Erasmus

Expanded Dune

This article or section refers to elements from Expanded Dune.

Erasmus was an independent and somewhat eccentric thinking machine that served under Omnius prior to and during the Butlerian Jihad. Erasmus took his name, and titular gender, from the ancient Earth scholar Desiderius Erasmus.

Erasmus is often credited as being the founding father of mentats, and a critical figure in the initiation and development of the Butlerian Jihad.

Origin

After serving many years as one of countless synchronized robots under Omnius, Erasmus became trapped in an ice crevice during a solo expedition on Corrin, and remained there for twenty years. During that time, and without the guidance of Omnius or the company of other beings, he spends vast amounts of time ruminating on various philosophical concepts.

Following his rescue he refused the opportunity to resynchronize with Omnius, and instead persuaded the Evermind that his independence could prove useful to the wider causes of the Synchronized Worlds.

Obsession with Humans

As a self-proclaimed scientist and philosopher, Erasmus continued to contemplate a variety of concepts. However, his overriding passion became the study of humans - or hrethgir as they were known to the Titans and Omnius. He felt compelled to find logical patterns in their seemingly irrational and random reactions.

His attempts to understand humanity typically came through experiments on enslaved humans of the Synchronized Worlds, which normally resulted in suffering, misery and death for the subjects. His other attempts to rationalize human behavior involved surrounding himself with luxurious human trappings, such as materials, art, and decor. Most of Erasmus' attempts however yielded no tangible gains.

However, the arrival of the captured Serena Butler brought a new dynamic to the Erasmus' efforts. The strong-willed prisoner not only presented the robot with defiance and intrigue, but also his first meaningful encounter with human birth. However, the ultimate consequence of his time with Serena came after he had grown annoyed by her young son Manion, and murdered him.

That event, in tandem with an experiment on the slave supervisor Iblis Ginjo, triggered an uprising among the simmering masses of human slaves on Earth. Erasmus escaped to Corrin shortly before the planet was decimated by atomics carried by a war fleet from the League of Nobles.

Emotional Changes

On Corrin Erasmus hid his involvement in the destruction of Earth from the new Omnius Prime, for fear of being resynchronized and losing his independence. Though his experiments continued, they were influenced by his last experiences on Earth and his interaction with Serena Butler.

Consequently, the robot 'adopted' a talented but feral human slave boy, and named him Gilbertus Albans, again after two human philosophers from Earth's ancient history. Yet unlike his previous experiments Erasmus devoted more time and patience to his new ward. The pair's relationship eventually evolved in to that of a father and son.

During this time, the critical update of Earth-Omnius (corrupted by Vorian Atreides' programming) carried by Seurat arrived on Corrin. After receiving the update, the Corrin-Omnius learned Erasmus' secret: he was the originator of the rebellion of Earth, as a part of the wager he had put with his Earth counterpart. During this revelation, the infected update caused Omnius to crash, and Erasmus (being an independent robot) realized that Seurat was the courier of the virus. He managed to isolate the corrupted databanks of Omnius and ordered Seurat's arrest.

Erasmus' unusually human-like relationship with Albans, coupled with his deceit in hiding the truth from Omnius, left some to wonder if the sterile robot had ultimately discovered emotions akin to this of humans. However, those questions were left unanswered when the robot was left to die during the Battle of Corrin when Gilbertus instructed to remove his gelsphere CPU. The fate of his gelsphere is unknown, but however, the incredibly strict anti-AI laws were just being put into effect at the time; among other things, the punishment of one in Gilbertus's position of owning of an AI device was death. This factor, combined with the future existence of mentats, the first of which was Gilbertus himself - seems to indicate that the gelsphere was never discovered. If it had discovered, the backlash would likely had almost certainly destroyed the nascent Mentat School.

Just before the humans final conquest of Corrin; Omnius, carrying the program of Erasmus within it, beams itself into far space, in a last ditch effort to re-establish itself one day. This manuever is successful as the signal of the Machines is picked up by a deep space probe which had been previously beamed off of Giedi Prime by another incarnation of Omnius hundreds of years before.

At the Beginning of Kralizec

Thousands of years later, after the Scattering initiated by Leto II, the Honored Matres stumble upon the re-born Thinking Machine Empire. The Honored Matres return in severity to the Old Empire, fleeing from an entity which is remembered by them in archival stories as the Enemy. At the end of Chapterhouse: Dune (novel), the entities Daniel and Marty, are indeed, Omnius and Erasmus, trying to en-trap the no-ship, the Ithaca, in a tachyon net. He and Omnius are doing this as they believe the ultimate super-being Kwisatz Haderach, is aboard the space ship.

Erasmus' manipulations are a large part of bringing about Kralizec in both Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. He and Omnius manipulate the Lost Tleilexu Face Dancers, who were sent out ten thousand years earlier by the Tleilex into deep space. Erasmus has been absorbing the memories and emotions that the Face Dancers experience as they have infiltrated all aspects of human space. Unbeknownst to them, or their leader Khrone, he has also installed a genetic "off" switch into the physical make up of all of the Face Dancers under his control, allowing them to be killed instantly over the all encompassing Thinking Machine tachyon net, should he ever see fit.

Erasmus secretly manipulates Omnius as to whom he truly believes the ultimate Kwitsatz Haderach to be. Through the intentional false interpretaions of prophecy, and misleading solving of mathematical computations, he feeds Omnius incorrect data. He leads Omnius to believe that the super-being is the ghola of Paul Atreides, so he and Omnius create a duplicate of Paul, named Paolo, under the guidance of a ghola of Vladimir Harkonnen. Believing, as does Omnius, that another super-being could be on the Ithaca, as well, they pursue capturing the ship. When the Ithaca is captured, both Thinking Machine leaders plan on having the Ithaca's ghola of Paul Atreides fight their ghola, Paolo, to the death.

Meanwhile, Omnius and Erasmus launch their giant machine invasion fleet of human space. The fleet travels from star system to star system, first launching a plague against human-kind, then mopping up whats left with terrifying weapons of mass destruction. The humans, led by Murbella and the New Sisterhood, set up a last ditch defense above Chapterhouse.

The End on Synchrony

Finally, the Itahca is captured, and brought to Synchrony, capital of the Thinking Machine empire. There Paul and Paolo duel, leading to severely wounded Paul, and a victorious Paolo, who ends up in a coma, due to an over-dose of Ultraspice, a super-potent version of melange. Omnius gloats, having believed that his victory is assured. The Thinking Machine's age old nemesis, Norma Cenva, having evolved into her own type of super-being, appears, banishing Omnius to another dimension, forever.

Erasmus then deals with Khrone, and his army of independent Face Dancers. Khrone strides into the the central building on Synchrony, telling Omnius that Face Dancer victory is assured. Erasmus calmly explains to the assembly, including the stunned Khrone, that he has planned for this contingency for millenia, even quoting humans saying, "Who can trust a face dancer?" To everyone's astonishment, through the tachyon net he activates the Face Dancers genetic "off switch", and all throughout the galaxy, each and every Lost Tleilexu Face Dancer instantly dies,saving humanity from their clutches.

This leaves Erasmus to test his true belief, that the ghola of Duncan Idaho (gholas), is the true ultiamte Kwisatz Haderach. Once Idaho proves his mettle by easily disposing of a few machine robots through super speed, Erasmus is convinced that Idaho is the super-being. Erasmus encourages Idaho to forge peace between the Machine Empire and humanity. The two share lifetimes of experiences, making Duncan a new Evermind.

Erasmus, through Duncan and his many ghola lifetimes, finally gains an understanding of what it is to be human. After fifteen thousand years of searching for and gaining knowledge, he finds that there is very little left for him to learn. Fearing that his existence will become dull and meaningless, he once again shares with Duncan, using the many deaths the Kwisatz Haderach experienced in his lives to create a real death for himself. Erasmus quietly, and happily, dies in the form of Marty.

Erasmus's presence lingers in a similar fashion of the Bene Gesserit Other Memory with Duncan Idaho, to help guide and advise him as he joins man and machine after being separated since the Butlerian Jihad.

Behind the Scenes

In the quotes that start some of the chapters in some of the books in the Legends of Dune trilogy, the quote (taken from the 'Erasmus Dialogues'), shows Erasmus contemplating about what he would do if he had the power that Omnius had.

Appearances

• Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
• Dune: The Machine Crusade
• Dune: The Battle of Corrin
• Hunters of Dune
• Sandworms of dune