Dune Ecology Quotes

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.

The thing the ecologically illiterate don't realise about an ecosystem is that it's a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences.

Men and their works have been a disease on the surface of their planets [...] Nature tends to compensate for diseases, to remove or encapsulate them, to incorporate them into the system in her own way.

There's an internally recognized beauty of motion and balance on any man-healthy planet,' Kynes said. 'You see in this beauty a dynamic stabilizing effect essential to all life. It's aim is simple: to maintain and produce coordinated patterns of greater and greater diversity. Life improves the closed system's capacity to sustain life. Life - all life - is in the service of life. Necessary nutrients are made available to life by life in greater and greater richness as the diversity of life increases. The entire landscape comes alive, filled with relationships and relationships within relationships.

Men and their works have been a disease on the surface of their planets before now. Nature tends to compensate for diseases, to remove or encapsulate them, to incorporate them into the system in her own way.

The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t understand about an ecosystems is that it is a system…that’s why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

War, as the foremost ecological disaster of any age, merely reflects the larger state of human affairs in which the total organism called “humanity” finds its existence. —PARDOT KYNES, Reflections on the Disaster at Salusa Secundus

A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

ecology was the science of understanding consequences.

You must cultivate ecological literacy among the people.

Il nous faut partir d'une conception d'ensemble de l'organisme en tant qu'une entité fondamentale de la biologie, puis comprendre comment celui-ci se divise en parties qui respectent son ordre intrinsèque - pour donner un organisme harmonieusement intégré en dépit de sa complexité.

The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an ecosystem,” Kynes said, “is that it’s a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses.

Growth is limited by that necessity which is present in the least amount. And, naturally, the least favorable condition controls the growth rate." "It's rare to find members of a Great House aware of planetological problems," Kynes said. "Water is the least favorable condition for life on Arrakis. And remember that growth itself can produce unfavorable conditions unless treated with extreme care.

The wild desolation of the place whetted my interest in ecology. It’s so much more interesting to study a … damaged world. I find it difficult to learn anything in a place that’s too civilized.

The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

The course had been set by this time, the Ecological- Fremen were aimed along their way. Liet-Kynes had only to watch and nudge and spy upon the Harkonnens…until the day his planet was afflicted by a Hero.

Animals must move across land to survive—for water, for food, for minerals. Existence depends upon some kind of movement: you move, or the land kills you where you stand. —Imperial Ecological Survey of Arrakis, ancient records

We are not like Moses—we cannot call forth water from stone…not at an economical rate, anyway. —Imperial Ecological Survey of Arrakis, ancient records (researcher uncredited)

Ghanima sensed her brother trembling where he sat in front of her. “What have you done?” she demanded. But he would not leave his own train of revelation. “Fewer sandtrout—the ecological transformation of the planet . . .” “They resist it, of course,” she said, and now she began to understand the fear in his voice, drawn into this thing against her will. “When the sandtrout go, so do all the worms,” he said. “The tribes must be warned.” “No more spice,” she said. Words merely touched high points of the system danger which they both saw hanging over human intrusion into Dune’s ancient relationships. “It’s the thing Alia knows,” he said. “It’s why she gloats.” “How can you be sure of that?” “I’m sure.” Now she knew for certain what disturbed him, and she felt the knowledge chill her. “The tribes won’t believe us if she denies it,” he said. His statement went to the primary problem of their existence: What Fremen expected wisdom from a nine-year-old? Alia, growing farther and farther from her own inner sharing each day, played upon this.

—Arrakis es un planeta de un solo cultivo —dijo su padre—. Un solo cultivo. Esto mantiene a una clase dominante, que vive como siempre han vivido las clases dominantes, aplastando bajo ellas a una masa semihumana de medio esclavos que sobreviven de lo que ellas desechan. Son esas masas y esos desechos los que ocupan nuestra atención. Tienen mucho más valor del que nunca se ha sospechado. (...) —Las masas de Arrakis sabrán que estamos trabajando para hacer que un día estas tierras rezumen agua —dijo su padre—. La mayor parte de ellas, por supuesto, adquirirán tan sólo una comprensión casi mística de nuestro proyecto. Muchos, sin pensar en la prohibitiva relación de masas en juego, pensarán que vamos a traer el agua de otro planeta rico en ella. Déjalos que crean en lo que quieran, mientras crean en nosotros (...) -Nuestra tabla de tiempos tendrá los valores de un fenómeno natural —dijo su padre—. La vida de un planeta es como un enorme tejido de apretados hilos. Al principio surgirán mutaciones animales y vegetales determinadas por las fuerzas primordiales de la naturaleza que vamos a manipular. Pero a medida que se vayan estabilizando, todos nuestros cambios ejercerán también sus propias influencias... con las cuales deberemos contar. No olvides nunca, de todos modos, que basta con controlar tan sólo el tres por ciento de la energía existente en la superficie... sólo el tres por ciento, para transformar toda la estructura de un sistema autosuficiente (...). Una profunda claridad inundó la mente de Kynes. De pronto fue consciente de una posibilidad para Arrakis que su padre no había visto. Las implicaciones de esta posibilidad fueron como una sacudida. —No podría haber mayor desastre para tu pueblo que el caer en manos de un Héroe —dijo su padre. ¡Está leyendo en mi mente!, pensó Kynes. Bien... que lea

The working Planetologist has access to many resources, data, and projections. However, his most important tools are human beings. Only by cultivating ecological literacy among the people themselves can he save an entire planet. Pardot Kynes, The Case for Bela Tegeuse

The working Planetologist has access to many resources, data, and projections. However, his most important tools are human beings. Only by cultivating ecological literacy among the people themselves can he save an entire planet.

The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an ecosystem,” Kynes said, “is that it’s a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That’s why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

I give you the desert chameleon, whose ability to blend itself into the background tells you all you need to know about the roots of ecology and the foundations of a personal identity.

A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has oder, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has oder, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

Beneath a world—in its rocks, its dirt and sedimentary overlays—there you find the planet’s memory, the complete analog of its existence, its ecological memory. —PARDOT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer

[...] growth itself can produce unfavorable conditions unless treated with extreme care.

There is enough water! But Kynes doesn't wish it to be known.

I give you the desert chameleon, whose ability to blend itself into the background tells you all you need to know about the roots of ecology and the foundations of a personal identity. The Universe is God's. It is one thing, a wholeness against which all separations may be identified.

The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an ecosystem,’ Kynes said, ‘is that it’s a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche.

It’s a rule of ecology,” Kynes said, “that the young Master appears to understand quite well. The struggle between life elements is the struggle for the free energy of a system. Blood’s an efficient energy source.

For long lifetimes marked by the hulks of ruined planets, man was a geological and ecological force without knowing it, with little awareness of his own strength. — PARDOT KYNES, The Long