Butlerian Jihad Quotes

Aristotle raped reason. He implanted in the dominant schools of philosophy the attractive belief that there can be discrete separation between mind and body. This led quite naturally to corollary delusions such as the one that power can be understood without applying it, or that joy is totally removable from unhappiness, that peace can exist in the total absence of war, or that life can be understood without death. —ERASMUS, Corrin Notes

Any true student must realize that History has no beginning. Regardless of where a story starts, there are always earlier heroes and earlier tragedies.

With few ambitions, most people allowed efficient machines to perform everyday tasks for them. Gradually, humans ceased to think, or dream... or truly live.

A winner has more skills than a loser," Vor said, "no matter how you define the competition.

Then came the Butlerian Jihad—two generations of chaos. The god of machine-logic was overthrown among the masses and a new concept was raised: “Man may not be replaced.” Those

Each of us influences the actions of the people we know. —XAVIER HARKONNEN,

But the Butlerians turn fear into violence and panic into a weapon. By creating imaginary problems and raising the specter of nonexistent enemies, they transform common people into a wild herd that destroys everything they do not understand.

Your outrageous and reckless chaos is the only reason you are able to beat me in any strategy game,” Seurat said. “It certainly has nothing to do with your innate skills.

Music should make the spirit soar, take the breath away, touch the soul. Your work was just…pleasant tones, adequately performed.

The tapestry of the universe is vast and complex, with infinite patterns. While threads of tragedy may form the primary weave, humanity with its undaunted optimism still manages to embroider small designs of happiness and love.

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man’s mind,’” Paul quoted. “Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible,” she said. “But what the O.C. Bible should’ve said is: ‘Thou shalt not make a machine to counterfeit a human mind.’ Have you studied the Mentat in your service?

The narrow mind erects stubborn barriers," her mother had once told her. "But against those barriers, words are formidable weapons.

Consciousness and logic are not reliable standards. —COGITORS, Fundamental Postulate

Tell her nothing is impossible. Tell her that love is what separates humans from other living creatures, not hatred. Not violence—

Vor laughed, proud of his place here. He quoted what he’d been taught all his life. “I am the pinnacle of humanity—a trustee of Omnius, the son of General Agamemnon.

I can envision calculations all the way to infinity,” she said, as if in a trance. “I don’t have to write them down.

If we give up our humanity to fight the machines, Zufa, then Omnius has already won!

Erasmus was like Serena in a sense: he frequently needed to prune and weed the human race in his own garden.

Most histories are written by the winners of conflicts, but those written by the losers—if they survive—are often more interesting.

There is a certain hubris to science, a belief that the more we develop technology and the more we learn, the better our lives will be.

Only those with narrow minds fail to see that the definition of Impossible is ‘Lack of imagination and incentive.’ —SERENA BUTLER

The robot responded with surprising sarcasm. “I am aware of the various bodily orifices humans possess. Therefore, I invite you to take a power tool and insert it where the—

No matter the challenge, his people knew how to endure.

A human captive had fought the machines! She had destroyed a robot with her own hands! Amazed, they called out her name.

My father lied to me! He distorted the events, taking credit, hiding the extent of the brutality and suffering—even Omnius knew it. On the other hand, Serena had told him the truth.

Savant, doesn’t it strike you as somewhat…hypocritical that we fight to keep humans free from the domination of machines, while at the same time some of our own League Worlds use slaves?

Norma looked at him, puzzled. "Someone else to do the mathematics?" "Of course!" Holtzman brushed iron-gray hair away from his face and adjusted his white robe. "You're an *idea* person, like me. We want you to develop concepts, not bother with full-fledged implementation. You should not waste time performing tedious arithmetic. Any halfway-trained person can do that. It's what slaves are for.

Do you know about the horrors during the Time of Titans? Or the Hrethgir Rebellions?” “I’ve read my father’s memoirs in great detail—” “I don’t mean Agamemnon’s propaganda. Have you learned the real history?

Serena grew angry. How could that representative worry about petty price tags, when the ultimate cost was so much higher? “We will all pay—in blood—if we do not do this. We must strengthen the League and the human species.

Vor stared for a moment at his own reflection in the familiar mirrored face, remembering some of the stupid jokes his friend had told and the innovative military games they had played together. Seurat had never harmed him in any way.

Even the most complex math can be broken into a sequence of trivial steps. Each of these slaves has been trained to complete specific equations in an assembly-line fashion. When taken together, this collective human mind is capable of remarkable feats." Holtzman surveyed the room as if he expected his solvers to give him a resounding cheer. Instead, they studied their work with heavy-lidded eyes, moving through equation after equation with no comprehension of reasons or larger pictures.

I intend to create a new work of art, all my own. A still life, of sorts. You three will be vital parts of the process. Rejoice in your good fortune.” In the sterile environment of the laboratory, with the cold assistance of his personal robot guards, Erasmus proceeded to vivisect the trio of victims, oblivious to their screams. “I want to get to the heart of the matter,” he quipped, “the lifeblood of it.

Each moment is already an eternity- the Titan Barbarossa, born Vilhelm Jayther

Those without a true sense of history fail to see how volatile and transient human leadership is, even on the scale of empires. When viewed from the perspective of a mere lifetime, we tend to see our governmental structures as permanent and unchangeable. This is entirely false. —FAYKAN CORRINO I, first Emperor after the Butlerian Jihad

When alone, a man never had to worry about trusting his companions.

The Butlerian Jihad has been over for thousands of years, and still humankind acts as if we’re terrified rodents hiding from shadows. There is an anti-Ixian prejudice throughout the Imperium because we make complex machines. People don’t understand what we do, and misunderstanding breeds suspicion.

In response to the strict Butlerian taboo against machines that perform mental functions, a number of schools developed enhanced human beings to subsume most of the functions formerly performed by computers. Some of the key schools arising out of the Jihad include the Bene Gesserit with their intense mental and physical training, the Spacing Guild with the prescient ability to find a safe path through foldspace, and the Mentats, whose computerlike minds are capable of extraordinary acts of reasoning.

Following two generations of chaos, when mankind finally overcame the insidious control of machines, a new concept emerged: “Man may not be replaced.” Precepts of the Butlerian Jihad

It seemed to Jessica that love was something a machine could not experience, and humans had defeated thinking machines in the Butlerian Jihad, millennia ago. But if humans were the victors, why did this remnant of non-humanity—the savagery of the gom jabbar—thrive in one of the Great Schools? Savagery was as much a part of the human psyche as love. One could not exist without the other.

The leaders of the Butlerian Jihad did not adequately define artificial intelligence, failing to foresee all possibilities of an imaginative society. Therefore, we have substantial gray areas in which to maneuver.

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind. Chief commandment resulting from the Butlerian Jihad, found in the Orange Catholic Bible

Spacing Guild: one leg of the political tripod maintaining the Great Convention. The Guild was the second mental-physical training school (see Bene Gesserit) after the Butlerian Jihad. The Guild monopoly on space travel and transport and upon international banking is taken as the beginning point of the Imperial Calendar.

Humans tried to develop intelligent machines as secondary reflex systems, turning over primary decisions to mechanical servants. Gradually, though, the creators did not leave enough to do for themselves; they began to feel alienated, dehumanized, and even manipulated. Eventually humans became little more than decisionless robots themselves, left without an understanding of their natural existence.

Learn from the past—don’t wear it like a yoke around your neck.

Machines are fully functional from the day of their programming.” Erasmus sounded smug. “That explains a lot. For us, life is a gradual developmental process. Without nurturing, we can’t survive,” she said. “You have never been nurtured. I think you should make improvements to the way you raise the slave children in your pens. Show them more kindness, encourage their curiosity.

Humans are survivors. They do things for themselves and then attempt to conceal their motivations through elaborate subterfuges. Gift-giving is a prime example of behavior that is secretly selfish. -Erasmus

I have run tests on the handsome young man— he is fine breeding stock. After your pregnancy is finished, would you like to mate with him?” Serena took an agitated breath, fixing her mind on memories of Xavier. “Mate? Regardless of how much you study us, there are many things your machine brain will never understand about human nature.” “We shall see about that,” he said, calmly.

Fire has no form of its own, but clings to the burning object. Light clings to darkness. —Cogitor philosophy

Just because the situation has gone on for a thousand years, is that an excuse for us to become accustomed to it? The thinking machines have already escalated the war with their attack on Zimia and Rossak, their invasion of Giedi Prime. This Earth disaster is just another challenge.

The narrow mind erects stubborn barriers,” her mother had once told her. “But against those barriers, words are formidable weapons.

JIHAD, BUTLERIAN: (see also Great Revolt)-the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108 B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. Bible as "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

Talk is based on the assumption that you can get somewhere if you keep putting one word after another. —IBLIS GINJO, notes in the margin of a stolen notebook

Tlaloc realized how the human race had gone stagnant, how people had become so dependent on machines that they had nothing left but apathy. Their goals were gone, their drive, their passion. When they should have had nothing to do but unleash their creative impulses, they were too lazy to perform even the work of the imagination

La mente da órdenes al cuerpo, y este obedece de inmediato. La mente se da órdenes a sí misma, y encuentra resistencia.

The universe is a playground of improvisation—it follows no external pattern. —COGITOR RETICULUS, Observations from a Height of a Thousand Years

In the contemplative garden, the troubled robot sat in the ruddy sunlight and felt warmth on his metal skin. This was another thing that humans seemed to enjoy, but he did not understand why. Even with his sensory enhancement module, it just seemed like heat.

Each human being is a time machine. —Zensunni Fire Poetry

Intuition is a function by which humans see around corners. It is useful for persons who live exposed to dangerous natural conditions. —ERASMUS Erasmus Dialogues

Do you really expect to become more than a machine?” Taking no offense, Erasmus replied, “It is a human trait to better oneself, is it not? That is all I am trying to do.

Each of us influences the actions of the people we know. —XAVIER HARKONNEN, comment to his men

Fanaticism is always a sign of repressed doubt.

Assumptions are a transparent grid through which we view the universe, sometimes deluding ourselves that the grid is that universe. —COGITOR EKLO OF EARTH

Owing to the seductive nature of machines, we assume that technological advances are always improvements and always beneficial to humans.

Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” “‘Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man’s mind,’” Paul quoted. “Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible,” she said. “But what the O.C. Bible should’ve said is: ‘Thou shalt not make a machine to counterfeit a human mind.’ Have you studied the Mentat in your service?” “I’ve studied with Thufir Hawat.” “The Great Revolt took away a crutch,” she said. “It forced human minds to develop. Schools were started to train human talents.” “Bene Gesserit schools?” She nodded. “We have two chief survivors of those ancient schools: the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. The Guild, so we think, emphasizes almost pure mathematics. Bene Gesserit performs another function.” “Politics,” he said. “Kull wahad!” the old woman said. She sent a hard glance at Jessica. “I’ve not told him, Your Reverence,” Jessica said. The Reverend Mother returned her attention to Paul. “You did that on remarkably few clues,” she said. “Politics indeed. The original Bene Gesserit school was directed by those who saw the need of a thread of continuity in human affairs. They saw there could be no such continuity without separating human stock from animal stock—for breeding purposes.