Just went trhough the whole thread - pretty informative in a number of cases (though many speculations ;) ). Anyway here are my questions: 1) At various points during the books (when I talk about the books I'm refering to the originals - none of the prequels) we have mentions of a multi galactic empire. Is this just a figure of speech or litteral truth ? I've read once that bridging the gap between galaxies would be impossible even for hyper luminic vessels. Perhaps the folding principle nullifies distance .. ??? 2) How was CHOAM formed, structured and operated ? I seem to recall that it was a creature of the Guild - it's merchant arm so to speak. Yet when Paul negotiated the peace treaty with shaddam IV (and subsequent plots in D:Messiah/ CoD), the breakdown of CHOAM's control is more or less as follow: 50% of voting shares to the Imperial House and the other 50% divided between various other players. How could it be a Guild's tool if "legally" controlled by external agents ??? 3) If the Golden Path was humanity's "insurance policy", and if Arafel was humanity's extinction, what was the threat causing Arafel ? Aliens ? Thinking machines ? The vision Siona during her test seem to indicate the latter. But in that case does it mean these machines were alien in origins ? The (terrible) BJ was apparently based on Frank's own notes and mentions copies of Omnius sent to the far reaches of the universe in a strategc bid to surround mankind and ultimately catch it all in one net. How could this be acheived (multiple galaxies away) at that time since space folding had not been discovered yet ? And even if the machines were indeed human built and had prefected themselves (thus dicovering fold tech in parallel to humans), why didn't they try to return to their source (the million planet) and fulfill their prime mission (destroy mankind) earlier ? Following this logic, this menace should have come into contact with an expanding humanity much earlier than 1500 years into the Scattering - in fact, much earlier than Muad'ib's time ! It would seem the threat was not human in origin. 4) What was the nature of the new Face Dancers Ducan Idaho sees behind the shimmering net in Chapterhouse. Frank tells us they were originally the "new" face dancers sent away during the Scattering. But they were so good at doing what they were contructed to do, that they eventually reached independance through assimilation of individual minds. Did this accretion process turned them into KH superbeings all ? With the abilities so eloquently expounded upon by TMA-1 ? 5) I've never really understood the whole concept of cellular memory as the basis for Other Memory shared by both the Reverend Mothers, Muad'ib and the Tyrant. From what I understand so far: - life all organic lifeforms, humans react to the pressures of the environment, adapting to them and to it; - any sensation experienced (sensory stimuli, thoughts, etc) is recorded by the brain and stored in the flesh at the cellular/molecular level (like ROM ... but how ? electrons shaped in specific configurations ?); - genetic manipulations combined with the use of Melange can expand the consciousness enough to enable some to retreive this data (thus explaining stories of possesion, reincarnation theories, deja vu, etc); - once retreived this data expands back to the original uni cellular organism in Earth's primitive ocean... (through the female line for the BG witches and on both sides for Muad'ib & his son). That's an AWFUL lots of information to be contained in one human brain... Even counting the theory we're using only 5% of or brain capacity... 6) Leto II said he had the memories of all humans in him ... again is this literal or just a figure of speech - meaning he had enough exemples as to constitute an accurate portrait ? 7) How was Sheeana immune to sexual bonding ? Through her education alone or another by product of Atreides' wild genes ? Well that's enough for now ;D G.
