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 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 Earth, and remained there for twenty years. During that time, and without the guidance of Omnius or the company of other beings, he spend 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 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.

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.

Behind the Scenes

Erasmus is not mentioned in the original Dune novels by Frank Herbert.