วีดีโอ

I have achieved Siona

I think Villeneuve destroyed 'Dune'. This adaptation is NOT a masterpiece. It is a shoddy rip off from somebody else's imagination and literature. Villeneuve completely fails to understand Frank Herbert's vision and so with enough money, anybody can produce something that superficially appears to be beautiful, but there Villeneuve has somehow managed to remove all the intrigue, introspection and epic grandeur from Dune. Problems began with the race/gender swap of Liet Keynes. Villeneuve said he had to do this because there were not enough and I quote "...strong female characters in Dune..." I guess he had never heard of the Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit who have been controlling the bloodlines of every MAJOR House in the Landsraad for ten thousand years or so. So we get a scenario where Chani's father, is a black woman. Further to this, Chani is NOT in the Fedaykin in the novel, but Villeneue for some reason puts her in this dangerous military role, it makes no sense. If anything Chani is a servant, apprentice to Lady Jessica. In the film, Paul comes across as a dull, uninspiring kind of privileged megalomaniac and every other scene is spoilt by Chani (the awful Zendeya) grimacing in the background in a kind of moody way, as though she's constantly eating nettles and wasps. She's always lurking in the back ground, pulling a mardy miserable face of confusion. Villeneuve misunderstands Dune, he utterly fails to come to terms with what is going on. Villeneuve utterly side steps the fact, that young Paul Atreides is an accomplished individual before her lands on Arrakis. Trained by Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho, schooled by Jessica in the ways of the Bene Gesserit, Paul arrives on Arrakis not a 'Mary Sue' but a very powerful and disciplined young man. Villeneuve has Paul stumbling about stupidly, at one point Jessica reprimands Paul for standing with his back to an open space - forgetting that Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho had already schooled and trained young Paul in military tactics and swordcraft. Dune is complex, Villeneuve removes every nuance and subtlety and we are left with a bizarrely disjointed and baffling film that in truth has little in common with the novel. The Harkonnen are brutes, but Villeneuve makes it way too easy for the Fremen to defeat the Harkonnen military apparatus. The Harkonnen's, have dominated Arrakis, harvesting spice. Now the Fremen have been troublesome and yes the Harkonnen have been hiding some of their losses, but mainly simply by abandoning the South to the Fremen. But with very little tactical or military input from Paul, the Fremen suddenly decide to annihilate the Harkonnen - which begs the question in the film, why did the Fremen not do it ten years before, if it as so easy, as it appears. Paul's arrival is almost a side show in the film - which hints further at Villeneuve not doing a very inspired job. The absolute worst adaption is the relationship between Chani and Paul, it bares no resemblance to the book romance. Firstly, they do have a child which is murdered by Sardaukar raiders, Leto II 'The Elder'. This is actually a key piece of lore, because not only does it show the reader/viewer that the Sardaukar can infiltrate Fremen Sietch holdings, but also that the Sardaukar are not Harkonnen. In the book Stilgar makes several references to how his Fremen view the Sardaukar as being massively superior fighters to the Harkonnen, which is praise indeed. The Fremen are still better fighters and even more so with Paul's training, but in the film Harkonnen and Sardaukar are indistinguishable, because in the film Paul and his Fremen annihilate Harkonnen/Sardaukar as though they are the same - it is another example of how Villeneuve sacrificed plot complexity for another panorama of a beautiful CGI desert landscape and a moon, maybe a mouse kangaroo or two. Change the title to 'Sandy War' and alter some of the character names, that's all you would need to do to make this film a piece of stand alone cinema, so different is it to the books. Which begs the question, why adapt the books if you completely disagree with the source material, disagree to the point of making something almost unrecognisable as Dune.

I firmly believe that Dune has impacted fiction more than any other novel series, especially in film from the 70’s through to today. But, as someone with a huge appreciation for analysis and opinion of fiction, I would have easily enjoyed a long form video essay that ran as long as all of the Dune films and the sci-fi channel’s series. I don’t think we can explore all of the theories and avenues that Herbert put to print. Cracking stuff, mate.

... assuming there is such a thing as "genetic memory" - and by that I do not mean methylated base pairs - a process that can happen during periods of stress and may be subsequently passed on - but "actual memories"... no evidence. Hence one whole and central pillar of this whole argument is removed.

Space tells time how to move and time tells space how to bend. Likewise, free will determines the future and the future guides free will.

except... it doesn't. The entire series only reinforces it.

This might be one year ago but i am still going to write a comment. So the Laplace Demon was a concept of classical mechanics, which in itself is defined as a deterministic model. With the introduction of quantum theory the Laplace Demon is not able to predict the future. Our conscious is based on a neurological system. Charged particels can tunnel throught the walls of these neurons which alters our desision making. To completely eradicate the determinism inside a closed system you only need one Lifeform with a neurological system in it.

Me: randomly click in a video The video: "did you choose to see this video?" Me: ...

12:09 nice meta framing

I was unable to grasp most of that but I enjoyed it very much. I enjoy Dune because of how obligatory, tremendous power has been portrayed. A story that leaves its readers grasping to comprehend the bitter rivalry of great Houses & their struggle to win the favor of the emperor, when suddenly something foretold comes to terrible fruition. "Plans within Plans." These people have evolved, they no longer have free Will.

So... the Kwisatz Haderach is not a Laplace demon. He does not calculate things; he sees directly. He sees the past. He sees the possible futures. Even if quantum indeterminacy is a concern, it doesn't matter, because the KH will see what happens anyhow (consider that the KH can see what happens even a minute into the future even though QI events are happening all the time). The problem with the "prescient predator" is that it also sees the possible futures. The God-Emperor creates Siona as a sort of anti-prescience being (as well as her offspring) so that prescient beings can't see the possible futures related to Siona's offspring, not because they can't calculate their futures or something. Mentats don't use prescience nor do they use the spice melange. They are perhaps the closest to Laplace's demon as they only make their calculations based on the data they have, though they lack complete data. I'm guessing that a mentat could calculate things related to anti-prescience beings and objects, and perhaps that's why mentats were banned during the era of the God-Emperor. Quantum indeterminacy also doesn't validate freewill since randomness definitely isn't freewill.

Laplace's demon is my grades

It’s frustrating watching a video and especially reading the comments concerning determinism. People seem to think if a universe isn’t 100% determined that free will exists. You could have a completely random universe, you still aren’t choosing anything. Free will is a meaningless concept in our world and in Dune’s. I’d recommend Sabine Hossenfelders video on it for an easy intro, but I think ultimately people are scared to honestly engage with the topic because they want free will to exist.

The problem with using quantum indeterminancy as a 'cure' for determinism is that randomness is not the same as free will. Just because my actions may be completely random does not mean that I have any agency in making decisions. In that case, my decisions are not made by prior causes but by a roll of the die. I'm still not a free agent; instead of being slave to past events, I'm now a slave to chance. As a plot device, this works fine because it solves the problem that Herbert presents (prescient AI), but I can't see how it gives humanity free will. Don't get me wrong; I don't really relish the idea of being an automaton, but I don't think randomness is the answer to the question of free will.

True randomness and sort of human action? you may find this lecture or the book interesting by social scientist Brian Klaas, "Fluke: chance, chaos and why everything we do matters" th-cam.com/users/livee2T0kHPtjac?si=v3XVUxBmE35n8tXZ

Lets see how well this video stacks up against someone who writes historical fiction about Hitler doing what was necessary for the survival of his people...

But still, there was only one timeline. Paul saw strings of possible futures, and chose to change it. This itself was determined. Despite the possible futures, only one played out. Determined, through and through.

How Dune destroys determinism: Paul’s son becomes god-adjacent and literally destroys determinism. But only after asking humanity “Would you still love me if I was a worm?”

BS 👎

I jusst want to say that your channel is criminally underrated. You got yourself a new subscriber.

Imo when someone makes a movie set in history and doesnt take historical accuracy into account, than that creator is ignorant and should make something else. If you think history is boring and have to be enhanced, then why you want to create something set in history in the first place? In addition, such "historical" works distort the public perception of what the period actually looked like. For example movie 300 makes people think that the Spartans were perverts who fought without armour, the Vikings series makes people think that the Vikings were half bald fools who drew runes on their faces. Or that medieval period was grim, while in reality it was colorful. It doesnt have to be 100% correct in terms of what actually happened, but it should be as close as possible to 100% in terms of costumes, weapons, architecture etc. But I respect your opinion.

To be honest, I didn't understand why Dune destroys Determinism. As far as I understand, ir does the opposite.

I was always going to type here that I loved this video

actually my teacher is making me watch this dumb video

this movie sucks I can’t speak for the book

I chose to watch the video because I wanted to. But why did I want to? Did I choose to want to?

The books specifically make a point that prescience is not mathematical at all.

What’s the music in the background at 3:20?

The OG team literally said gundam stands for GUN FREEDOM

0:25 Man he is respectful, he called him Sanada-San. +1 Subscriber.

In Islam we have a compatibilist view. A combination of freedom of choice (not will) and determinism.

This is the dune related video title I’ve been waiting for

Why do people think that determinism isn't compatible with free will?

I was surprised by Buntaro's slight redemption, in the book and the 80s series man he was reallllllllly horrible but here he was nuanced, not redeemed but nuanced.

Your predictions have to be unpredictable. Because if your predictions are predictable, then I can predict them, then contradict them by my actions and thus making them failed predictions.

Awesome video. I learned a lot. Thank you for making such a well crafted video essay.

Dang. That was very well presented. The "algorithm" brought me here, thankfully. I have no idea how this does not have tens of thousands of views. Kudos.

The new Shogun is not good because it subverts samurai stereotypes. It is good because it is true to the Japanese culture and historical past. We live in an age where being subversive is far more important than being honest. It's not about contemporary politics and doesn't try to be. Some progressive and woke activists have tried to claim otherwise, but that's just being subversive and dishonest.

Great job again 🤙🏽 I was fortunate to experience both shogun series as a kid in the 70s and now. I am proud of this depiction and proud I survive anti Asian hate i am a retired veteran at peace

There are many commentaries on TH-cam about Shogun. Some are appalling showing little understanding of what was portrayed while whining that the battle of Sekigahara was not shown, while others contain some meaningful insights, yours, however, is one of the best I have watched with some truely gifted commentary. Well done.

I think the issue of prescience is that even after Paul consumes the water of life and actually gets a full view of all possible futures, he is still human even if a very intelligent and perceptive one. Just because one can see all possible futures does not mean one has time, energy or incentive to see all those paths but might choose the one that fits their agenda. For Paul this is the vengeance for his father, for his mentors and friends, for house Atreides. Later in the series we learn Paul explicitly chose not to walk down the Golden Path, to me that already excludes full determinism. Frank Herbert explicitly warned about following charismatic leaders blindly, yet most readers take Paul and Leto II, the god emperor, for their word without question. My take is that Frank tried to make us see the processes, political, ecological.. whatever in their nature that are going on all around us, interacting with each other.. When it comes to these processes they often carry a heavy weight of their own, and when it came down to Paul it was a perfect storm of these processes creating the circumstances for him to climb up to power. Could Paul have stopped the Jihad is the question we see time and time again. The answer in the Dune universe just like reality is, "it's complicated". Paul could have stopped the Jihad from happening right there and then, with him as it's leader but the building blocks were in place. The decadence of imperium and the Sardaukar, Fremen hardened by the sands of Arrakis to be the best fighters in the universe and the Bene Gesserit Missionaria Protectiva planting the religious levers to pull, these along with many other processes and factors were already in place and someone would have risen to be their leader eventually. Paul was on a mission and so was Leto II and we take their words that all the billions needed to die for greater good.. Our history is full of people who say the same, people like Hitler, like Stalin, like Mao and Putin.. It is for the people taking them and their vision as the ultimate truth why millions follow them to death and destruction. Maybe this was the ultimate warning by Frank Herbert, that we shouldn't try to rationalize men like these. Paul had prescience but he was out for revenge and went down the path fitting that quest, Leto II seeing greater enemies could have just been the fears, preconceptions and eventually paranoia of someone who rules with absolute power way longer than they should..

😎👍❕️

Kingdom Of Kingdom was pilloried for not having a sympathetic view of the Crusades. It simply shows the Crusaders as the villains (with some characters as exceptions). The usual suspects didn't like it.

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Just an excellent video, as good as any movie reviewer or cultural commentator on TH-cam

nice description page. lol. i subbed

Interesting video, I had a lot of thoughts about The Sight and determinism that was echoed in this video, but I just can't make myself accept randomness, so the "invisible gene" always bugged me. And when I learned about quantum mechanics I quickly rebelled against randomness there too. If you haven't, check out the youtuber you mentioned, lookingglass, she made some videos about Pilot Wave Theory, which explains things like the double slit experiment within a deterministic framework.

HOW DOES THIS NOT HAVE MORE VIEWS

It wasn’t will that determined I’d watch this video; it was *whim*