vs. Children of Time: Fuck humans, spiders are way cooler.

Let's just find a drugged out mathematician in the future and our destiny as a race is secured.

As a physicist psychonaut, I like both ideas. Not Paul's genocide tho or Leto's worm imperium (I'm on God Emperor). Still reading foundation and it's amazing

Oddly enough, both involve predicting the future.

Instead of tripping on drugs, he could have gotten the same effect by changing only a single letter

Switching from "a" to "e"

Not entirely accurate, but gets the point across and has a better punchline

Using drugs to solve the problem of institutional memory is my favourite Frank Herbert invention.

Peter Watts: We're already deep in some bleak dystopian hellhole which isn't even imperialist. We tried to bring salvation via transhumanism and utilitarianism, but that shit backfired like nothing else ever has. All humans died and vampires (that humans created because why the hell not?) took over.

Oh, there are some alien eldritch horrors lurking in the fringes of the solar system. They present a threat even for the vamps.

Pellegrino & Zebrowski: The story, taking place in some deep dystopian hellhole trying to bring salvation, begins with alien eldritch horrors wiping out 99.99% of humans with r-bombs.

And then it gets worse.

Gimme some Super God Math

Saberhagen's Berserker: The machines will visit some bleak imperialist nonsense on you a hundred fold before wiping your entire fucking species out.

Dan Simmons: … but humanity‘s salvation will come from the pedophilia love we always had.

Why not both?

And that's why Dune rules.