The Plowboy Interview: Frank Herbert

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HERBERT: Some tribes practiced several forms of massive kill—such as driving buffalo off of cliffs—which were sure to improve the lot of the people doing so at the expense of those who didn't. But since the rate of the environmental change resulting from such acts was too slow to be encompassed by most people's awareness of time, many men and women think that the native American societies could have lived in harmony with their environment forever if they'd just been left alone.

"For what do you hunger, Lord?" Moneo ventured.

"For a humankind which can make truly long-term decisions. Do you know the key to that ability, Moneo?"
"You have said it many times, Lord. It is the ability to change your mind."

"Change, yes. And do you know what 1 mean by longterm?"

"For you, it must be measured in millennia, Lord:"
"Moneo, even my thousands of years are but a puny blip against Infinity .... In the view of Infinity, any defined longterm is short-term."

"Then are there no rules at all, Lord?" Moneo's voice conveyed a faint hint of hysteria.

Leto smiled to ease the man's tensions. "Perhaps one.
Short-term decisions tend to fail in the long-term."

God Emperor of Dune

PLOWBOY: I must admit I've always believed that to be true. How do you perceive humanity's relationship with the environment today?

HERBERT: I look upon our involvement with the environmentand by the way, all of man's intrusions into the environment are totally natural phenomena—as a continual learning process in which there are no absolutes. Whatever we do causes changes, and we can cause gross disruption to our surroundings as a result of small-order determinations.

PLOWBOY: That statement would certainly seem to be supported by the events that occur in your Dune novels. [EDITOR'S NOTE: In Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune, Herbert portrays generations of life and government on a harsh desert planet. The world's native people, the Fremen, are amazingly well adapted to living in a low-moisture environment. In an attempt to improve the lot of the citizens, Dune's aristocratic rulers work to increase the available water an the environment.] The major change people tried to effect on Dune was to bring moisture to the desert. That clearly seemed a desirable goal.

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