this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Far in the future, humanity is spread across space in a vast empire.
Long before the events of the book, humanity fought a long and bloody war against computers aka "thinking machines" which led to the destruction of all computers and a total ban on them.
Luckily there exists a substance called "spice" which enhances the human mind to incredible levels, allowing human brains to do everything from complex mathematical calculations to plotting courses for space flight. It's only because of spice that computerless society and interstellar travel are able to exist.
Spice has a drawback, though: it's incurably addictive.
It's also only found on one planet, called Arrakis or Dune. As you can imagine, this makes Arrakis a strategically critical planet.
There are tons of other social, political, and religious details to the universe but this is the basic premise.