Though not all Mentats were of equal ability, all were typically able to guarantee employment with one of the power brokers of the Known Universe. The role of Mentat required a certain degree of mental ability and strict mental conditioning. Though unlike the Mentats employed by the Great Houses, all Bene Gesserit Mentats (like Tertius Eileen Anteac and Bellonda) were pre-conditioned Reverend Mothers. Mentats were also used, to a lesser extent by the Bene Gesserit. Limited Mentat training was also used to augment individuals destined for other political or military roles. Thanks to their vast memories and ability to organize huge amounts of data they often provided valuable insights that would otherwise be lost. Mentats were used extensively by the Great Houses, primarily as political advisors before the rise of God Emperor Leto Atreides II to the throne. The Bene Gesserit preserved the art, assuming that Leto knew of this and allowed it. The art of being a Mentat was not eliminated, however. Mentats were outlawed by God Emperor Leto II and any renegade training schools crushed. They, like many other groups, were dispersed in the Scattering.
Leto's extremely long life, coupled with his goal to realize The Golden Path in order to ensure humanity's survival, saw him hoard the Spice Melange seemingly without much concern for short-term problems.ĭuring the 3,500-year rule, the Mentat order formed a nucleus of independent opposition. Human computers, also known as Mentats, trained as replacements to the mechanical thinking technology, just as the all-female Bene Gesserit and the Guild of Navigators took up the same functions that had been previously covered by the Thinking Machines prior to the Jihad which banned all thinking technology.Īlong with the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit, the rise of Leto Atreides II to the title of God Emperor brought with it new problems for the entire Mentat order. In the aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad, computers and other forms of thinking technology were banned due to the OCB's commandment against thinking machines (" Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind") and, at the same time, the anti-AI laws had been placed in effect the punishment of owning such AI device or any kind being immediate death. Gilbertus Albans displayed the first cognitive thinking and computer-like calculation capacity necessary for a Mentat.
0 kommentar(er)
