In Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, the Gom Jabbar was a standard-issue aristocrat-on-aristocrat assassination device. The weapon consisted of a poisoned needle attached to a thimble-like housing that rested on one’s fingertip, easy enough to flick into a person’s neck should you want to alter the power structure of the great houses. The Bene Gesserit, a powerful order of women with great political influence and extra-human capabilities, adapted the Gom Jabbar for a different purpose. They used the device to test the humanity of an individual—to find out, by their standards, whether you were … [Read more...]