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Expanded Dune
This article or section refers to elements from Expanded Dune.


Gilbertus Albans (b. 185 BG) was a former slave of the robot Erasmus, who later became the first mentat, founding the order.

Early years

Gilbertus was a savage hrethgir toddler born among the slaves of Erasmus on his villa on Corrin; he was the subject of a second bet between Erasmus and Omnius about whether the way humans could function can be altered. Omnius wagered that no matter how hard Erasmus tried, he would never turn a feral child into a logical human. Erasmus took up the challenge with pleasure and chose the blonde-haired boy who appeared to be the wildest and most unkempt of all, in the animalistic lower social orders of the slave pens. He spent the first few years drugging the boy and driving out his feral habits.

He chose the high-sounding name 'Gilbertus Albans' that carried respectable and important tonalities so that it would evoke such behavior to the child.

After initially failing to make progress by using a system of benevolence and rewards, he switches to a system of strict supervision and punishment as well as behaviour-altering drugs. These alternate methods prove to be successful. By emulating Erasmus, whom he has come to consider his father, Albans becomes the first to display computer-like cognitive and calculation capacity on the level of thinking machines.

Evolution

After that was accomplished, he then trained Gilbertus to think logically and organize his thoughts, in the same way a computer did. This allowed Gilbertus to remember everything, recite observations at a moment's notice, and rapidly perform computer-like calculations. He was also able to maintain several lines of thought and think in hyper speed.

To his own surprise, Erasmus also develops an attachment to the boy; when Gilbertus is about 20 years old, Erasmus performs a life-extension procedure on him without permission from Omnius. Because of Gilbertus' remarkable memory-organizational ability and capacity for logical thinking, Erasmus nicknames him "Mentat", created from the words mentor, mentee and mentation.

Having already won the bet, Erasmus was determined to make him into the pinnacle of human ability. Soon Gilbertus was also doing physical exercises until his physique was as close to perfection as possible. Erasmus then christened him his mentat, the first ever. He gave him a life extension treatment and developed a fatherly attachment to him.

When the Battle of Corrin finally took place, Gilbertus escaped with the memory core of Erasmus and fled to parts unknown, presumably to train more mentats.

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