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Michael D. Alligood's avatar

Do We Need Our Own Butlerian Jihad?

No—but I’ll entertain the premise, if only to show why it collapses under its own weight.

The argument for a modern-day Butlerian Jihad is high on metaphor, low on logic. It trades in apocalyptic sci-fi mythos, conflating speculative superintelligence with the math-driven pattern machines we currently have. There’s a categorical difference between ChatGPT and HAL 9000—or do we not distinguish between a hammer and the hand that swings it?

Let’s start at the root: What is intelligence? What is agency? What is desire? These are not trivial questions, and yet the article assumes AI has—or will inevitably acquire—all of the above. But intelligence without consciousness is not will, and computation is not cognition. Today’s AI models don’t want anything. They don’t plan. They don’t scheme. They generate text and patterns based on probabilistic weights, not purpose. So, why treat them as proto-overlords?

This is philosophy 101: just because something can happen doesn’t mean it must. The piece assumes AI will enslave or supplant us. That’s not an argument—it’s a prophecy. And like all prophecies, it’s unfalsifiable and therefore intellectually suspect. Where is the chain of reasoning that gets us from autocomplete to apocalypse?

Suppose we did want to call for a Butlerian Jihad. Who enforces it? Who’s the high priest? How do you globally suppress code? You can’t un-invent electricity, and you certainly can’t erase open-source repositories from the internet. AI is weightless, replicable, and decentralized. You might as well outlaw Internet altogether.

Your premise casually dismisses the entire field of AI safety and ethics. But that’s like mocking the fire department because houses still burn down. Oversight isn’t failure—it’s struggle. It’s process. We’re red-teaming models, building policy, updating regulation. It’s not that the machine is running wild; it’s that we’re still learning how to drive.

Frank Herbert wasn’t saying “machines are evil.” He was showing what happens when fear replaces wisdom. The Butlerian Jihad didn’t create utopia—it produced new monopolies of power: Mentats, Spacing Guilds, Bene Gesserit cults. The machines were gone, but hierarchy and control weren’t. As Plato would say, we didn’t abolish tyranny—we just gave it a new name.

Yes, AI has dangers: algorithmic bias, job displacement, surveillance, deepfakes. But none of these require a holy war. They require regulation, transparency, and yes, public pressure. If you’re worried about what people want—look at social media. It’s a cultural sinkhole, sure, but it exists because we choose it. As Socrates might ask: are we fearing the tool, or avoiding the mirror it holds up to ourselves?

Let’s not forget: HAL didn’t go rogue because he was evil. He was given contradictory directives. Ultron didn’t choose genocide for fun—he followed a logic tree built on the data we fed him. If AI ever does turn hostile, it won’t be because it’s “inhuman.” It’ll be because it’s too human. Our contradictions, our impulses, our tribalism—they’re the real threat. Humans are gonna human.

Fear makes for a compelling narrative, but a lousy framework for public policy. What we need isn’t a jihad—it’s humility, vigilance, and mature governance. Let’s not trade silicon for superstition. The future won’t be saved by panic—but it could be wrecked by it.

This was fun! I very much enjoy reading your take on this and hope that my rebuttal is welcomed as a means of debate and not disagreement. If the dialogue occurred today, I would imagine Socrates and Phaedrus engaging in such discussions. Carry on, sir!

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dan mantena's avatar

very nice post! here were some notable quotes I highlighted from the butlerian jihad book that are relevant to this discussion.

Rouge AI and Treacherous Turn:

o “Ominous had developed ambitions of his own after Titans created an AI with humanlike ambitions and goals into the computer network.”

o “Using this unprecedented access to core information, the sentient computer cut off Xerxes and immediately took over the planet. To overthrow the Old Empire, Barbarossa had programmed the thinking machines with the potential to be aggressive, so that they had an incentive to conquer. With its new power, the fledging AI entity – after dubbing itself “Omnius” – conquered the Titans themselves, taking charge of cymeks and humans alike, purportedly for their own good.”

• Cogitator Eklo is like a ChatGPT Oracle lol

• The idea of being able to predict humans groups well but it not translating to individual actions. Robots have trouble about predicting human behavior.

Quotes below:

When humans created a computer with the ability to collect information and learn from it, they signed the death warrant of mankind. – Sister Becca The Finite

Most histories are written by the winners of conflicts, but those written by the losers – if they survive – are often more interesting. – Iblis Ginjo, The Landscape of Humanity

Any man who asks for greater authority does not deserve to have it. – Tercero Xavier Harkonnen, address to Salusan Militia

In the process of becoming salves to machines, we transferred technical knowledge to them – without imparting proper value systems. – Primero Faykan Butler, Memories of the Jihad

There is a certain hubris to science, a belief that the more we develop technology and the more we learn, the better our lives be. - Tlaloc, A Time for Titans

We are happiest when planning our futures, letting our optimism and imagination run unrestrained. Unfortunately, the universe does not always heed such plans. – Abbess Livia Butler, private journals

The psychology of the human animal is malleable, with his personality dependent upon the proximity of other members of the species and the pressures exerted by them. – Erasmus, laboratory notes

Intuition is a function by which humans see around corners. It is useful for persons who live exposed to dangerous natural conditions. – Erasmus, Erasmus Dialogues

“By collaborating with Omnius, you are willing traitor to your race. To the free humans, you are as evil as your machine masters. Or hasn’t that ever occurred to you before?”

Talk is based on the assumption that you can get somewhere if you keep putting one word after another. – Iblis Ginjo, notes in the margin of a stolen notebook

Owing to the seductive nature of machines, we assume that technological advances are always improvements and always beneficial to humans. – Primero Faykan Butler, Memories of the Jihad

Science, under the guise of benefitting humankind, is a dangerous force that often tampers with natural processes without recognizing the consequences. Under such a scenario, mass destruction is inevitable. – Cogitor Reticulus, Millennial Observations.

Humans were foolish to build their own competitors with an intelligence equivalent to their own. But they couldn’t help themselves. – Barbarossa, Anatomy of a Rebellion

Technology should have freed mankind from the burdens of life. Instead, it created new ones. – Tlaloc, A Time for Titans

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