I don’t believe the original novels imply the humanity nearly went extinct and then banded together, that was only in “the junk Herbert’s son wrote”. Or that Strong AI was developed only a short time before the Jihad started.
Neither of these are true in the Dune Encyclopedia version, which Frank Hebert at least didn’t strongly disapprove of.
After Jehanne’s death, she became a martyr, but her generals continued exponentially with more zeal. Jehanne knew her weaknesses and fears, but her followers did not. The politics of Urania were favored. Around that time, the goals of the Jihad were the destruction of machine technology operating at the expense of human values; but by this point they would have be replaced by indiscriminate slaughter.
I think it’s a reasonable inference that humanity nearly went extinct, given that the impact of the Jihad was so pronounced as to affect all human culture for the next 10,000+ years. And I think it’s a reasonable inference that we banded together, given that we did manage to win.
I don’t believe the original novels imply the humanity nearly went extinct and then banded together, that was only in “the junk Herbert’s son wrote”. Or that Strong AI was developed only a short time before the Jihad started.
Neither of these are true in the Dune Encyclopedia version, which Frank Hebert at least didn’t strongly disapprove of.
There is still some Goodhart’s-Law-ing there, to quote https://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad/DE:
I think it’s a reasonable inference that humanity nearly went extinct, given that the impact of the Jihad was so pronounced as to affect all human culture for the next 10,000+ years. And I think it’s a reasonable inference that we banded together, given that we did manage to win.