Click on image below to visit mentat Online Page
Patient positioning and preparation. The patient is supine for the procedure, with her arms extended to approximately 90 degrees. The circulating nurse pads the patient’s arms and ensures that they are well secured. Securing the patient’s arms is important to assess breast symmetry intraoperatively as it prevents shoulder motion when the patient is brought to a semi-sitting position. After the implants are placed, the anesthesia care provider and the circulating nurse will assist the patient to a semi-sitting position to verify breast symmetry. For subpectoral placement, the patient’s arms are nearer her sides (eg, approximately 45 [degrees]) to relax the pector
As established by Frank Herbert, following the defeat of the thinking machines by humanity in the Butlerian Jihad, it was forbidden to create sentient machines. The Mentat discipline was developed as a replacement for computerized calculation, just as the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild took on functions previously provided by thinking machines. For thousands of years, society considered Mentats the embodiment of logic and reason.
Unlike computers, however, Mentats are not simply human calculators writ large. Instead, the exceptional cognitive abilities of memory and perception are the foundations for supra-logical hypothesizing. Mentats are able to sift large volumes of data and devise concise analyses in a process that goes far beyond logical deduction: Mentats cultivate “the naïve mind”, the mind without preconception or prejudice, similar to the contemporary practice of Zen, that can extract the essential patterns or logic of data, and deliver useful conclusions with varying degrees of certainty. They are not limited to formulating syllogisms; they are the supreme counselors of the Dune universe, filling roles as menial as archivists and clerks, or as grand as advisors to Emperors.
A Mentat’s capabilities can be greatly increased by taking sapho juice, but using it leads to addiction. Sapho is extracted from the root of the Ecaz tree and its use doubles or even triples the Mentat’s already immense processing power. However, repeated use leaves a permanent “cranberry-colored stain” on the user’s lips.
Being a Mentat can be a profession in itself, or the discipline can be added to other roles. The ability to be a Mentat is a talent limited to a small number of people; thus, those with the discipline are prized in whatever role they choose. There are also varying degrees of ability. In Dune, Thufir Hawat is considered to be one of the best mentats known at the time. Paul Atreides is a Mentat duke (and later emperor) in Dune, and in Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, Miles Teg is a Mentat bashar (or general) and the most formidable military commander in the known universe. In Dune Messiah, Duncan Idaho is recreated as a ghola, and trained as both a Mentat and as a Zensunni philosopher; he then serves Paul as the House Weapons Master. In Children of Dune, he marries the Regent, Paul’s sister Alia, but is then instrumental in protecting the royal heirs from her, demonstrating that Mentats are rarely simply disinterested observers and counselors.
It is also possible to vary the discipline: In Dune, the Tleilaxu create ‘twisted Mentats’ for the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Piter de Vries being the most notable example). These are sociopathic Mentats free from the usual constraints of human morality or instinctual considerations (de Vries is, among other things, a sadist and acts as torturer for the Baron). In Heretics of Dune the Duncan ghola supplied to the Bene Gesserit by the Tleilaxu has been altered in many subtle and hidden ways by the Tleilaxu, including the addition of submerged Mentat abilities.
In God Emperor of Dune, Leto II outlaws the order and crushes any renegade training schools he finds. Unlike his execution of historians for the purpose of controlling his legacy and symbolism, Leto never explicitly mentions why he suppresses Mentats, leaving the reader to conclude that it simply plays a role in his larger purpose of oppressing humanity in order to create his Golden Path. The art is not eliminated, however, surviving through underground schools; notably, the Bene Gesserit preserve the art, assuming that Leto knows of this (through his prescience) and approves.
Later, in Chapterhouse Dune, the Duncan ghola speaks to the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Bellonda and recalls his past incarnation from the time of Leto II:
I went to Wallach IX at the Tyrant’s command … My orders were to suppress the Mentat school you thought you had hidden there … I, a Mentat, forced to suppress a school that trained people the way I was trained. I knew why he ordered it, of course, and so do you.
Bellonda retrieves the following information from Other Memory:
Order of Mentats, founded by Gilbertus Albans; temporary sanctuary with Bene Tleilax who hoped to incorporate them into Tleilaxu hegemony; spread into uncounted “seed schools”; suppressed by Leto II because they formed a nucleus of independent opposition; spread into the the Scattering after the Famine.
The Mentat may be considered part of a comparison of the extremes of masculine and feminine intellect[citation needed]. The Mentat exhibits a superhuman version of the stereotypically male analytical disposition; in contrast, the Bene Gesserit exhibits a superhuman version of the stereotypically female intuitive disposition.
Dr.Duvall introduces the mentat.
Video med The Pill mentat.
Interested in mentat? Buy it here.
Interesting facts about mentat.
Dr.Duvall introduces the mentat.
Video med The Pill mentat.
New kind of mentat - even better!
