I'm currently reading Frank Herbert's "Dune" for the first time.
I was struck by this passage. It comes right after the Reverend Mother has tested Paul Atreides. She is talking with him.
"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."
How apropos seventy years later.
@Wolf This wasn't some prescience on Herbert's part, but instead part of a clever writing gimmick that others have used, too.
By the mid-'60s, it was obvious to smarter SF writers that computers would make realistic speculation about the future impossible, making SF writers look foolish for their wrong guesses (which many did).
There are two ways around that. One is artful vaguery. (C.J. Cherryh has used that a lot.) Herbert took the other path:
/2
@Wolf 2/ Simply abolish tech higher than you're comfortable dealing with, so that it's not a problem. (This was the method of the reimagined BSG, for example.) The Butlerian Jihad was an artful way to remove runaway tech that he had no hope of predicting, so that he could control far-future tech as he preferred.
It comes across as prescient because Herbert was such a good writer. But this passage is artful service to a practical writing device.
Wolf
WesDym