Mentat
<p>Apr 20, 2012 11:48 AM
 
staggering heights of cognitive and analytic ability... MENTAT;
 
Thufir HAWAT...
 
In Herbert's fiction, following the defeat of the <a title="Thinking machines (Dune)" href="/wiki/Thinking_machines_(Dune)">thinking machines</a> by humanity in the <a title="Butlerian Jihad" href="/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad">Butlerian Jihad</a>, it is<b> forbidden to create sentient machines</b>. The Mentat discipline is developed as a replacement for computerized calculation, just as the <a title="Bene Gesserit" href="/wiki/Bene_Gesserit">Bene Gesserit</a> and the <a title="Spacing Guild" href="/wiki/Spacing_Guild">Spacing Guild</a> take on functions previously performed by thinking machines. For thousands of years, society considers Mentats the embodiment of logic and reason.
Unlike computers, however, Mentats are not simply calculators. Instead, the exceptional cognitive abilities of memory and perception are the foundations for supra-logical hypothesizing.<b> 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, so as to extract essential patterns or logic from data and deliver useful conclusions with varying degrees of certainty. They are not limited to formulating </b><a title="Syllogism" href="/wiki/Syllogism"><b>syllogisms</b></a><b>; they are the supreme counselors of the </b><i><b>Dune</b></i><b> universe.</b>...<b></b>
 
Saffo Juice...  gives them 2-3X their normal power...
 
twisted Mentats  eg  Piter de Vries (whose boss is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen)
sociopathic Mentats...  free fro the usual constraints of human morality or instintual considerations.</p>