3 ms·

One book-series that engages with the feeling of being trapped by one's ideas is Dune (specifically, the first three books: Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune

One book-series that engages with the feeling of being trapped by one's ideas is Dune (specifically, the first three books: Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune). Those three books are all about a person who has a great (in the sense of large, not morally good) idea, unleashes that idea onto an unsuspecting world, and then spends the rest of their life attempting to stop the very memetic demon that they unleashed.

hguant 7y ago
Spoilers ahead for a 30+ year old novel. What's particularly interesting about this idea of a 'memetic demon' is that the character unleashing it knew all along that it would be/had the potential to be [0] a monsterous thing, and spends a good deal of the first novel both looking for alternatives to unleashing this monstrosity[1], and is ultimately destroyed in the second because he attempts to maintain some sense of self in the face of the overwhelming power of this idea - he wants to be himself, _and_ maintain control of the idea that's swept him into power. This dichotomy is ultimately fatal. Only the one who sacrifices himself to the 'Golden Path' and allows in a very real sense his self to be subsumed by destiny is able to control this bloody, powerful idea. [0] The idea of a thing that has the potential to be another thing or the potential of a thing in being is defined by a precise word in German and in Greek that I can't remember right now. Aristotle's _Metaphysics_ goes into this question (can a thing that is not yet but will be if the thing that exists now lives rightly be said to be real? Does that future thing guide the present thing? Can it be talked about as if it is real?) in exhaustive detail. [1] The idea needs controlling because it's in part a techno-cultural jihad. Humanity needs to break out of its ossified structures to grow, but the cultural forces that have the power to do so (primarily religion in the novel) are equally capable of reducing this space empire to a series of isolated planets with nothing but memories of space flight. The protagonists want to have it both ways - just enough entropy to keep the system moving forward, but not enough to bring everything to chaos.
- BjoernKW 7y ago
  I think the word you refer to under [0] is 'teleology'.
soVeryTired 7y ago
...jihad
HNLurker2 7y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(2020_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(2020_film)

hguant 7y ago

Spoilers ahead for a 30+ year old novel. What's particularly interesting about this idea of a 'memetic demon' is that the character unleashing it knew all along that it would be/had the potential to be [0] a monsterous thing, and spends a good deal of the first novel both looking for alternatives to unleashing this monstrosity[1], and is ultimately destroyed in the second because he attempts to maintain some sense of self in the face of the overwhelming power of this idea - he wants to be himself, _and_ maintain control of the idea that's swept him into power. This dichotomy is ultimately fatal. Only the one who sacrifices himself to the 'Golden Path' and allows in a very real sense his self to be subsumed by destiny is able to control this bloody, powerful idea. [0] The idea of a thing that has the potential to be another thing or the potential of a thing in being is defined by a precise word in German and in Greek that I can't remember right now. Aristotle's _Metaphysics_ goes into this question (can a thing that is not yet but will be if the thing that exists now lives rightly be said to be real? Does that future thing guide the present thing? Can it be talked about as if it is real?) in exhaustive detail. [1] The idea needs controlling because it's in part a techno-cultural jihad. Humanity needs to break out of its ossified structures to grow, but the cultural forces that have the power to do so (primarily religion in the novel) are equally capable of reducing this space empire to a series of isolated planets with nothing but memories of space flight. The protagonists want to have it both ways - just enough entropy to keep the system moving forward, but not enough to bring everything to chaos.

BjoernKW 7y ago
I think the word you refer to under [0] is 'teleology'.

soVeryTired 7y ago

...jihad

HNLurker2 7y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(2020_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(2020_film)