History Headscratchers / DunePartTwo

** In the book, its implied that Spice isn't the sole substance with the effect that it has (Jessica for example when she becomes a reverend mother, remembers a similar cocktail to the water of Life being made on planets before Arrakis was settled). And Paul muses that the Spacers Guild became too specialized on spice which is their weakness. The issue isn't that nothing else can be used to travel through space without computers but Spice, but rather that the Guild ''won't'' use anything else BUT spice. Spice is ''highly'' addictive and the Guildsmen use it so much they have even deeper blue eyes than the Fremen, almost black. The Emperor notes that the Guildsmen he's with are so addicted to their spice visions they can't even notice what's actually in front of them (When they claim the outcome of the battle is uncertain because they can't see a fixed future, while the Emperor notes that just looking at the battle makes it clear they've lost). This is why Paul's threat works so well - it's not a matter that it'd destroy a tool they need, it's a matter that they are so deeply addicted for so many centuries using anything else is unthinkable. Paul muses that this is the guild's undoing. They never sought to control spice itself and by now they are too addicted to it to actually be capable to. Their decisions always turned to what would immediately give them the most spice immediately.

** In the book, its implied that Spice isn't the sole substance with the effect that it has (Jessica for example when she becomes a reverend mother, remembers a similar cocktail to the water of Life being made on planets before Arrakis was settled). And Paul muses that the Spacers Guild became too specialized on spice which is their weakness. The issue isn't that nothing else can be used to travel through space without computers but Spice, but rather that the Guild ''won't'' use anything else BUT spice. Spice is ''highly'' addictive and the Guildsmen use it so much they have even deeper blue eyes than the Fremen, almost black. The Emperor notes that the Guildsmen he's with are so addicted to their spice visions they can't even notice what's actually in front of them (When they claim the outcome of the battle is uncertain because they can't see a fixed future, while the Emperor notes that just looking at the battle makes it clear they've lost). This is why Paul's threat works so well - it's not a matter that it'd destroy a tool they need, it's a matter that they are so deeply addicted for so many centuries using anything else is unthinkable. Paul muses that this is the guild's undoing. They never sought to control spice itself and by now they are too addicted to it to actually be capable to.

*** In more simplistic terms it would also cause "enormous" financial upheaval. Spice is so precious all other forms of currency are tied to its value. Wars would immediately break out to secure the remaining supply, entire global economies would be wiped out, and the surviving Harkonnen would become "immensely" rich and powerful, given they had quietly stockpiled a substantial private reserve of Spice over the decades. In the novel, the Baron goads Paul into carrying out his threat, because it would greatly benefit his House in the short term.

** The interstellar civilisation is older than Spice's discovery because Spice wasn't needed for space travel at first. [=AIs=] and computers are outlawed since an ancient backstory event referred as "Butlerian jihad" (either a revolt against technology or a robot war depending on the continuity, mentioned in passing in the original Frank Herbert's novels, and the event is the main focus of one of the novels' prequels series). Also, Spice isn't literally spaceships' fuel. The prescience granted by Spice serves to replace the use of "thinking machines" to pilot spaceships: instead of using computers to calculate trajectories, the Spacing Guild's navigators rely on short term visions of the future.

** Spacefaring in the Dune setting requires neither the guild or computers. Without either, space travel is possible, just a lot more dangerous. The original settlers of Dune were cultists (do a search on "Zen Sunni Wanderers" for info) who were willing to take those risks ...so the real headscratcher is: why isn't the whole galaxy populated with the descendants of these and other similar risk takers? It only takes one vessel to populate a whole planet. IRL, many remote spots on Earth were populated via similarly dangerous means. For example, the entire native population of New Zealand are descended from an initial small group (or several groups) who arrived via long and perilous canoe journey (mitochondrial DNA implies approximately 70 women settlers).

** Spacefaring in the Dune setting requires neither the guild or computers. Without either, space travel is possible, just a lot more dangerous. The original settlers of Dune were cultists (look up ZenSunni Wanderers) who were willing to take those risks ...so the real headscratcher is: why isn't the whole galaxy populated with the descendants of these and other similar risk takers? That's what happens IRL, because small initial populations expand very rapidly to become nations (for example the entire native population of New Zealand are descended from an initial 50-100 women who arrived via a similarly perilous canoe journey).

** I'm guessing Paul, Jessica and Gurney have at least some kind of knowledge about piloting spaceships, so they likely taught the Fremen off-screen. They are a bunch of time jumps, after all. As for why the other Houses don't attack them, Paul mentions that if they attack, he will blow up every Spice deposit on Arrakis, which would likely give them (and the Spacing Guild, since Spice is vital to them and nobody flies anywhere without them) pause.