Holtzman effect

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The Holtzman effect^[1] is a fictional scientific phenomenon in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.

According to the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the Holtzman effect is named after the scientist who discovered it, Tio Holtzman (though for many of its applications, Holtzman in fact took credit for the mathematical theories of his assistant, Norma Cenva). The effect is never explained in detail, but it uses ambient subatomic energy fields to make (among other things) defensive force shields and instantaneous space travel possible.

Frank Herbert was inconsistent with the spelling of "Holtzman", resulting in the variant spellings "Holtzmann" and "Holzmann". This seems to have been intentional, as Herbert frequently mutated words and names over the vast periods of time the Dune series spans, as in the change of Arrakis to Rakis and Giedi Prime to Gammu.

Contents 1 Holtzman Shield 2 Holtzman Drive 3 Holtzman Suspensor 4 Glowglobes 5 The Dune Encyclopedia 6 Related concepts 7 References

[edit] Holtzman Shield

In Terminology of the Imperium, the glossary of the novel Dune, Frank Herbert provides the following definition:

SHIELD, DEFENSIVE: the protective field produced by a Holtzman generator. This field derives from Phase One of the suspensor-nullification effect. A shield will permit entry only to objects moving at slow speeds (depending on setting, this speed ranges from six to nine centimeters per second) and can be shorted out only by a shire-sized electric field.

In Dune chronology, the effect was first employed during the events of the Legends of Dune series (immediately prior to the Butlerian Jihad) for defensive force fields capable of scrambling the gel-circuitry of Thinking Machines. Networks of towers generating the field from the surface thus protected entire planets from machine attacks. However, the machines soon realized that their cymeks, human-machine hybrids, could slip though the field to destroy the transmitters because they possessed human brains which were unaffected by the scrambler fields. Norma Cenva then had the idea to use the field as an offensive weapon, projecting it with portable transmitters to knock out machines and their installations. Holtzman later calculated that the field could be modified to prevent penetration from physical projectiles; Cenva agreed, correcting the flaws in his concept but noting that objects could still pass through the shield at a slow enough speed.

By the time of Frank Herbert's original Dune, when thinking machines are no longer a threat, the technology has been adopted for use in personal defensive shields. These shields, unlike many others in science fiction, are not round projections of force, but form-fitting energy fields which permit penetration only by objects that move below a pre-set velocity. As one would be unable to breathe within a shield that did not permit atmospheric gases to penetrate it, man-portable shields have a relatively high penetration velocity, approximately six to ten centimeters per second. However, shields for ships and planetary installations can and often do have extremely low penetration velocities, as artificial life support technologies can be utilized while the shield is active.

Cenva realized early on that if a lasgun beam hits a Holtzman field, it results in sub-atomic fusion and a nuclear explosion. The center of this blast is determined by random chance; sometimes it originates within the shield, sometimes within the laser weapon, sometimes both. Thus, using lasguns in a shielded environment can result in military and environmental catastrophe, though at least one commander (Duncan Idaho) has deliberately allowed shield-lasgun contact as a discouragement to his enemies.

The Holtzman Shield is a potent literary device: it makes directed-energy weaponry impossible against any worthwhile opponent, and also proves traditional projectile-based firearms and missiles ineffective, adding to the feudal atmosphere of the story, and enforces the usage of mêlée weaponry despite the story's far-future setting. It perhaps serves a similar purpose as the Butlerian Jihad itself in this respect.

[edit] Holtzman Drive

The effect is used in this case to fold space at the quantum level, allowing the Spacing Guild's ships to instantaneously travel between the stars and other vast, impractically tractable distances common to sprawling space empires. However, the chaotic and seemingly non-deterministic quantum nature of "foldspace" requires at least limited prescience on the part of the human navigator; otherwise the absurdly complex mathematics involved in producing reliable physical projections of such events would only be possible with advanced thinking machines, which are strictly prohibited because of the Butlerian Jihad. To this effect, the Guild produces melange-saturated Navigators who intuitively "see paths through foldspace" in this way. This stumbling block was overcome several thousand years after the events of Dune when Ixian scientists developed mechanical replacements for Guild Navigators.

The Legends of Dune series reveals that Norma Cenva invented the theory of space folding in 177 B.G. during the Butlerian Jihad after years of working on Tio Holtzman's original field equations. By 174 B.G. she had built a prototype space-folding ship, and soon she and industrialist Aurelius Venport, established a shipyard on the planet Kolhar, to produce what would eventually be called heighliners. Within a decade, Venport put the space-folding technology and shipyards at the disposal of the Jihad forces.

Initially, foldspace travel was not completely accurate or safe; only about nine out of every ten heighliners made it to their final destination. Realizing that the spice melange amplified her psychic and calculative abilities, Norma pioneered the use of massive concentrated doses to presciently perceive space/time. In 88 B.G. she discovered that this was the way to safely navigate foldspace, and essentially became the first Navigator. That same year, Norma's son Adrien Venport founded the Foldspace Shipping Company, which later became the Spacing Guild and eventually monopolized space commerce, transport and interplanetary banking.

[edit] Holtzman Suspensor

Hovering devices called suspensors utilize the secondary (low-drain) phase of a Holtzman field generator to nullify gravity within certain limits prescribed by relative mass and energy consumption^[2]. Suspensors are used in chairs, tables, and structures that are too massive to be physically sound, among many other obvious uses. In Dune, the grotesquely fat Baron Vladimir Harkonnen utilises suspensor belts and harnesses to buoy his flesh and allow him to walk. Suspensors are also used to generate artificial gravity aboard spaceships^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Glowglobes

A varied use of the Holtzman effect is the glowglobe, a glowing yellow sphere that floats gracefully above a surface like a portable, personal sun. Herbert's description in the glossary of Dune reads:

GLOWGLOBE: Suspensor-buoyed illuminating device, self-powered (usually by organic batteries)^[3].

[edit] The Dune Encyclopedia

The non-canon Dune Encyclopedia (1984) by Dr. Willis McNelly invents an extensive, alternate origin and description of the Holtzman effect^[4]. In this version, it was discovered by Ibrahim Vaughn Holtzman (born 7593 B.G.):

Young Holtzman was nearly killed in a tragic accident in a racing 'thopter ... He became the first of very few persons to undergo a brain transplant: his brain was placed in a prototype axolotl tank and wired into a large host computer with an unprogrammed personality blank, on the assumption that Holtzman would imprint his own personality on the machine. The process was marred by an induced psychosis: afterwards, Holtzman suffered from intense paranoia and refused treatment. Since Holtzman's was the first brain transplant ever performed, the extent of his powers was not fully understood.^[5]

The son of the planetary governor of Liesco II, Holtzman had a specialized ship constructed and "escaped" into space to "think." His mathematical genius was enhanced by the exponentially-increased mental processing made possible by his new computerized form (which would also allow him to exist for nearly 7500 years). He focused on analyzing the suspensor-nullification effect, which (as Frank Herbert established) made interstellar travel possible. According to the Encyclopedia, this effect had been discovered 5400 years earlier but was not fully understood. Holtzman's first related discovery was an "instantaneous interstellar communication device" later called the Holtzman Wave.

Until this point, interstellar travel had effected a widespread population of the universe which could no longer be controlled by the Imperial House Ceres. The development of Holtzman Wave generators gave mankind the means to easily communicate across vast distances and resulted in the long and "ferocious" Wars of Reunification. Holtzman himself remained in seclusion, returning to civilization five times. On his third return, over 2000 years after his original escape, he gave humanity his next related discovery: defensive shields. On his fourth return millennia later, "Holtzman 'published' his unified theory, linking the various effects into a single hierarchy of phenomena."^[6] The last intelligent machine left in existence after the Butlerian Jihad, he was apparently destroyed in 108 B.G. Knowing his ship was booby trapped with a dormant laser aimed at a defensive shield, the Jihad fleet sent a volunteer to board the ship, thereby setting off the explosion which results from shield-laser interaction.

[edit] Related concepts

A technology similar to Holtzman Shields is used in the Stargate universe.

[edit] References