Paul Atreides notes in Dune that 'The language of the Great Convention is clear enough: Use of atomics against humans shall be cause for planetary obliteration.' The atomics themselves act as a military deterrent-any House which violates the Great Convention flagrantly (such as using atomics openly in warfare) faces massive retaliation from any number of the other Houses. Though such possession is necessary to secure power, the use of atomics against humans violates the chief prohibition of the Great Convention, the 'universal truce enforced under the power balance maintained by the Guild, the Great Houses, and the Imperium'. In the initial Dune novels, the Great Houses of the Landsraad own 'family atomics' as heirlooms, keeping a secure, hidden cache as weapons of last resort in their wars. However, the author never delves into the specifics of the technology or explores in detail how it may have evolved by the time of Dune's far-future setting. Like real-world nuclear weapons, atomics presumably derive their destructive force from nuclear reactions of fission or fusion, and Herbert notes that 'radiation lingers' after their use. In Dune, ten thousand years after this jihad, its enduring commandment remains, 'Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.' Ītomics is the term used to refer to nuclear weapons in the Dune universe.

This prohibition is a key influence on the nature of Herbert's fictional setting.

The Butlerian Jihad, an event in the back-story of Herbert's universe, leads to the outlawing of certain technologies, primarily ' thinking machines', a collective term for computers and artificial intelligence of any kind. Dune and its five sequels by Herbert explore the complex and multilayered interactions of politics, religion, ecology and technology, among other themes.

Herbert's originating 1965 novel Dune is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history.

Herbert's concepts and inventions have been analyzed and deconstructed in at least one book, The Science of Dune (2008). Technology is a key aspect of the fictional setting of the Dune series of science fiction novels written by Frank Herbert, and derivative works.

With fire and sword hidden cache