - IP/87/423   14/10/1987).  The EU's website claims that the program also takes its name from a16th century Dutch scholar, Erasmus.  Evidently, this scholar was Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus known as Erasmus, "a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian" according to Wikipedia ... not the most reliable of sources but for now, it does the trick.

     But I digress ... back to the book.

     So, Erasmus' effect on human history as told in this epic story is long and dramatic.  Remember, the Butlerian Jihad was sparked by his toss of little Manion off the rooftop balcony.  How much more a role had he played, Duncan wonders.

     "Are you saying I made up the prophecies?" Erasmus asked.  "Perhaps as a way to guide an evermind stubbornly intent on a narrow-minded course of action? Perhaps to bring us precisely to this juncture? A very interesting hypothesis.  One worthy of a true Kwisatz Haderach." The grin on his face seemed more genuine than ever.
     Smiling coolly, Duncan said, "As the Kwisatz Haderach, I know there are -- and always will be, even as I evolve -- limitations on my knowledge and my abilities." He tapped the robot in the center of his chest.  "Answer me.  Did you manipulate the prophecies?"
     "Humans created countless projections and legends long before I existed.  I simply adapted the ones I liked best, generated the complex calculations that would produce the desired projections, and fed them to the evermind, Omnius, with his usual myopia, saw only what he wanted to see.  He convinced himself that in the 'end' a 'great change in the universe' required a 'victory' for him. And for that he needed the Kwisatz Haderach.  Omnius learned many things, but he learned arrogance too well."  Erasmus swirled his robes.  "No matter what the evermind or the Face Dancers thought -- I have always been in control."
     Raising his hands, the robot gestured to the sentient metal cathedral around them, indicating the whole city of Synchrony and the rest of the thinking-machine empire.  "Our forces are not entirely leaderless.  With the evermind gone, I now control the thinking machines.  I have all the codes, the intricate, interlinked programming."
     Duncan had an idea that was part prescience, part intuition, and part gamble.  "Or the final Kwisatz Haderach can take control."
     "That seems a much neater solution."  An odd expression moved across the robot's flowmetal face.  "You interest me, Duncan Idaho."

(Sandworms of Dune, p. 487-488)

Indeed.

Sandworms of Dune - Entry #13

     The honor and integrity of Duncan Idaho is so strong and apparent in the next scene.  Erasmus is nearly giddy over what he has done.

     "You would never have known most of them. With memory imprints, some even believed they were human.  All across what remains of your former empire, a great many people are probably quite surprised as comrades, leaders, friends, and spouses drop dead where they stand and transform into Face Dancers."  Erasmus laughed again.  "With a single thought I've eliminated our enemies.  Our common enemy.  You see, Duncan Idaho, we need not be at odds."
     Duncan shook his head, feeling oddly sickened.  "Once again, the thinking machine sees total genocide as a simple solution to a problem."
     Now Erasmus was surprised.  "Don't underestimate the Face Dancers. They were ... evil.  Yes, that is the correct word.  And since each one was fundamentally part of a hive mind, they were all evil.  They would have destroyed you, and they would have destroyed us."
     ... 

     Duncan looked at all the dead Face Dancers, realizing how much damage the shape-shifters had done for centuries, whether they were guided by the evermind or by their own schemes.  Face Dancers had killed Garimi, sabotaged the no-ship, and caused the death of Miles Teg ...
     Looking at the robot, Duncan narrowed his eyes.  "I can't say I'm terribly sorry, but there was no honor in what you -- or the Face Dancers -- did here.  I cannot agree with it.  Don't think we are indebted to you."
     "On the contrary, it is I who owe so much to you!" Erasmus could barely contain his pleasure.  "That is exactly the way I'd hoped you would react.  After thousands of years of study, I believe I finally understand honor and loyalty -- especially in you, Duncan Idaho, the very embodiment of the concept.  Even after an event that obviously helps your race, you still object to my tactics on a moral basis.  Oh, how wonderful."
     He looked down at all the Face Dancers, the astonished and confused expression on Khrone's face.  "These creatures are the exact opposite.  And my fellow machines are not loyal or honorable, either.  They merely follow instructions because they are programmed to.  You have shown me what I needed to know, Kwisatz Haderach.  I am very much in your debt."
     Duncan stepped closer, searching for some way to access the new abilities he knew lay dormant inside him.  Just knowing he was the much-anticipated Kwisatz Haderach was not enough.  "Good.  Because now I want something from you."

(Sandworms of Dune, p. 478-479)