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"It wasn't until I was past forty that it bacame clear that I was going to be quote, successful, unquote."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Axolotl Tank | ||
| A device to regenerate or reshape organic material. |
A small group plots against Paul Atreides; one of their tools is a ghola, a product of expert regrowth and regeneration.
| "Even in defeat," Edric said, "your father's Sardaukar did not abandon wisdom. Let us suppose a wise Sardaukar commander recognized the swordmaster in a corpse his men had slain. What then? There exist uses for such flesh and training . . . if one acts swiftly..."
"A Tleilaxu ghola," Irulan whispered... ...Edric said. "...let us assume that our wise Sardaukar commander had Idaho's corpse preserved for the axolotl tanks. Why not? This corpse held the flesh and nerves of one of the finest swordsmen in history, an adviser to the Atreides, a military genius. What a waste to lose all that training and ability when it might be revived as an instructor for the Sardaukar." ... This was a Tleilaxu thing. The Tleilaxu displayed a disturbing lack of inhibitions in what they created. Unbridled curiosity might guide their actions. They boasted they could make anything from the proper human raw material -- devils or saints. They sold killer-mentats. They'd produced a killer medic, overcoming the Suk inhibitions against the taking of human life to do it. Their wares included willing menials, pliant sex toys for any whim, soldiers, generals, philosophers, even an occasional moralist. |
| Technovelgy from Dune Messiah,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1969 Additional resources -
|
Axolotl tanks are a closely guarded secret of the Bene Tleilax, genetic engineers of the planet Tleilax. Even the name is misleading. A clue is provided in Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune; no one has ever seen a Tleilaxu female.
Females are taken and transformed into special wombs used by the Bene Tleilax to produce their biological products. This is a continuing theme for Herbert; see also his procreative stump from his 1972 book Hellstrom's Hive.
Compare to the emergency treatment tank from Agent of Vega (1949) by James Schmitz, the
regeneration tank from Contagion (1950) by Katherine MacLean, Gobathian from Time is the Simplest Thing (1961) by Clifford Simak, the autodoc from The Warriors (1966) by Larry Niven and the crechepod from The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Dune Messiah
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Dune Messiah
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Axolotl Tank-related
news articles:
- Limb Regeneration Grows Closer
| MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User |
| Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved |
| BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed |
| Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System |
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'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
