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and it is perhaps no coincidence that Patrick Stewart was chosen to play the role of Gurney; I like to think that Gurney was in fact the ghola of Picard but unlike Hayt was unable to access his memories of steering the NCC-1701-D.
No. In Star Trek humans are just one intelligent species of many. In Dune they're basically the only one. So somehow they had to become the dominant species while also foregoing advanced technology.