Mentat
A Mentat is a human trained to think like a computer, the discipline that replaced thinking machines after the Butlerian Jihad, and kept by the Great Houses as an advisor.
After the Butlerian Jihad outlawed machines made in the likeness of a human mind, the calculation those machines had done still had to be done, and the Order of Mentats is what took their place, in the same way the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit each took up a piece of what was lost. The talent is rare and the conditioning strict, so a trained Mentat can count on employment with one of the powers of the known universe, usually as a political advisor whose memory and ordering of data turn stray facts into something a Duke can act on. Limited Mentat training is also given to people headed for other political or military work. What the discipline is actually prized for is not arithmetic but supralogical hypothesis, strategy and tactics. Sapho juice, pressed from the root of the Ecaz tree, doubles or triples that processing power at the cost of addiction.
How far into Dune have you read?
Set your place and this page rewrites itself to exactly that point. Nothing ahead of you will show.