Ask HN: Have you read the Dune books by Frank Herbert?

Yes.

This is a closed question (asks for yes/no answer). Better to ask open-ended questions, like "What inspiration did you get from Dune?" or "What other books did you enjoy after reading Dune?" etc.

Open-ended question lead to more curiosity and interesting conversation.

Read them, listened to them, watched the movies. I liked the first three (Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune) the best, but I've gone through them all. Have you? What did you think?

The ban on thinking machines seems like something that's particularly relevant in the age of AI. Will we reach that stage as well (post WW3, perhaps?) or will AI be benevolent and benefit society?

There are people using water-hungry artificial brains to generate Dune memes. At this rate we're going to run out of irony.

Yes, the first two of them.