> > > As for Sting in the Jetson diaper (LOL!); I think they were just trying to make him look as strange and as weird as possible. Remember Corrino mentioning that computers have been outlawed in the Dune universe? Well, that's not completely true. *Artificial intelligences* have been outlawed, but they still have computers--*human* computers, known as Mentats. They train on some special planet and drink something called "the juice of sapphu" to unlock the full potential of their minds. Sting's character in Dune was a mentat, and one who had also been trained, apparently, in fighting techniques. I suppose the strange metallic diaper was some sort of weird Mentat fashion.
> > >
> > > Gri"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapphu that the mind acquires speed; the lips acquire stains; the stains become a warning; it is by will alone I set my mind in motion."shny

There isn't any particular emphasis or need in the book for the use of Sapho(?) juice by Mentats, is there?

And you're right about the computers. There were plenty of computers in the Dune universe -- like programmable hunter-seeker devices and servo-mechs (servoks). In Dune, the "Butlerian Jihad" was a century-long crusade specifically against Artificial Intelligence. The Butlerian campaign left its hallmark with a rule that had the force of law: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of the human mind."

This idea was actually quite prescient of Frank Herbert. He wrote this in 1965, at a time when the term A.I. was unknown... It was a foreshadowing of all our debates, and fears, about intelligent machines taking over the world. Too bad he didn't suggest any solutions except to get rid of A.I. entirely. :-(


> > Was he? I thought Sting played the repulsive floating guy's son.
> >
> > Paul
>
> Yeah, Sting was one of the Harkonnen family's mentats. The Baron's son was Rabban, the younger but also fat red-haired guy who ate the raw tongue and was nicknamed "The Beast Rabban" in the book. In the movie, the Emperor Corrino had Rabban beheaded and then brought Baron Harkonnen in and showed him his son's head on the floor...I can't remember if that scene was in the book or not.
>
> Gri"Sting? Harkonnen's son? He's too thin and handsome!"shny

An extraneous beheading and metallic *diapers*? Hoo. The movie, which I haven't seen, certainly sounds...er, different.

I thought "Beast Rabban" was one of the Harkonnens' more inept cousins. He had ostensibly been given planetary governorship of Arrakis by the Baron; but instead, the Harkonnens deliberately manipulated Rabban until he became a tyrant. (They were willing to cross and frame their more expendable people, in a feudal Mafia sort of way.) Then Feyd-Rautha, the son and heir to the Baron, was supposed to step in triumphantly and clean up Rabban's planetary "mess" in order to receive the accolades of the population. I presume Sting's the one who plays the cunning and dashing Feyd-Rautha. He was not a Mentat, but Paul Atreides was, though.

Wolf "conspiracy plot that is a feint within a feint within a feint" spirit