Butlerian Jihad
In plain wordsIn the Dune novels, an ancient human revolt that destroyed every thinking machine and banned them for good; in AI debates, a name for any call to stop or outlaw advanced AI.
In Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and its sequels, a crusade some ten thousand years before the main story in which humanity destroyed computers and other 'thinking machines' and made it a religious commandment never again to build a machine imitating the human mind; trained human specialists such as Mentats later take over the work machines once did. In AI discourse the term names a wholesale rejection of advanced AI — occasionally as a serious aspiration, more often as a joke or as an accusation aimed at decelsdecel, n.: A dismissive label, used mainly by AI accelerationists, for anyone who wants AI development slowed down, paused or heavily regulated. and anti-AI activists. It marks the far end of a spectrum of positions that runs through calls for an AI pauseAI pause, n.: A proposed halt, temporary or indefinite, on building AI systems more powerful than today's, to give safety research and regulation time to catch up. and for strict licensing of frontier systems.
He insists he wants regulation, not a Butlerian Jihad, but his critics are not convinced.
Origin
Introduced by Frank Herbert in Dune (1965), which describes the Jihad mainly in its appendices and glossary. The name is commonly read as an allusion to Samuel Butler, whose 1863 letter 'Darwin among the Machines' and novel Erewhon (1872) imagined destroying machines before they outpaced humanity. The prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (2002–2004) dramatized the war; online AI debate adopted the phrase in the 2010s.
Usage note
Later works give the name an in-world source: Jehanne Butler in the non-canonical Dune Encyclopedia (1984), Serena Butler in the Brian Herbert–Kevin J. Anderson prequels. Critics often link it to Samuel Butler, but Frank Herbert is not known to have confirmed the allusion.
Related
- deceldecel, n.: A dismissive label, used mainly by AI accelerationists, for anyone who wants AI development slowed down, paused or heavily regulated.
- AI pauseAI pause, n.: A proposed halt, temporary or indefinite, on building AI systems more powerful than today's, to give safety research and regulation time to catch up.
- doomerdoomer, n.: Someone who believes advanced AI is likely to cause a catastrophe, possibly human extinction; often used as a put-down by people who think those fears are exaggerated.
- clankerclanker, n.: A slang insult for robots and AI systems, borrowed from Star Wars, that went viral in 2025 as a way of expressing annoyance at, or rejection of, AI.
- Frankenstein complexFrankenstein complex, n.: Isaac Asimov's name for the fear that intelligent machines will turn on the people who made them, after Mary Shelley's novel about a scientist destroyed by his own creation.
- SkynetSkynet, prop. n.: The military computer network in the Terminator films that becomes self-aware and tries to wipe out humanity; now everyday shorthand for the fear of AI turning against people.
Sources
- Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. Chilton Books.
- Butler, S. (1863). Darwin among the Machines. The Press (Christchurch), 13 June 1863.
Mentioned in
clankerclanker, n.: A slang insult for robots and AI systems, borrowed from Star Wars, that went viral in 2025 as a way of expressing annoyance at, or rejection of, AI., deceldecel, n.: A dismissive label, used mainly by AI accelerationists, for anyone who wants AI development slowed down, paused or heavily regulated., Frankenstein complexFrankenstein complex, n.: Isaac Asimov's name for the fear that intelligent machines will turn on the people who made them, after Mary Shelley's novel about a scientist destroyed by his own creation.