Other Technologies
Herbert's series of Dune novels are peppered with other technologically advanced devices. In Dune (1965), water is scarce on the desert planet Arrakis; the native Fremen use a type of air well called a windtrap to condense moisture from the air and collect it in vast catch basins. They also collect moisture from the dead using a device called a deathstill. The Fremen accomplish long-distance coded communication using a distrans, a steganographic device that produces a "temporary neural imprint" on the nervous system of bats or birds. The message imprint is carried within the animal's normal cry, and can later be separated out using another distrans. A palm lock is a lock or seal keyed to a specific human hand, a solido is a projected three-dimensional image, and a poison snooper is a device which can detect poisons by analyzing radiation in the "olfactory spectrum." In Dune, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen employs a cone of silence, a sound-deadening field used for privacy, though it does not visually obscure lip movement. In Heretics of Dune (1984) Herbert mentions an Ixian damper, a similar, portable device described as a "black disc" which is buoyed midair by suspensors; it hides words from anyone without the proper coded translator, and projects distortions that hide the precise movements of lips and the sounds of voices.
Herbert mentions other unnamed technologies in the Dune series. In Dune, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam "tests" young Paul Atreides using a box that inflicts pain through "nerve induction". It is described as "a green metal cube about fifteen centimeters on a side," with one open side revealing a blackness so dark that no light penetrates it. Paul is forced to place his hand into the box and not remove it until Mohiam allows him. He experiences first coldness, tingling, then itching, followed by "the faintest burning" which soon intensifies to the point that "he could feel skin curling black on that agonized hand, the flesh crisping and dropping away until only charred bones remained." The pain stops, and when he is permitted to remove his hand, it is unmarked and unharmed. This device is later referred to as the "agony box" in Heretics of Dune, and is noted to be used for interrogation as well.
In God Emperor of Dune (1981), Moneo Atreides uses a "memocorder," a tiny handheld device described as "a dull black Ixian artifact whose existence crowded the proscriptions of the Butlerian Jihad." In the same novel, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Anteac writes a message to be sent to her Sisterhood:
On Anteac's lap lay a small square of inky black about ten millimeters on a side and no more than three millimeters thick. She wrote upon this square with a glittering needle — one word upon another, all of them absorbed into the square. The completed message would be impressed upon the nerve receptors of an acolyte-messenger's eyes, latent there until they could be replayed at the Chapter House.
In Heretics of Dune, Reverend Mother Lucilla recognizes a device called a "hypnobong" in use on the street, witnessing a passerby lean into a concave basin and then lift his face "with a shudder ... staggering slightly, his eyes glazed." She notes that the device is "outlawed on all of the more civilized worlds."
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