[Dune7: Advent]

*

[Book One - Chapter Eight]

There is one place where Reverend Mothers dare not see - the fundamental female vulnerability to the dangers of Abomination prevents it. The Kwisatz Haderach will have access to this place, but no male has ever survived ingesting the awareness spectrum narcotic that unlocks the access to ancestors’ memories. When our breeding program generates the male who can tolerate the mind expansion drug, the current plan provides no guarantee he will be able to find the balance to avert descending into Abomination. We will need to choose exponents of desirable genetic lines not only for their physical characteristics per se, but also consider the presence of potential benign primaries in their ancestry - preferably several different mentally powerful individuals capable of spearheading a qualitative, multi-planular Extremis Progressiva.

-Reverend Mother Superior Saldosa Wend, adressing the Council of Proctors. From the Bene Gesserit Archives.

            She found Teg several miles from the no-ship, in a small, well-hidden outpost he had been using for about a month. In a cave overlooking a valley he had fashioned a sparsely equipped base for his many recon missions in the area.

            “How did you find me here?” he cried when Sheeana entered the cave. His composure suggested maturity, intelligence and skill his young body and vocal cords - undergoing radical changes on the threshold of physical manhood - were not yet able to adequately reflect. Still, despite the fact the control he had over this body had not yet reached optimum efficiency, she realised the immense physical speed he was capable of since his original body survived a session with an Honoured Matre T-Probe made him a supremely dangerous opponent.

            I can’t let him see I fear him. “Simple tracking”, Sheeana said, attempting to sound casual. “You’re growing careless, Bashar.”

            Faster than Sheeana’s eyes could follow, he circled around her and placed a poisoned knife against her throat. Sheeana could feel his arm trembling. He is terrified! What has he seen that could frighten him so?

“I am not the enemy, Bashar.” Sheeana sensed Teg’s muscles relaxing slightly upon hearing this confession. He probably believes me. She understood that, emotionally, he was rather fragile right now, but still her pride could not let her resist punishing his lack of discipline. She sensed him lowering his guard, and immediately grabbed his knife arm with both hands, flinging the - at least physically - young boy, who was slightly smaller and lighter than she, over her shoulder and against the rock wall of the cave. She pinned him down to the floor, positioning the knife in such a way that any movement - even at the immense speed he was capable of - would cause him serious injuries.

“I can kill you know, if I want to. You do realise that?”

He nodded.

“I won’t. Is that proof enough for you?”

            “Yes,” he whispered.

            The paranoid behaviour he displayed did not come as a surprise to Sheeana. When she asked Garimi where she could find Teg earlier, the Proctor was unable to tell her much. Sheeana could sense the anomosity towards her beneath Garimi’s carefully controlled composure, but could also see her denial of having knowledge about Teg’s whereabouts was genuine. The Bashar had effectively cut the ties with everyone, even the highest representative of the order he had dedicated his life to serving. He must have felt compelled to do so by something that had happened to him, or something that he had discovered on this mysterious planet.

Sheeana had known from the start that confronting Teg would be dangerous, but the plan required that the meeting would take place, and would develop in a very specific manner. She did not doubt she could get what she wanted considering the state the Bashar was currently in, but it would not be easy.

She remembered Duncan’s warnings. “Teg has grown increasingly paranoid in the last few months,” he had said. “It is quite obvious he doesn’t fully trust Garimi and her group anymore, and I’m certain someone of his capabilities will have noticed our hidden agenda by now.”

            Sheeana nodded. “He stays away longer every time.”

            “Exactly. Despite his deep commitment to the Sisterhood, something has caused him to grow suspicious of everyone here. Find out what he knows - or thinks he knows. Use extreme caution when approaching him - an important part of our plan depends on your success, so we can’t have you getting yourself killed right now. Also, remember his deep aversion against imprinting.”

            That will be the most difficult part of the plan, Sheeana thought. But even the maturity of his mind might not be able to withstand the primal urges contained within his young body. He is just the right age…

            At that moment a strange sensation overcame Sheeana - Odrade-within attempting to reassert her influence as the primary of Sheeana’s Other Memory. Her effort failed to result in a clear message to her host, her attempts thwarted by another presence - a powerful influence not originating from Sheeana’s Other Memory.

            Resist her influence, Sheeana, it said. Other Memory is not a blessing - it’s a curse. Submitting to the unleashing of these other personas in the Spice Agony opens one up to mind control by malignant personas. Let me show you the truth about the Bene Gesserit.

            In her mind, Sheeana saw a young Reverend Mother, the Spice Agony a recent memory to her, being executed by a Bene Gesserit Proctor, and an acolyte, no more than ten years old, befalling a similar fate. These scenarios repeated themselves hundreds, thousands, even millions of times in an ever-increasing rate of succession - countless individuals killed in fear of Abomination.

            These were your sisters, Sheeana, the internal voice continued. The acquisition of Other Memory is a highly dangerous procedure, and the success rate is low - it has always been so. In the millennia prior to the emergence of the Kwisatz Haderach, as many as three out of every five new Reverend Mothers were put to death - even more after Paul Atreides proved to the Sisterhood the potential threat even the successful ones presented.

            And consider the definition of “Abomination” these killers used to justify their acts: being driven insane by dominance of malignant primaries in Other Memory was not the only cause for a death sentence; finding a benign primary who somehow decided to disagree with the current policies of the Sisterhood was also enough in many cases. This is still going on today, and the socalled Second Scattering has proven to be a very useful facade for such executions.

            I… I didn’t know…, Sheeana stammered.

            Of course you didn’t. The ones responsible for this went to great lengths to keep this knowledge confined to a very select group of people.

            Educating someone is a very dangerous enterprise - the Sisterhood realises this, of course, but not to the extent that they should. When you’re a teacher, which apparently is the role the Bene Gesserit have sought out for themselves, it is in many instances necessary to impose some of your own views on your student. Imprinting sich more or less coherent thought structures on one’s mind is a very important part of the formation of that mind, but there’s a fundamental insincerity involved in the practice of presenting him with opinion disguised as truth - this is indoctrination.

Ideally, each and every person should be able to decide for himself what he wants to believe, since no one has the resources to tell him with confidence that what he believes is the absolute truth. The problem is that in order to get someone to a point where he is capable of making his own decisions, he needs to have been taught, which can only be done while adhering to a certain worldview. Disclosing one system of knowledge obscures all the other ways of looking at the world, so getting someone to a point where he can form an opinion effectively reduces his chances of formulating an opinion truly his own to nil.

Educators lie and are immeasurably arrogant, and education is riddled with life-threatening risks - for the method the Sisterhood has chosen to educate mankind this is especially true. Your primary knows, that Odrade - not only does she realise the dangers of teaching, but she also know sthe extent of the Sisterhood’s cruelty in performing this function. You do realise that if she by any chance would regain access to your active mind, she will deny these facts in every conceivable manner. Do not trust her - she teaches, therefore she lies.

            A small measure of independence reasserted itself in Sheeana. Can’t the same be said of you?

            Clever!, the presence answered. But you misunderstand, and in doing so, you prove you have the capabilities needed to learn my lesson. I merely revealed a most probable truth, and now it is up to you to decide what you want to do with the knowledge I gave you. I do not teach - I make it possible for you to uncover your own truths.

            My own truths?, Sheeana asked, but no answer came. She returned to actuality, and noticed only a moment had passed while she traveled inside her mind - the young Bashar was still lying on the ground, pressed down by her weight, held down by the knife in her hand.

            “What is it that you’re afraid of?”, Sheeana asked him. She removed the knife from his throat and moved back, her hands seductively stroking his chest and arms. “Come on, you can tell me.”

            Teg realised divulging what he suspected about the planet could be dangerous, but Sheeana somehow managed to put his fears and suspicions to rest. What is it about her that makes her appear so non-threatening right now? This is a potential Mother Superior, and there’s nothing more dangerous than one of those - immense skill and knowledge combined with the ambition to prevail at all cost of someone who senses vast political power just beyond her reach. Still, my instincts tell me to trust her unconditionally. Can I?

            Sheeana noticed her subliminal manipulating take effect. Despite his mature mind, he too must succumb to this - effectively universal - rule: hormones will overpower reason every time when tweaked in an appropriate manner. And in his pubescent body, the strength of the libido doesn’t have an equal.

            “I have surveyed this area quite extensively during the past few months,” he answered.

            “What did you find?” She gave him another tempting look - almost undetectable, but obviously sufficient. I must be careful now, she thought. His deep-seated aversion against imprinting could manifest itself at any moment.

            What is it that she wants?, Teg thought. It is clear she’s attempting to influence me - perhaps she’s trying to get me to take her side when the current tension between her and Garimi escalates, or perhaps she suspects I have information that could be useful to either side.

Which side deserves my alliance? Garimi represents the Sisterhood in this situation, the organisation I’ve dedicated almost all of my former life to. Duncan and Sheeana - what do they want? On the surface, the ghola appears to want to starts a new and better life - move forward instead of dwelling on the past like the Bene Gesserit sometimes tend to do. The way in which they attempt to design their future enforces such a mindset in all but the most aware amongst them. Duncan’s aversion to most of his many pasts endows him with a different perspective, and it appears to be the most sensible in the current situation.

This choice to some extent depends on the definition of evil one holds - depending on which perspective is chosen, it can be argued that either side incorporates a touch of the demonic…

Teg remembered a discussion between the Rabbi and Garimi on the subject of evil he had witnessed a few weeks after their arrival on this planet.

“Evil needs to exist as a counterbalance against good, to make its existence possible, but we can take comfort from the knowledge that one day the evil in our lives will be eradicated,” the Rabbi said.

“Evil is a relative notion - isn’t the distribution of good and evil across the totality of possible experiences different for each person?”, Garimi countered.

“Perfect knowledge enables one to make the definition of good and evil. There is only one who can claim to be able to do this: the One who planted the Tree, and crafted the seeds it grew from. The ones who ate from it did not get what they sought - digestion is a very crude process - and the snake was a liar; he knew nothing.”

“All available evidence points towards a fundamentally inconclusive, unfixed and non-absolute universe, in which different sets of axioms can be utilised to construct a coherent theory in any field one desires, including that of ethics: there are many different systems of values, all valid,” Garimi answered, recapturing the Bene Gesserit stance on the issue.

“This is a very convenient philosophy to adhere to for your Sisterhood, isn’t it? Is internal consistency the only acceptable criterium? What an arid, poor world of ideas you must live in,” the Rabbi taunted.

“That would entail the formation of a balance pros and cons in each situation, either geared towards the greater good or personal gain. In both cases, this will often lead to the shortchanging of a minority, while not taking into account their qualitative value - you of all people should understand this. The Sisterhood’s answer is the application of a fundamental tolerance, and a clear understanding of the consequences our actions have as derived from the balancing powers of the allstream itself.”

“This tells me you are unclear on what you believe,” the Rabbi said. “Subconsciously you want to believe in the unnamed One, but you’ve been led astray by theories of your own making.”

            Teg snapped out of his reverie, his question about who to ally with still unanswered, just as Sheeana was undressing. “What the hell are you doing?”, he cried in that odd combination of young voice and old words.

            “Attempting to please you,” she said.

            Her behaviour is not consistent with that of an imprinter, he thought. Could she be genuinely interested in me?

Whatever the case may be, it seems obvious Sheeana somehow needs whatever it is she thinks I know - this gives me the leverage I need to make her cause coincide with mine. Perhaps I could toss her a few scraps.

            “Certain parts of the area appeared familiar somehow, as if I’ve seen some of it before.”

            “How is that possible? You’ve said yourself none of the star patterns look familiar in any way. We’re far from the Old Empire.”

            It’s time to tear down some of that Bene Gesserit arrogance. “You Bene Gesserit are not the only ones who have access to ancient memories,” he said. “The emergence of memories in the conscious mind is not just the result of other activities of the mind - certain sensations and experiences particular to the unique constitution of one’s mind can unlock long-hidden memories, and uncover previously undisclosed and personal truths.”

            Uncovering personal truths…, Sheeana repeated mentally.

            Teg continued. “I have found certain landmarks here, which triggered - subliminally or not - specific, potentially archetypical images in my mind.”

            “How did you do this?” This could be a new form of Other Memory, Sheeana realised. One that bypasses the use of the Spice poison, no less.

“I suspect this is an emergent ability that transcends the synthesis of Mentat data organising algorithms and Bene Gesserit memory retrieval techniques. But that’s not really the point -” Of course it is, at least to you! But changing subjects like this will keep you off balance. “- I have discovered that the wilderness around us is not as wild as it may seem - it has been carefully maintained. Some of the plants are synthetic.”

            Teg hesitated. Should I tell her? A small measure of doubt still plagued his mind. He looked at her, her naked form so close to him, so… beautiful. After a while he suspended his misgivings. I can trust her, I’m sure of it.

            “Not too far from here, I’ve found giant rock carvings depicting the heads of four powerful warlords. The images these conjured up were consistent with data I assimilated in my youth, from filmbooks in a Bene Gesserit library. I think I know what planet we’re on.”

            Sheeana was shocked and excited at the same time. Amazing! His abilities should be made to serve our cause. “Tell me!”

            He pretended not to have heard. “That’s not all. About twenty kilometers north of here, there’s an underground base, hidden under the rock, cloaked by a no-field. I have found small traces of human - or at least humanlike - activity, and I have seen the base’s plasteel hull.”

“But you just said the base is underground. How were you able to see the structure’s wall? Was the soil that normally covers it removed?”

“I can see cloaked no-ships”. The words had already passed his lips before he realised exactly what it was that he had revealed to her.

Excellent!, Sheeana thought, extremely pleased with the fact her manipulations were bearing such succulent fruit, but restraining her body from making this known in any way. She noticed the level of her control was adequate: the expression of shock and shame that had appeared on Teg’s face immediately after his revelation had almost completely subsided, and she could see he did not begrudge her the knowledge he had inadvertantly given out.

            Sheeana decided it was time to complete the transaction, as she mockingly called it. She helped him enter her, and both quickly reached a powerful orgasm. Sheeana was rather surprised at the fact she quite enjoyed it.

            They lie there on the floor of the small cave, still breathing heavily in the afterglow of the intense merger of their bodies. A shudder ran through Sheeana’s body - not just a reaction to the physical ecstasy she had just experienced, but also the result of a conglomerate of highly confusing thoughts that arose in her consciousness at that moment.

I let myself get carried away. The Bene Gesserit breeding mistresses conditioned me to avoid getting involved emotionally with my partners - they always advised us to think of them as producers of potentially interesting genetic material rather than actual people - but all that training failed me this time. Could it be that I actually love him?

Sheeana remembered the face of the one person she had truly loved, a long time ago. Alia she was called, named after the Kwisatz Haderach’s sister. She was one of the women specifically intended by the Sisterhood to relieve the stress caused by purely functional sexual encounters experienced by breeders.

            She hadn’t even been that attractive, Sheeana remembered. Physical beauty can grow boring very quickly if the personality is lacking. Alia was fairly plain-looking and perhaps a bit plump, her soft curves contrasting with Sheeana’s own wiry frame - which was so common on Rakis - but her capacity for soothing someone else’s pain was unparalleled.

In some way, I guess the Sisterhood does understand that sex without love is potentially draining on an emotional level, they just feel any adept should either learn to outgrow such a vulnerability, or they deem it relatively irrelevant.

            As the residual excitement of their meeting slowly faded away, Sheeana’s thoughts returned to the information she had managed to extract from Teg, and what it might entail. He was holding something back - he had yet to reveal the synthesis of the various clues.

I need to know! She once more started to kiss him, and shortly after she felt him responding under her touch.

            “You haven’t told me everything yet, have you?”, she whispered.

            The compulsion to reveal his findings was too great, his resistance to her manipulations too weak. “I think we’re on Terra.”

[Dune7: Advent]

*

[Book One - Chapter Nine]

Many different explanations have been offered for the prescient faculty of Muad’Dib. Some have theorised that his training as a Mentat combined with an unusual compatibility with the Spice have given him an uncanny ability of extrapolating the future from minutiae detected in the present. Others say he is God, who creates the future, and therefore knows what will happen. Mathematics allows us to see both these theories contain pearls of wisdom, but do not supply the entire picture. In a previous lecture I explained Muad’Dib is capable of reducing a multiplicity of independent dimensions of time into a single temporal inertial system, but I failed to explicate how this worked exactly. Of the two mentioned theories, the former is partly true because his Mentat mind can construct an n-dimensional vector space, n being the number of parameters used to quantify and represent the aspects of the present pertinent to Muad’Dib’s inquiry at a given time. The values these parameters assume he calculates through parallel processing of data supplied by his senses - Mentat computation to the extreme -, having abstracted this sensory information to represent the dominant processes underlying reality - the Spice allows him to perceive these. Based on the constitution of this vector space, he  calculates a multitude of scenarios representing the future developments in the main temporal dimensions, and actively chooses one of the possibilities based on both the statistical properties of this future itself and the harmony the actual content of that future creates with his own plans - this is why the second of the described theories is not completely false. Being the most powerful prescient being in the universe, Muad’Dib’s visions form our future.

-Palimbasha: Lectures at Sietch Tabr.

            Idaho entered the Mentat trance. The events of the past period had spun a complex web that had managed to trap him - its structure needed to be analysed, and much depended on the success with which that could be done.

            He felt the sensory impressions decrease in strength, the signals that his body absorbed from its environment being largely ignored, to allow the mind to function in as uninhibited a fashion as was possible. For safety reasons, Idaho did not allow the trance to immerse him completely; the circumstances - the risks his recent actions were exposing him to, in particular in the form of the wrath of Garimi - dictated that he needed to be able to awaken from it at a moment’s notice.

            His mind was now virtually self-contained, in absence of outward stimulation nothing left to think for it except the mind itself, and its contents; Idaho had reached the mental state in which Mentat computations were possible. To most effectively pursue the answers to the questions he had, Idaho virtually divided his mind: one part would ask, others - representing different points of view, if necessary - would answer.

à Mentat Session # 3582. Session title: To be determined.

= = = = =

à Query Directives:

-Recent developments and acquired data:

-Access of malignants to my mind;

      -Syntheses of recent Mentat Sessions;

-Face Dancers and Ix;

      -Report of Miles Teg;

-Potential convergence of above.

à Query Format:

Associative.

= = = = =

à Commence.

Datum 1: The old couple can still see me.

Interrogative 1: By what mechanism?

Conjecture 1 [Re: Interrogative 1]: Insufficient data. Required input: Your perception data of manifestation of occurence in question.

Datum 2: They use what, in my mind, manifested itself as a net.

SubInterrogative 1: With what purpose?

SubConjecture 1 [Re: SubInterrogative 1]: To attempt to trap your

mind [Internal].

SubConjecture 2 [Re: SubInterrogative 1]: To attempt to influence

your actions [External].

Datum 3: Their method of access to my mind allowed me to extract information from them.

Datum 4: Their access to me and/or my mind was not prevented by no-shields.

Datum 5: Their access to me and/or my mind was not in any significant way hindered by physical distance (my current location could not protect me).

Conjecture 2 [Re: Interrogative 1]: They used a mental link [Re: Data 1,2], possibly by manipulating reality on a level different from the one customarily perturbed by no-shields [Re: Datum 4]. They do not control their ability well [Re: Datum 3], OR wanted you to access information of theirs [Re: Datum 3], OR the access to the memories of your previous ghola lifetimes has triggered the emergence of new, as yet poorly controlled and understood abilities [Re: Data 1,2,3,4,5 AND Synthesis Mentat Session # 2106, “Analysis Of Self # 135”].

Datum 6: Highly evolved Face Dancers from The Scattering [Re: Synthesis Mentat Session # 3478, “Honoured Matre Origins And Weaknesses”] might have developed previously unimagined abilities.

Interrogative 2: Are these Face Dancers?

Conjecture 3 [Re: Interrogative 2]: This is not impossible.

Datum 7: Aforementioned Face Dancers assimilated Ixians during their formative stages in The Scattering OR have already infiltrated several key planets in the Old Empirium, including Ix [Re: Synthesis Mentat Session # 3483, “Technology And The Scattering”].

Datum 8: Face Dancers are customarily controlled by Tleilaxu Masters. Their subservience has been bred into them.

      SubInterrogative 2: Could any Face Dancer hope to break free of this

influence?

      SubConjecture 3 [Re: SubInterrogative 2]: Insufficient data. Required

input: Abilities of Face Dancers.

      Datum 9: The newest generations of Face Dancers are capable of

extracting the mind of another by touch.

SubConjecture 4 [Re: SubInterrogative 2]: A sufficiently large number

of absorbed minds might produce an emergent perception/knowledge-

system that is capable of independent thought.

Datum 10 [Re: SubConjecture 4]: A number of Face Dancers might have asserted their independence.

Datum 11: Miles Teg reports the presence of an underground base in the vicinity, utilising no-fields.

Interrogative 3: Given an alliance between (exponents of) Tleilax and Ix, can the identity of the occupants of the base be determined?

Conjecture 3 [Re: Interrogative 3:]: Uncertainty accumulation. Required input: sufficient corroboration of Mentat Session Syntheses # 3329, 3483, 3501.

à Override processing constraints # 34, 36, 47.

Conjecture 3 [Re-evaluation a]: Ixian involvement possible (Unknown accuracy).

à Effect Session Synthesis.

Synthesis [Re: Conjecture 1,2,3; SubConjecture 1,2,3,4]: Possible threat of alliance of (exponents of) Tleilax and Ix on this planet. Recommend accumulation of more data.

Interrogative 4: Can this synthesis be upgraded to a Prime Computation?

Terminus: No. Format and uncertainty accumulation of utilised data disallow this.

= = = = =

Mentat Session # 3582 terminated. Determine session title: “New Face Dancers # 27”.

            Disappointed with the meager results of this Mentat session, Duncan re-entered the realm of normal thought. Still, a desire to understand, to know remained, a common byproduct of disappointing Mentat projections.

            Teg thinks we might be on Terra. Why would Fate lead me to this planet?, Duncan wondered. Supposing he is correct, would there be a specific reason why we would end up here? My intent was to start a new life, a new society - nay, humanity far away from the many poisonous relations and detestable habits that had been fused into the structure of the Old Empire - even Leto’s Golden Path couldn’t change that.

When I made an effort to start over, I was led back to the place where all evil began. The emergence of malignant, envious thought, of the ability of twisting the neutrality of the interaction of matter into the drive to destroy the other in service of one’s own advance - it all began here! Why would I not be allowed to break free of these trappings?

            Despair overcame him now. What kind of universe would continually circle in upon its own rotten heart like this? What god would allow such self-destructive processes to continue?

            In the past, this line of questioning and ones similar to it had proven fruitless within the confines of Mentat algorithmic analysis - demanding the limited amounts of information a human being is capable of possessing to yield definite anwers to questions pertaining to the irreducible, primitive essence of reality always drives the seeker up against the cliffs that are formed by the flawed basis of any system of knowledge: any set of empirical propositions allows the formation of multiple, mutually exclusive but nonetheless in and of themselves sufficiently explanatory theoretical systems. However, Idaho felt he needed to find an answer - he allowed a decidedly unscientific but quite necessary element to enter as a tiebreaker: emotion. Personal preference and consistency with beliefs chosen previously on the basis of not completely rational argument balances are sometimes the only things capable of forcing a decision either way.

            Tapping into a well of un-Mentatlike but decidely human qualities, his version of what Bene Gesserit would call Other Memory fashioned the part of his mind that had been dedicated to answering his questions in his Mentat trance with a rudimentary personality: a guiding principle accompanying him in his travels deeper into darkness the questions generated - a principle which he perceived as a human being.

            He turned to her against the backdrop of swirling red and flaming gold that was spiraling into the black hole he felt he needed to enter but had to resist for a little while longer, and asked his first question. “Is there a god?”

            “Would you like to believe there was one?”, she asked in return, her voice pleasantly warm in his mind.

            Duncan hesitated. “Yes and no. Knowing that there’s a higher power controlling your life gives you a sense of reassurance that there’s something or someone making sure everything is in order, but having witnessed the kind of cruelty that permeates every place that I have been in my many ghola-lifetimes, I would much rather believe our existence is the product of chance than that there’s a being out there with the power to stop the suffering, but who allows it to continue anyway, and perhaps even actively promotes it.”

            “These arguments focus on your sense of what is right and wrong, and do not touch upon whether or not there’s actually any proof that is able to decide for you what is actually the case,” she reprimanded him.

            “Is there such proof?”

            “Whether or not it exists depends wholly on your willingness to accept the theoretical framework in which that proof is coherent.”

            “Are there no absolutes?”

            “Each person creates his or her own absolutes.”

            “And if I decide to ‘create’ a god to inhabit my worldview?”

            “That would be your decision. However, you should remember that you cannot force others to adhere to the same beliefs.”

            “You haven’t answered my question.”

            “You have asked several questions.”

            “My first question,” Duncan said, slightly annoyed.

            “I have answered that one: there are many gods. The question should be: do you have a god?”

            “I don’t know. How should I define him?”

            “Part of the power the idea ‘god’ has lies in the fact that most people don’t attempt to define him. They say what he does, and what we should do to be more like him, but they can not - and will not - try to define who or what he is.”

            “And what if I don’t want to believe in a god?”

            “You have the right to make that choice.”

            “Doesn’t the emergence of life and intelligence require the intervention of a force higher than the rules of ordered chaos?”

            “What do you propose?”

            “If god is not an actual person, perhaps it is a semi-conscious force controlling the evolution of the universe.”

“Does this mean you subscribe to the anthropic principle?”

“I’m not familiar with that term,” Duncan admitted.

“It’s very old. In its strong form, this principle states the universe organises itself in such a way, that at one point in time the emergence of consciousness will occur.”

“That does appear likely. The chance that life would emerge purely by accident is too slim.”

“I see no reason to suppose this principle is true in this form,” she said, the fire of fanaticism suddenly in her voice. The fact that consciousness did emerge in no way means that at the beginning of the universe - granting that there actually was a beginning the way we would understand the concept - it was a necessary truth that at one point life and consciousness would become reality.

You use the word ‘chance’, but use it incorrectly. The universe is not governed by completely random interactions of matter - the fact that we're here is enough proof of that. The most effective cosmological theories, some of which date back to before the Butlerian Jihad, clearly state the universe is governed by a set of fundamental forces - gravitation, electromagnetic force and the weak and strong nuclear interaction forces - which generate the totality of forces and tendencies that organise the motions and interactions of particles our universe.”

“On what grounds can we suppose that these theories are true?”, Duncan taunted with a smirk on his face, bending the relativism she for argued earlier back on her own words.

“We can’t, but for the sake of argument we will suppose the most promising theory - the one just described - to be true, because otherwise there really would be no way for us to have this conversation. In any exchange of ideas, there needs to be a set of organising principles to give our thoughts direction and substance.”

“I see.”

“Despite the non-random character of the most fundamental levels of reality - however, it might be the case that each interaction or transformation on that level can be described by projecting a probability distribution onto the system in question, listing the various potential developments, the propensities of the system -, still the emergence of life would be a very rare event: all sentient and semi-sentient lifeforms in the Empire, with the possible exception of the sandworms from Arrakis, originated on Terra. At this point, there are very few reasons to believe life is not a rather unique occurance. However, given the enormity of the universe, even a minuscule chance of life emerging on a single planet becomes rather likely if considered on a universal scale. Saying that the chances of it happening on Terra were extremely small, and therefore there should be a regulative principle beyond or more fundamental than the forces of nature is committing a fallacy: the existence of life and consciousness on Terra was a given, it cannot be denied.

The conditions were such that life could emerge, and the question why this is so supposes a measure of consciousness in the universe, as if it decided to create life. This explains why people assume there must be a conscious superbeing somewhere: the way they ask their questions already presupposes this. However, this kind of anthropomorphic projection is not warranted by the empirical facts - inasmuch as anything empirical can be called a ‘fact’.”

“Once again there are several suppositions implicit in your line of reasoning,” Duncan remarked.

“Very perceptive! In this case the coherence of this way of thinking grants the arguments their effectiveness, but of course this does mean there might be other ways of constructing a coherent world-view, logically incompatible with this one. However, the burden of proof is on the person wishing to construct such a system. My conclusion remains that one cannot ascribe a will or a consciously pursued goal to tendencies of elementary particles - that would be committing a category mistake.

Now, the theory positing the existence of four forces indicates it's extremely difficult, perhaps even impossible to know exactly how the unified force that controlled the movements in the universe at the very earliest stages of its existence came to be. We can theorise about how the various disengagements of that unified force into the four forces that exist now occurred, but the events leading up to the ‘creation’ of the initial force itself - if it is even coherent to talk about such events - are inaccessible to us. Perhaps the way the forces in our universe are distributed is the only possible way, perhaps the ‘choice’ depended entirely on chance - the only thing that's fairly certain is that the theory that a supreme being created it the way it is, is completely without foundation beyond what some people would like to be true.

Only ways of explaining empirical data in a very peculiar fashion, likening naturally occuring events to events caused by conscious beings, might produce such an hypothesis, but even in that case the resulting ‘theory’ is highly unstable, and requires the truth of many unexplaneable propositions - a dogmatic approach that's infinitely less satisfying than a coherent system of propositions and laws which are provable withing a certain axiomatic system.”

“Circles,” Duncan said. “I’m seeing circles.” The accretion disk surrounding the black hole in the distance increased in size, it’s circular structure being mirrored everywhere around it in the mindscape Duncan’s query had conjured up.

“You are correct. Circularity looms over my reasoning, which might indicate the effect of the underdetermination of theories by data, causing the acceptance of any theory to require a so-called leap of faith. In other words, as I implied earlier, it all comes down to what you want to believe.”

            “I’m looking for certainty - something to provide my existence with a solid foundation. Your answers do not help.”

            “Remember that you are doing this,” she said. “I am you - I do not represent a way of thinking mirroring the purely mathematical, nor do my words reflect unstructured emotion. I personify your attempt at reaching a synthesis of the two.”

            “Am I incapable of finding deep soil in which my knowledge and beliefs can find root?”

            “You can make your beliefs as strong as you like, even in the absence of absolute proof. Aesthetics raises similar issues: there is no absolute right or wrong, but someone who can make a strong case for himself, with many arguments supporting his position, and is able to refute the beliefs of the other, will ultimately generate the most useful, comprehensive and coherent theory. And these aspects - usefulness, comprehensiveness and coherence - are positively charged in and of themselves. Religion fails on all three
accounts when compared with the best of what science has to offer, where the question of approximate truth about the world is concerned.”

            “Your world-view is cold, without soul,” Duncan said, contempt in his voice.

            “On the contrary - it is part of a vast system of beliefs that enable you - not me - to find the most constructive balance of emotion and reason available in the life that you have chosen for yourself. It’s impossible to demand a reason for being from strict materiality, which allows you to generate those reasons yourself.”

Having said this, the entity disappeared, and the circular, black-hole-like center filled Duncan’s vision, as a representation of that which cannot be named and in essence does not exist other than as a relationship to the very horizon of what can be asked. The singularity’s pull increased, and Duncan fell into it, all his questions flashing through his mind, their answers impossible to put into words but there for him to feel just beyond the reach of his senses.

Suddenly infinitely many shapes appeared around him, and it took him a while to realise where he was.

I’m in the Hall Of Mirrors…, he knew. The shapes he thought he had recognised a moment before were reflections of the many different parts of the totality of his being - images from the past, the present and the future, his hidden thoughts and emotions given visible form: everything his mind had ever produced was there. Being confronted with oneself in such an overwhelming manner was painful and mesmerising at once, and he knew that if he couldn’t leave this place, he could be trapped here forever, his body reduced to a vegetative state, unable to respond to any impulse.

The mirror merely contains a reflection, Duncan analysed, while the more fundamental reality exists in the synthesis of the many reflections, resulting in a this-transcending unity.

He tried to achieve such a unity, looking for the invisible center of the circle of his life that the many reflections formed, and found it: the mirrors disappeared, and the resulting darkness offered his senses a short relief.

Weak light of many colours appeared around him - a complex structure of strange clouds of translucent  colours connected by streams of differently coloured substances, matter constantly being exchanged between the various parts of the structure: this was the way his mind represented the most fundamental building blocks of reality to him. He was at the center of it all, seeing past and future and the formation of reality stretch out in all directions. His births were there, many hundreds of them, Paul and Leto and the Golden Path, the Butlerian Jihad, the creation of life and the infinitely stretched-out moment that had preceded the formation of this universe.

He saw other things there: the planet of Chapter House, surrounded by a fleet of very large no-ships, the worms, Murbella, his death… He held up a hand before his eyes to protect himself from the horrors he witnessed there, subconsciously wishing the images to leave him, and they did: the unreality around him reacted to his gesture, collapsing onto itself as if he had forced it to do so. He did not understand what it was exactly he had done to force his environment to respond to his wishes or wh it worked; he just knew instinctively what to do to get the desired result.

In the distance the other appeared once more, as he had once before, and Duncan found he could not control the other as he could the rest of his environment. Again the laughter resounded, and this made Duncan recoil in terror. He emerged from his vision, lingering at the point just before awakening for a few moments. The other had not left him, and the terrifyingly familiar voice once more filled his mind.

You have served me well so far - you have been executing plans that benefit my cause, even if you don’t realise it. I will increase my influence on you now, to allow you to grow. You will forget it is I who controls you. Every decision I make for you will to you simply seem to be the best choice in that particular situation. You will not be able to think beyond the boundaries I set for you, but you will be able to expand beyond the boundaries you have been trapped in until now. Learn to control your new powers - I will have need of them shortly.

continue

                                                                Last modified: May 24, 2000