[disgruntledphd2]

I dunno, when you re-read Heretics and Chapter House after knowing how it ends, you can see some set-ups for the ultimate big-bad. And Sonia's vision in God emperor does also link up.

So, maybe? I lean towards thinking there were notes myself, as I can't see anyone making up that ending de-novo.

[stevekemp]

I can kinda see the argument, but the fact that the Butlerian Jihad was so rarely referenced in any detail makes me skeptical that the long-overthrown machines could arrive spontaneously and be the big-bad.

It seemed to me that the two figures in Duncans visions were going to become important, but they'd be rogue/evolved/advanced face-dancers rather than representatives of the machine intelligence.

I guess we'll never know for sure unless the notes are published.

[disgruntledphd2]

Seriously, Sonia's vision in God-Emperor is of humans being hunted down by machines - this is what the Golden Path was to avoid. So, I'm inclined to err on the side of the notes existing and mentioning machines.

[gamblor956]

Siona's visions were about the danger of presience and the need for mankind to become free from those who would use fate/predestination as a means to control mankind. Avoiding the predestination paradox was literally the reason Leto created her.

Given the lengths that Frank Herbert went to avoid having computers in Dune, it would not make sense for his big bad to be a computer revealed in the last few pages of the series, especially when his big bad was always intended to be Destiny.