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By Root 442 0

” by contrast, is the opposite: we experience ourselves as the “lords of beings,” who are detached from the environment by way of high-tech tools. Not so much in our various machine products (like AT-AT walkers, X-wing fighters, and hologram generators)—but more in our basic attitude toward the universe. The “essence of technology,” according to Heidegger, is really a new way of seeing. In the present-at-hand we experience nature as a set of detached objects, as though we’ve put on some new and super-powerful goggles that allow us to see far deeper into the hidden layers of nature. And, of course, the more we can see, the more we can control. In fact, nowadays we can grind up or reprogram just about anything: with hydroelectric dams and deforestation, unlimited surveillance and nanotechnology. But in so doing, we are, in fact, “challenging” nature to reveal itself to us as something “for us,” something which serves our instrumental needs, and not as being in itself. Rather than caring for being and allowing it to reveal itself on its own terms, we challenge it to reveal itself on our terms.

So, in effect, while we’re forcing nature to reveal a side to us, simultaneously, with regard to being as being, it’s “covered up,” as Heidegger puts it, and it “shows itself only in a distorted way,”78 just as the Emperor appears distorted in Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith. Heidegger calls this process of distortion “enframing.” Here everything natural, everything good, is pounded into an artificial frame, everything is looked at with a cold hard gaze, objectified and detached—all material for the sterile stare of white-jacketed lab men or gray-suited Imperial officers. Each part of nature is sliced clean from the whole and examined under a thousand microscopes, prodded with lasers and high-tech pitchforks—all to squeeze out maximal output, maximal efficiency, and total control. This is “The Age of the World Picture,” as Heidegger puts it, when nature is placed inside a frame for us to objectify as a mere representation of our own instrumental will. Think of how the lush planet of Alderaan is “enframed” within the Death Star’s main viewscreen just prior to its destruction.

Once we have set upon this path of enframing, all that will be left of the earth are masses of “standing reserve.” This means reality converted by technology into mere stuff, always standing by, always ready to be used up. Forests become “lumber,” and rivers become “hydro-electric power.” Nature thus appears only as a set of lifeless objects always ready for quick use. But a further problem arises: in boxing-up the earth, we gradually lose sight of the natural order of things. Out of sight, out of mind—our new technological vision clouds our old understanding of the world. And slowly but surely, we begin to forget the question of being.

In his later years, Heidegger reflected on these phenomena of progressive enframing and increasing forgetfulness, but with an apparent sense of despair. There’s nothing we can do to stop the massive machine of enframing; it’s completely out of our hands. Perhaps we once could, but now it’s impossible. We simply cannot save ourselves. As Heidegger says, “Only a god can save us.”79

“An Elegant Weapon”: The Lightsaber as Ready-To-Hand

We find the same Heideggerian saga of technology in Star Wars. Here the natural ready-to-hand is corrupted by the present-at-hand relation and the will to enframe all things. Moreover, in the wake of the path of enframing by the Empire, masses of standing reserve are generated. And as a consequence of this enframing and standing reserve, a certain forgetting occurs, particularly evident in Vader’s own forgetfulness of himself. Ultimately, this forgetting is so deep, the standing reserve so massive, and the path of enframing so aggressive, that in the end only a god can save us . . . or, in this case, only the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker.

Luke’s adventure begins on Tatooine. Following his runaway droid R2-D2, Luke encounters Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has, in fact, been waiting a long time to