Computers or Paul

This is the first time I have ever read Dune. Something that we brought up in class that I would like to expand upon is the idea of breeding to find a savior. Neither the Bene Gesserit nor anyone else in the novel appear to have any problem with the idea of breeding people for a purpose. The Bene Gesserit willingly give themselves to particular men in order to produce offspring that will continue to breed with the ultimate goal of bringing forth "a human with mental powers permitting him to understand and use higher order dimensions" (508). What is strange about this breeding program is that it takes place after the total disctruction of a computer based world repleate with AI. After ridding the world of computers who were controling human life, the Bene Gesserit were attempting to gain that kind of knowledge that the computers could provide through a human being. What is more safe about a human with the abilities of a computer with the most advanced technology? I think the human would be even less predictable and more dangerous than the macheins. Even beyond that, they might end up creating something they did not understand, like Paul. Creating Paul inevitably created the jihad that the Freemen would bring against the known worlds. The Bene Gesserit forgot that human beings have a will of their own and can act out against their leaders and change alliances. Computers, while intelligent, can be limited by what you allow them access to.

I think that the search for a messiah is ok, like the search that the Freemen had for someone like Paul and his mother. However creating a breeding program to force a savior into the world doesnt seem like the proper thing to do, in any religion or practice. In any film or story where someone attempts to make a greater being, that being transforms into a monster. Though I would argue that Paul isnt a monster, he did ruin the plans of the Bene Gesserit. He did become much more powerful than his creators intended. Even Jessica, his own mother who knew the potential of what she was creating when she chose to have a male child, was at times horrified or her son and what he might be able to see with his extended vision.

I think we can pull something from this story and bring its relevance to our lives in 2006. We are reaching the point in which our technology can begin to produce AI. Humans are spending more time on our compuers, becoming more an extension of the internet than independant isolated individuals. Perhaps we should fear what we could create through the massive intelligence found in any one place. Looking back to "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" I think we can see a similar message there. Mike was similar to Paul in his mental capibilities to predict the future. In the end, Mike as a Da-Sein* dies and regresses back to his state as a simple plug - and - chug machien. I think the same (if we forget about the books that come after Dune) could be assumed for Paul. As a created savior, he too might reach the point where he could no longer fucntion in the world and be forced to either loose his mind from overextension or kill himself because the extent of his knowledge would be too painful.

* Da - Sein is a german word that I have taken from Heidegger from "Being in TIme". In a very general sense here it refers to a being whose "being in the world" is significant compared to others beings ( aka other living things or objects) because it asks the ontological question of how it "bes in the world". It questions its own being while others beings dont question why they be. I know this is a bit confusing, but this is the briefest way I know to describe it.