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@dgold That wasn't my reading at all.

Thurman wanted all knowledge of nanotech erased and the entire conspiracy was to do a Bene Gesserit for 500 years to raise a society that would never again create the tech. Thurman saw it as an existential threat to humanity.

He specifically makes sure that Donald is at the convention because everyone else is going to die.

It's never mentioned in the books, but I strongly got the impression that the Atlanta incident was a FAE. They look like nukes (see Beirut), and would convince everyone inside that WWIII had happened. Using an actual nuke would have been counterproductive because it would have irradiated your breeding stock.

Thurman was convinced that a nano war was coming, and on entry day probably deployed enough into the upper atmosphere to kill every human on earth. If there's anyone left alive elsewhere at all, then his entire project is utterly pointless.

Note that the vault exists, precisely to restart civilisation, because there's nobody else out there.