Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?


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A Thing of Eternity
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

That's all I got out of it as well, I'm just saying I can see how someone might get that impression.
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muddism
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by muddism »

Here are a few of the quotes...
"Aren't you curious why the Tyrant never suppressed Ix?" he asked. And when she continued to stare at him: "He only bridled them. He was fascinated by the idea of human and machine inextricably bound to each other, each testing the limits of the other." "Cyborgs?" "Among other things." Didn't Idaho know the residue of revulsion left by the Butlerian Jihad even among the Bene Gesserit? Alarming! The convergence of what each -- human and machine -- could do. Considering machine limitations, that was a succinct description of Ixian shortsightedness. Was Idaho saying the Tyrant subscribed to the idea of Machine Intelligence? Foolishness! She turned away from him.
First the axlotl tanks and now this.
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There it was then -- decision not entirely out of her hands, but the ready excuse at hand. Necessity dictates it.
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Odrade leaned forward and keyed for transmit. "Cyborg him," she said.
Bellonda grunted. Approval or disapproval? She would never say. This was Mother Superior's arena and welcome to it!
Who won this battle? Odrade wondered.

I'm not saying this proves anything...but it seemed a bit like forshadowing. There are a few other references too. I didn't say they were AI overloards...but a possible allied faction of cyborgs. It was just a thought.
Last edited by muddism on 11 Oct 2011 15:18, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by Freakzilla »

Just as likely as and allied faction of Scattered BG with Sandtrout skin. :crazy:
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by Serkanner »

muddism wrote:Here are a few of the quotes...

SNAP


I'm not saying this proves anything...but it seemed a bit like forshadowing. There are a few other references too. I didn't say they were AI overloards...but a possible allied faction of cyborgs. It was just a thought.
I fail to see the foreshadowing part in these quotes (and in the books).
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

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My theory was that machines and their implications would have featured in FH's Dune 7 - those passages show that he was pondering something along those lines (although he wasn't above a red herring).

The hacks then interpret that in as wrong a way as possible - trying to join a single dot in one and a half pages of unfinished notes. FH scribbles something about machine thinking, and Keith's eyes light up - "Machines? Gee Brian, you ever seen Terminator?"
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by Crysknife »

I think the whole series was about machines and their implications. But what would Frank be forshadowing? There had already been conscious robots and thinking machines in the past......the reason's for their destruction have already been given, and it's not what Brian and KJA have written. Why would new future machines be more forboding or dangerous? It's what the humans that had been corrupted by machine use would do with those machines that was the issue. Always has been.
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by Sandwurm88 »

Enemy of Many Faces always screamed Independent Face Dancers to me, as did the last chapter of Chapterhouse Dune...maybe that's why KJA and BH changed it to the "Mysterious Outside Enemy".
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

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Sandwurm88 wrote:Enemy of Many Faces always screamed Independent Face Dancers to me, as did the last chapter of Chapterhouse Dune...maybe that's why KJA and BH changed it to the "Mysterious Outside Enemy".
Why, because they didn't get it?
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

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I read something Superstring01 wrote on Sister Artemis' forum a long time ago where he explained why he thought machines were a threat, but I can't find it. (He didn't think Marty and Daniel were super cross dressing robots, of course) Maybe it's on some other old Dune forum.

Sister's forum will be lost completely someday, but there might some stuff you might want to save. Sister and String both wrote some articles, but they never finished the project http://sistersreadingroom.yuku.com/directory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

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Mandy wrote:I read something Superstring01 wrote on Sister Artemis' forum a long time ago where he explained why he thought machines were a threat, but I can't find it. (He didn't think Marty and Daniel were super cross dressing robots, of course) Maybe it's on some other old Dune forum.

Sister's forum will be lost completely someday, but there might some stuff you might want to save. Sister and String both wrote some articles, but they never finished the project http://sistersreadingroom.yuku.com/directory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

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OH... I just found her! I'm gonna leave a comment on her blog.
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by Demerzel »

The face dancers probably 'evolved' by absorbing the personalities of people. It seems to me that they overpowered their Scattered Tleilaxu masters, for Marty does mention how she would have 'liked to study another master'.

In my opinion, the entire series has been about how there is always an opposite to everything in the universe. This has been strongly emphasized throughout the series, from a Kwisatz Haderach who would kill himself rather than be his opposite, to the Honored Matres who were 'opposites' of the BG.
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I don't know if I'd call that one of the central themes, but it certainly is one of em.
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by Rymoah »

Since I concluded my first reading of the Chronicles, I've always imagined that the "Enemy of Many Faces" were indipendent face dancers; in its obviousness, I think this is the only logic explanation, seeing the hints that Frank Herbert disseminated in his books, particularly in Chapterhouse:Dune. I can't really believe that Frank could introduce, in an hypothetic Dune 7, an element so alien to the Dune ecumene, that is thinking machines in the ridicolous way the two hacks described.

I personally like the solution condensed by Serkanner's words:
Serkanner wrote:Previously forbidden "new" technologies? Yes ... AI overlords? No.
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Re: Is this Outside Enemy even mentioned in the original books?

Post by Demerzel »

A Thing of Eternity wrote:I don't know if I'd call that one of the central themes, but it certainly is one of em.
Also consider the Malky-Hwi opposites. That was, or could have been, a 'game-changing moment'.
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