Global Weirding and the ‘Weirding Way’

I never understood the term weirding as used in the original DUNE movie. The concent of using sound waveforms to resonate with objects did ring true for me though, expecially in the explanation of how it worked and how it could be used;

“A few lines from the script (cut out of the film and not reinstated for the “Alan Smithee” abortion) explains the relation of the weirding way to the weirding modules:

PAUL: The weirding way has long been a Bene Gesserit secret. With my mother’s help, my father isolated an element of the weirding way and externalized it. Because of the Harkonnen treachery, my father’s armies were never able to fully develop this new form. This is what I will teach you. You will be the fiercest and most feared fighters in the Universe.

What Leto isolated and externalized (with Jessica’s help) was the “Voice” element of the weirding way, the ability to manipulate sound to unnatural effect. Throughout the movie we see Paul trying to master the Voice, and finally succeeding (without the weirding module) when he kills Feyd. When connected with the Emperor’s earlier line (“The Atreides house is building a secret army, using a technique unknown to us… a technique involving sound”), you get the reason why the Emperor wanted to destroy House Atreides in the first place, plus a new perspective on Jessica’s role in the film (she started the whole chain of events going in the first place, first with giving birth to Paul and then giving Leto the key to his own destruction). Plus the weirding module was a simpler, less expensive (simple sound dubbing/amplifying and some small pyro = weeks/months of martial arts training and speeding-up SFX) and more amped-up “cinematic” way of giving the Fremen a crucial edge against the Harkonnens and the Sardukar.”

The ‘Weirding Module’ device is a sonic beam weapon that translates certain specific sounds into attacks of varying potency.

Paul: “Our way of battle is built on rhythm. You understand rhythm like this but you do not yet understand the rhythm of the higher sounds, sounds that heal and build… sounds that destroy. Motion is the base. You understand the motion… but you do not yet understand the motion that heals and builds… motions that destroy…

This is part of the weirding way that we will teach you. Some thoughts have a certain sound… that being the equivalent to a form. Through sound and motion you will be able to paralyze nerves, shatter bones, set fires, suffocate an enemy or burst his organs…”

Along those lines, the term here is being applied to global effects;

“The concept of “global weirding” is emerging as a notable complement to its cause, global warming. Coined by Hunter Lovins, a founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, it describes the consequences of the rise in average global temperatures, which are expected to amplify the abnormal: hotter heat spells, longer and sharper droughts, more violent storms, and more intense flooding. Given anticipated warming trajectories, many of these physical changes are statistically predictable and can be fairly accurately modeled. But as an ecologist, I fear it is the alterations to the living realm where “weirdness” will be a most apropos, if not downright tepid, label. This is certainly the case in my area of study — the aquatic realm — where global weirding is already well underway.” – Source

And if you are an experimenter, How to Break a Glass with your Voice.