The Dune universe takes place an almost comical distance into the future. While a lot of sci-fi takes a shot at the 22nd century, Dune had the confidence to cover around 40,000 years of time, including at least 10,000 years beyond the modern era. It’s so far from any life humanity has known that its contemporary history regards the 21st century as an era of ancient fairy tales. Even within Dune‘s history, some characters live to see and influence countless generations. One great example is the independent thinking machine: Erasmus.