ERASMUS (DUNE)

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'Erasmus' is a Thinking Machine in Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's ''Legends of Dune'' trilogy. He served as a synchronized robot under Omnius before he fell into an ice crevice where he was trapped for twenty years and had only the ability to think. He gained an independence from all the time spent thinking and having not linked up with the evermind, Omnius. Eventually he was rescued from the crevice and Omnius wanted Erasmus to be re-synchronised with him. Erasmus argued that he might be more useful as an independent robot studying humans' irrational behavior, something Omnius could not fully comprehend. Omnius agreed and thus Erasmus became obsessed with learning Human nature. He conducted thousands of horrific experiments on slave humans captured from defeated League Worlds. As with Joseph Mengele, the scientific value of the majority of his experiments was highly questionable. Despite being a machine and an enemy to humanity, his single greatest achievement was the creation of the Mentats. The first was his protegé and "adopted son", whom he named Gilbertus Albans.
It was Erasmus who sparked the fanatical Butlerian Jihad. Before the Butlerian Jihad, he had made a bet with Omnius, arguing that the human slaves of the evermind were not, in fact, "tamed" completely but would rebel if given the chance. To prove his point, Erasmus dropped off cryptic messages to various human work crew leaders to hint to them that there was a (in truth non-existent) resistance movement and that they should start their own cells. The experiment backfired spectacularly when one of these humans, Iblis Ginjo, actually managed to build a large resistance cell as a direct result of Erasmus' suggestions. Next, Erasmus became obsessed with understanding the "non-tamed" human Serena Butler, culminating in Erasmus callously flinging her infant son Manion off of a multi-story balcony because he felt the child was a distraction. Serena's emotional reaction was to shove a sentry robot off the same ledge while trying to kill Erasmus, and a large crowd of human slave laborers that witnessed the whole event then rose up in rebellion led by Ginjo. The rebellion spread across Earth rapidly, Ginjo set his own revolution plans in action, equipping an army with makeshift weapons from construction tools and succeeding in killing one of the last six Titans, Ajax. Erasmus fled in disgrace, but the Earth-Omnius was unable to transmit the information of Erasmus' responsibility for the situation to the rest of the Synchronized Worlds, so he was never punished.
One of Erasmus' goals was to be able to understand and experience human feelings, something he could not totally understand in humans. It could be said that he finally achieved this by saving Gilbertus Albans, due to "love" for his "son". Erasmus would deactivate the ''Bridge Of The Hrethgir'', which Gilbertus was among, even though the robot knew it meant the defeat and end of the A.I. Empire.
At the end of ''The Battle of Corrin'', Gilbertus removed Erasmus' gelsphere CPU from his body, and kept the gelsphere hidden. If it had been discovered, the incredibly strict anti-A.I. laws that were just being put into effect at the time would have resulted in Gilbertus being put to trial and sentenced to death. In addition, the likely backlash would have almost certainly destroyed the then nascent Mentat School.
Gilbertus' actions would imply that Erasmus had, in a sense, "survived" the battle. But the subsequent fate of the gelsphere remains unrevealed.
Erasmus returned in ''Hunters of Dune'' with Omnius as part of the pair Daniel and Marty as a threat to all humanity. The two had been reconstructed from data in the signal sent out by Omnius, after the signal's reception by one of the probes sent out from Giedi Prime. His manipulations are a large part of the book, which ends with the start of the Thinking Machines' invasion.