|
|
|
 
Comparison of Herbert's "Dune" and Asimov's "Foundation Series": Effects of
Technology and Belief Systems on the Individual
Technology and belief have a great deal to do in making a good science
fiction novel. Frank Herbert's Dune and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series
give excellent examples of this. Belief systems are defined as religious
beliefs in a society. Technology is defined as the level of science
achieved in a society. These two factors play separate roles in a society.
Yet, at times, they fall into the same categories like in the book Dune
where science reflects religious aspects or in Foundation where the society
depends on religion and social behavior to survive the onslaught of
advanced technology. Religion might be a fuel to achieve a specific level
of technology. Such as in the Bible, "Seek and you shall find." May mean
that God wants all Christians to achieve the highest amount of experience
that they are capable of. Religion gives an individual, morals and control,
while science gives an individual the medium under which he can explore the
hidden. "Dune" is a fine example that shows the mingling of religion and
science and how it affects the individual or society.
Religion is the main idea in the book Dune. The author states the
different types of religions that come to pass since the beginning of this
age. Before the coming of Muad'Dib (a savior), the desert people on the
planet of Arrakis practiced a religion whose roots came from an
undetermined source. Many scholars have traced the extensive borrowing of
this religion from other religions. Many people were confused to find that
so many ideas in one religion easily reflected another. From this confusion,
the people of Arrakis formed a committee known as the Orange Catholic
Liturgical Church. This church was the first to introduce a type of
religious belief in which there was one god, and the book of revelation was
known as the Orange Catholic Bible. After this church, came the Bene
Gesserit, who privately denied that their order was a religious order, but
in fact, all of their teachings and beliefs were quite religious. Following
this religious order, came an age of agnostic rule. In this time, people
thought religion was a type of theatrical way to keep the people amused and
believed that all phenomenon even unexplained phenomenon could be reduced
to simple scientific explanation. As time changed, the fourth religious
movement was the Ancient Teachings. These ancient teachings included
Zensunni Wanderers, the Navachristianity of Chusuk, the BuddIslamic
Variants of the types dominant at Lankival and Sikun, the Blend Books of
the Mahayana Lankavatara, the Zen Hekiganshu of III Delta Pavonis, the
Tawrah and Talmudic Zabur and the Muadh Quran. Frank Herbert's imagination
takes us through all of these religious orders to show the chaos in our own
society's religious failings. All of these religious beliefs have shaped
the final religion of Arrakis which is called the religion of the Muad'Dib.
Yet, there is still one truly final religion of sorts that has
affected the people of Arrakis more than any other spiritual religion and
this following is known to many of us as Space Travel. Mankind's movement
through deep space amazed the people of Arrakis and slowly these people
thought of space travel as a religion and not a science. This is due to
actual science of space travel being hidden and portrayed as being mystical.
From the idea of space, different churches had their own ideas of creation.
The religious faiths have the feeling that the sacred is touched by anarchy
from the outer dark, and this outer dark is space. There was never a clear
decision on religious matters after space travel was introduced because the
individual always had doubts as to the authenticity of the revelation.
During this period of space travel, high bishops of the Orange Catholic
Bible reinterpreted, Gods word from Genesis and stated it as "Increase and
multiply, and fill the universe, and subdue it and rule over all manner of
strange beasts and living creatures in the infinite airs, on the infinite
earths and beneath them."
As technology evolved on Arrakis, so did religion and social behavior.
The idea of God being a machine and infinitely logical was overthrown by
the masses and a new concept was raised "Man may not be replaced."
Throughout the decades, the leaders of the several religions met to
exchange views due to all the wars that followed in the name of religion.
When interstellar travel was achieved, a new commission was formed known as
the Commission of Ecumenical Translators. This commission's goal was to
weed out the true, one, and only revelation. The people of Arrakis did not
invite the idea of a commission made to form all religions to one final
religion. When this new bible was formed, eighteen of the commission's
delegates were killed. Finally, in the errors that sprang from this
commission, came the man known as Muad'Dib. The people were overjoyed to
see that there was a true religion and nothing crafted together by a few
dozen poets.
Science greatly effected the religion part of this book. The main
export of Arrakis is spice. This spice enables mankind to travel in space.
This particular spice is known as orange spice. But the melange spice is a
particular spice revered by the people of Arrakis, due to it's ability to
extend life and wisdom. Genetic breeding has also been achieved, but the
only way that people have been affected by this, is through religious and
mystical ways. The people that are selected for genetic breeding have
offsprings of the female sex. Oddly, discrimination is not created because
of this. Since Arrakis has the only supply of spice in the known universe,
spice is a valued commodity that is worth dying for. The people of Arrakis
need a great deal of water. Arrakis is the only planet in that particular
galaxy which is covered entirely with desert. The effects of technology on
the people of Arrakis only goes far as the religion does. In that, any and
all values that the people share are reflected upon religion. Because of
the great greed that exists between the people, overlords will do anything
to achieve their final goal. Killing and stripping family honor are one of
the ways to achieve this goal.
The people of Foundation are very much like the people of Dune, in
that both try to achieve a certain goal. The people in Foundation try to
answer one man's dream. This man is Hari Seldon. In the known galaxy,
wealth is the one thing that separates life from death. In the beginning,
at the center of the galaxy, there was a planet named Trantor which was
densely populated and industrially advanced. All the land surface of
Trantor, 75,000,000 square miles in extent was a single city. All the
people of Trantor devoted themselves entirely to the administrative
necessities of an orderly government known as the empire. Daily, fleets of
ships in the tens of thousands would bring the produce of twenty
agricultural worlds to the dinner tables of Trantor. The people of Trantor
depended upon these other worlds for food and necessities of life. Before
the fall of this empire, these people took all of these things for granted.
The people of this world did not give homage to any God but their own
materialistic and living necessities. Perhaps through this loss of religion,
society grew very obnoxious and lost themselves in their pursuit of a so-
called good life. But, Hari Seldon realized this and predicted the decline
of this empire through his new science called psychohistory. In short what
psychohistory is defined as, is that branch of mathematics which deals with
the reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli.
Seldon determined that in a few thousand years, the Empire will fall due to
its' blindness of economic pressure and social decline. The aristocracy
will slowly feel themselves being turned into the lower class and no hope
for return to their past stature. While Seldon tries to spread this
information to the populace of Trantor, he is stopped by the Empire and
told to stop his absurd attempt of over-throwing the great Empire. Only a
select people believe Seldon and ts. While the majority of Trantor
disbelieves Seldon's methods and continue to live on their worthless lives.
Technology is the cornerstone of this society. Without it, they would not
have been anything. The society is quite ordered and moral value is high.
But each individual is selfish and does not live for the common good.
Instead the individual lives for himself and solely respects the Empire.
There is no religion or God but the God of greed. Both societies clearly
show their greed because of the religious and technological implications
that they are being strained under. With the people of Arrakis, searching
for one true religion. While the people of Foundation not knowing their
true selves and giving in to the enemy, which is their own government. It
is hard to think of what the individual might think in both types of
situations, because what makes a person is the individuality that sets one
person apart from the other. In these two novels both societies accomplish
a new life by relating religion and technology together, however this
accomplishment is steady only if the two factors work together
interchangeably. In other words religion and technology have to become a
part of each other. In Foundation, these is a lack of religious beliefs and
a lack of social behavior among the people and the government known as the
Empire, until the savior discovers the truth and proves that a society
cannot rely upon technology alone. In the book Dune on the other hand
religion and technology are the cornerstones of the society and the people
think of scientific events such as space travel as a religious event.
However, this relationship becomes fragile as the greed among the people
destroys those cornerstones and as a result, the society. In every
community, religion and technology are together in harmony which brings
order to an individual's mind, therefore it is very important to maintain
that order in a society.
ADDITIONAL FEATURED ESSAYS
Motivation 2
Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort's ab
Facing Reality
Are we all aware of the uses of technologies we are helping to create? "If there is war we shall all die"(Weizenbuaum 71
Technology Affects Educations
How Technology Effects Education The best method for improving educational standards is to utilize every tool available,
Windows 95 Beats Mac
Over the years, there has been much argument over which computer platform to buy. The two contenders in theis competions
Windows 95 Beats Mac
Over the years, there has been much argument over which computer platform to buy. The two contenders in theis competions
|
|
|
|
