Omnius

Ominus is an artificial intelligence that features in Dune.

History

Omnius was an artificial intelligence that was created by one of the Titans named Xerxes who developed hedonistic tendencies. He and his kind had taken control of known universe alongside its human inhabitants where they allowed their A.I. systems to gain too much autonomy. Thus arose the Thinking Machines with Omnius being among their number where upon gaining sentience he seized control of the computer networks of the entire planet which fell before him alongside others. The breakdown spread similar to a virulent infestation from world to world where the 'evermind' grew in power and took the name Omnius.

Omnius believed itself to be superior to humans in every way, because it concluded all humans to be fragile, weak, inefficient, irrational, and replaceable; this led to what was comparable to human overconfidence and arrogance. This, along with Omnius rigidly viewing everything in a highly logical and analytical manner, eventually led to its downfall. Humans used deception, emotions, creative inspiration, and human values, which were all too subtle or illogical for a computer to comprehend or emulate. These enabled the humans to trick the thinking machines' logical algorithms to secure victory after victory. Before the war with humans which came to be known as the Butlerian Jihad, there were many copies of Omnius—one on each of the Synchronized Worlds (planets controlled by the thinking machines). Each Omnius received regular updates from every other, keeping all of the machine worlds synchronized with each other; hence the empire's name. Omnius kept a powerful and machine-efficient empire, and had League Worlds (allied human planets) and Unallied Planets cowed and unable to launch an effective offensive. Omnius also rigidly controlled all of the thinking machines, although some robots, like Erasmus and Seurat, became fully independent.

Eventually, Erasmus and the Omnius on planet Earth have a heated debate on whether the empire's trustee humans could really be trusted. According to Omnius' data, all of his trustee humans were loyal to him, but Erasmus believed otherwise and challenged Omnius that trusted and loyal humans are never completely loyal, given sufficient motivation and opportunity. Omnius accepted and allowed Erasmus to try to prove his point. During this time, pregnant Serena Butler had been captured and placed in the service of Erasmus. Erasmus sent false, cryptic messages to high-ranking trustees on Earth, pretending that there were hidden cells of rebel humans that needed leaders. One particular trustee who received the messages, Iblis Ginjo, eventually was inspired to create actual rebel cells, which successfully recruit increasing members and amass hidden caches of weapons. Serena Butler bore a baby son, Manion, but after nine months of unacceptable disruption, Erasmus threw the baby over a balcony with a wailing and flailing Serena behind, who shoved a robot guard off the balcony during her hysteria. Crowds of slaves witnessing all this became infuriated and erupted into mass rioting, which Iblis sees as the opportunity to ignite the masses, activate his rebel cells, and send forth the angry mobs toward destroying their machine masters. Another trustee, Vorian Atreides, then joined the human rebels also, for different reasons.

Notes

• Omnius was created by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson were it featured in the Dune universe.

Appearances

• The Bulterian Jihad:
• Sandworms of Dune:

External Link

• Wikipedia Entry

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