Humans fight a holy war against thinking machines in Dune
This war is called the âButlerian Jihadâ
Why?
The war is named after a real 19th century English author:
Samuel Butler
Butler issued prophetic warnings against technology in a 1872 novel
His disturbing insights
1/ A Dune prequel tells us that in the future
Humans let âefficient machinesâ execute almost all âeveryday tasksâ
Machines meant to save labor and time start eroding our humanity:
âGradually, humans ceased to think, or dreamâŚor truly liveâ
The danger of outsourcing life?
2/ Samuel Butler who obsessed with a question: âWhat sort of creatureâ will follow us as the ruler of Earth? Life went from minerals to plants to animals - who says weâre the ultimate culmination of this process? No rational basis to saying âanimal life is the end of all thingsâ
3/ In 1863, Butler saw machines surpassing us in productivity:
"The machine is brisk and active, when the man is weary
It is clear-headed and collected, when the man is stupid and dull
It needs no slumber, when man must sleep or drop; ever at its post, ever ready for work"
4/ Butler saw that our daily lives would get fused with machines
He saw the metaverse coming:
âHow many men at this hour are living in a state of bondage to the machines?â
Today we need everything artificially modified: from the air in our rooms to the images entering our eyes
5/ Perhaps machines canât be supreme over humans as they canât adapt on the fly?
But even animals arenât infinitely adaptable:
âFor how many emergencies is an oyster adapted? For as many as are likely to happen to it, and no more. So are the machines; and so is man himselfâ
6/ Withdrawing tech of the last 200 years wont just take us back to 1823
An unprecedent war will break out over EVERYTHING:
⢠Energy
⢠Food
⢠Water
⢠Space
The world will be much worse than it was in 1823 because of all the technological crutches we need to survive today
7/ Human dependence will only get worse
Machines will only get more powerful
The best time to declare a Butlerian Jihad was 1872
The second best time is now
Today screens give children fake recreations
Porn makes real intimacy less likely by flooding us with the artificial
8/ Some argue machines canât ever be conscious but perhaps the psyche itself is mechanistic at the lowest level? Butler wonders if the experiences that we feel to be âpurely spiritualâ are just the end results of an âinfinite series of leversâ which are tiny & beyond detection
9/ As the real world slips from our hands
We find solace in fake worlds, from video games to theme parks
When humans win the Butlerian Jihad in Dune
They make a strict commandment:
âThou shalt not disfigure the soulâ
This is whatâs at stake: the destiny of our soul
10/ Butlerâs final call:
âA war to the death should be instantly proclaimed. Every machine should be destroyed by the well-wisher of his species. Let there be no exceptions made.â
Butler throws cold water on our sleepwalking faces
We must wake up to the world weâre creating
Check out:
âButlerian Jihad - A Reading listâ
9 insightful books on the dynamic between humans and technology
Titles include:
- Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
- The Technological Society
- Technics and Civilization
A link to more reading
This is rather heavy and rather depressing to contemplate. Which is why nature and getting out in it is the greatest joy man can access to recharge. Go swim in the cold river in the Himalaya Mountains! Can a robot experience that?
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Still the trajectory that Samuel Butler articulates in the 1800âs is eerily coming true in 2023 and beyond. Some suggested we live in a matrix although I donât subscribe to that reality, the pervasiveness of technology and machine is one that is creeping slowly up so slightly as we as humans become more dependent with our eyes and our brains occupied by such devices. Scary to think what the future will be like as our interactions with AI is a continued evolution towards either our doom or a revolution to rid ourselves of machines.
It is unavoidable of our interactions with tech, but the threat of less thinking humans that rely more on technology is devolving our species. The more we move away from the natural world the less human we become. War is certainly going to destroy our natural environment we interact with.
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âPrayer is not an old womanâs amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.â {mahatma gandhi}
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Indeed it is! The word âprayerâ is often mistaken for a colloquial term associated with triggering effect. However when put into the same context as meditation then those past references is suddenly dissipated with the past and brings understanding to the present, the moment. "Being in the momentâ
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In the lens of history, there is literary value of what is being articulated in this OP piece. Cato and Caesarâs rivalry destroyed an entire empire and the reasons provided are both fascinating and insightful from a historical perspective.
Josiah Osgood, a professor of classics at Georgetown University, in his recent book Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Catoâs Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic, comes down on the side of human ambition as the great moving force in history. He illustrates his position with Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) and Marcus Porcius Cato (95-46 B.C.). Caesar was possibly the most ambitious man ever to walk the earth, and his talentsâas a soldier, a politician, a writerâwere in every way commensurate with that ambition. If Cato was ambitious, it was not for himself but for the Roman Republic, whose greatest enemy he thought, rightly, was Julius Caesar. Cato may even be said to have been an enemy of ambition per se. Caesar, for his part, viewed Cato as a persistent roadblock on his clearly marked path to preeminence in Rome.
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Who do you think is the modern day Cato and Caesar?
That is hard to say because I donât think Trump nor Biden are as smart as Cato was or as ruthless as Caesar.
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C.S. Lewis almost died in the trench warfare of WW-I
Became best friends with Tolkien
Sold 100 million books
On the cusp of WW-II, he gave an iconic lecture at Oxford University (1939)
His question:
Does beauty matter when bombs start falling?
THIS is his profound answer
1/ The permanent human situation is endless strife, chaos and pain
C.S. Lewis:
âHuman life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itselfâ
Yet culture breaks out
2/ If we waited for peace to create art the first cave painting would still not be made
Always some âimminent dangerâ looking more important than culture
Lewis: âIf men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begunâ
3/ Insect life v/s Human Life
CS Lewis:
âThe insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward. Men are differentâ
We demand not just mere continuity but variety, growth, adventure
4/ C.S. Lewis on why humans are a truly unique species:
âMen propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache; it is our nature.â
5/ Right on the âfront line,â soldiers donât talk of the âallied causeâ or the âprogress of the campaignâ
Theyâre instead concerned with stories, myths, fateful open-ended questions
They desire âaesthetic satisfactionsâ
If they wont âread good booksâ they will "read bad onesâ
6/ CS Lewis on good ideas:
âGood philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. The cool intellect must work not only against cool intellect on the other side, but against the muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogetherâ
8/ C.S. Lewis on why we must study the past:
âNot that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periodsâ
9/ Past as immunity from new-age BS:
âA man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his village; the scholar has lived in many times and is thereforeâŚimmune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press of his own age.â
10/ Donât wait for spare time to know what you want to know and to chase what you want to chase
C.S. Lewis: âThe only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.â
C.S. Lewis was a brilliant thinker Always rewarding to read Iâve been reading his classic books along with his obscure lectures, and collecting the insights in one place: https://memod.com/jashdholani/boards/the-best-ideas-of-c-s-lewis-2662 Find inside: ⢠The nature of hell ⢠Wisdom v/s Science And more!
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Different timelines (Earths) co-exist, and everyone chooses the right timeline (Earth) in accordance with his thought / feeling / vibration. Some are positive, and some are horrible, ending in nuclear destruction, New World Order, AI rule and hunger game, etc.
Family members and friends do not necessarily choose the same timeline (Earth), and they move on to the timeline (Earth) they choose. No need to follow them. To each his own, literally speaking.
Have you ever heard or read any of Jane Roberts books? Like the âSeth seriesâ âSeth Speaksâ
I heard about the books, but I never read them.
Probably unrelated. I heard about an Australian writer who was in coma for several weeks after a head injury. In the coma he had a dream or vision which was so realistic that he believed, after coming out of the coma, that it was the reality.
When his son told him, âNo dad, you were in coma during all these days in hospital,â he couldnât believe it because the vision was so real. In the vision, he continued to do the same daily routine, getting up in the morning, taking the dog to the beach, doing the house chores and then writing, etc.
His son became upset because, after being driven to home, he started looking for the manuscript he had (supposedly) written during these days.
Bottom line. We may continue to do the same after we die in the spirit world. If youâre a violent and criminal person, you may continue to live in a violent and criminal world.
If youâre a spiritual person (whatever that means), you may continue the spiritual path and endeavor to gain spiritual growth. If youâre a fraud, the afterlife will also be fraudulent.
If youâre a loving person, you may find yourself loving and being loved by others.
That was the conclusion of the radio interview on (Australian) ABC and I will post it if I can find it.
OK, this is the link, but I need to find that particular interview. The writer is well-known in Australia, but I forgot his name. His first name was Richard, the same as that of the interviewer.
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Yes I agree. The last state a person is in before dying is what they will carry into their next incarnation. Which is why spiritual fitness is so important and finding peace in that pursuit should always be a daily lifestyle.
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Julius Evola wrote that we are living through a âdestructive spiritual processâ and one of its symptoms is a corruption of traditional symbols. In his essay âThe Inversion Of Symbols,â Evola shows that when communism won, it FLIPPED upside down the meaning of 3 vital symbols
1/ Evola writes that modern revolutionary movements take âthe principles, the forms, and the traditional symbolsâ of healthier societies from the past and give them a new spin
He digs into 3 symbols
⢠The color red
⢠The word revolution
⢠The symbol of the pentagrammic star
2/ Evola on RED
In Ancient Rome, the Emperor was dressed and dyed in purplish Red to ârepresent Jove, the King of the Godsâ
In Catholicism, the "Princes of the Church,â the cardinals, wear a scarlet red robe
Traditionally, red has been linked with hierarchy, order, and power
3/ In âclassical antiquity,â fire was linked with the color red
The âheaven above heavenâ was composed of pure fire
Red stood for authority and hierarchy
But in the 20th century it was co-opted by Marxists and made to represent the opposite:
Equality, masses, and democracy
4/ The word Revolution
Evola: âRevolution in the primary sense doesnât mean subversion & revolt, but really even the opposite: return to a point of departure & ordinary motion around a centerâ
In physics this holds true: a planetâs revolution means âgravitating around a centerâ
5/ Revolutions keep planets in a stable orbit
Traditional societies imagined a revolution to be a movement that keeps the moral universe spinning in harmony
But Evola notes that revolutions now mean:
⢠Moving AWAY from stable centers
⢠Churn
⢠Destruction of regularity
6/ Evola: âModern Revolution is like the unhinging of the door, the opposite of the traditional meaning of the term: the social & political forces loosen from their natural orbit, decline, know no longer a center nor any order, other than a badly & temporarily stemmed disorder"
7/ Evola on the Pentagram
The pentagram, a star, traditionally stood for manâs destiny as the microcosm that contained the macrocosm
It represented man as âthe image of the world and of God, dominator of all the elements thanks to his dignity and his supernatural destinationâ
8/ The star represented man as âspiritually integrated & supernaturally sovereignâ
But Marxists took this symbol and changed its meaning
They âterrestrialized and collectivizedâ it
It went on the flags of USSR and Communist China, becoming âdestructive of every higher valueâ
9/ Evola: âThis degradation of symbols is an extremely significant and eloquent sign of the timesâ
Symbols are the universal visual language
This radical transformation of their meaning is not accidental
Theyâre intentionally retooled for âinversion, subversion, & degradationâ
Credit: Dholani
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There is nothing evil about swastika, hexagram, or even pentagram per se. Also the symbol of an eye inside a triangle was found in South America, dating thousands of years.
Itâs always the satanists and satanist religions who hijack and pervert sacred symbols.
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It was a innocent symbol until Hitler re-appropriated it so yes the 3 symbols Evola writes about is indeed a process of destructive spiritual process.
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This is the most profound view of creativity. Out of chaos the most amazing works are created!