For generations audiences have watched the bad guy try to defeat the good guy. The Good vs. Evil discussion has come into play for many a narrative in Hollywood as well. We have a clear distinction between good and evil in the film Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977). There is the Evil Imperial army that is going planet to planet trying to control the galaxy, and then there is the good Rebel Alliance who fights to undo the Imperials. In Star Wars there was no sitting down and having a democratic discussion as to why the Rebels felt the Imperials should stop taking over planets. The time for diplomacy had passed, so it came time to use brute force and lethal force. The many weapons used in Star Wars ranged from the Blaster pistol to the Ion Cannon; capable of destroying a Destroyer class starship in the Imperial fleet. When it comes down to it the weapons were cool and slick, they also were lasers and directed heat. For the purposes of this essay we will look at how the science fiction of Star Wars warfare is quickly becoming just plain science.
At the time of Star Wars release in 1977 there were no laser guns or laser cannons that could shoot from the surface of the planet into outer space. We had similar destructive capabilities in rockets and bullets, but nothing that involved guided lasers. The fiction begins almost immediately in Star Wars when a Star Destroyer takes control of a ship in outer space, and then a gun battle rages inside the tiny ship. We, for the first time, see the guided lasers coming out from the blaster rifles that the storm troopers are carrying.
Red flashes go across the screen and every once in a while they hit a target and a man falls to the ground dead. In 1977, some people may have thought that this technology wouldn't be a reality for a long time; some may have even thought that it would be impossible. Later on in the film we see Princess Leia stunned by a storm troopers blaster rifle, and a blue spray of rings emits from the rifle.
Here we see a non-lethal use of the same rifle. If the Imperials can invent, then the United States government should be able to as well. The United States Department of Defense (DOD) has recently been developing a guided laser for the Air Force.
The Personnel Halting And Stimulation Response, PHASR for short, was developed for the non-lethal subduing of a criminal. This PHASR uses a guided laser to “dazzle”, as they say, victims who are not in compliance with their behavior. According to New Scientist magazine the gun emits this laser and directs it into the eyes of the attacker. This causes temporary blindness. It would be similar to the type of blindness that one would encounter after looking into an extremely bright light for too long. There is also another feature of the weapon that is considered less-than-lethal. The microwave emitter can direct microwaves onto a person and cause the skin to burn, the criminal would have to decide if they wanted to keep getting burned and not behave, or comply and then the burning would stop. The technology is not where it needs to be to go into the hands of every law enforcement officer, but it is getting closer by the day. Now this brings us to the Ion Cannon. New Scientist magazine also reports that there is a high-powered laser guided microwave system being developed to use for long range targets. The weapon is called the Multimode Directed Energy Armament System. According to ARDEC, the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre, the weapon “uses a high-power laser to ionize the air, creating a plasma channel that acts as a waveguide for the stream of microwaves. The device could destroy the electronic fuse of an explosive device or missile, such as a roadside bomb, or immobilize a vehicle by disabling its ignition system.” Here is a very practical use for a weapon that could potentially save lives. There are also very economical reasons for using weapons such as this today. The weapons do not use ammunition; they need only a power source for the microwaves and lasers to come from. This could, in the future development of the product be a battery pack on the soldier or mobile device. Here is where the green movement could be expanded. There would be a onetime cost for the actual gun, but then there would be little to no upkeep in the future. As with all new items it would of course be very expensive to make a gun, however the price would come down after it was made the standard.
Here are the examples of the fiction becoming reality. There have been many steps to get us to this point in history. At one point someone needed to say that the reality of controlling lasers is not far from truth. The technology could be developed and used for means of helping humanity. There are many skeptics for the use of lasers as weapons. One such objector is Tobias Feakin from Bradford University's Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project in the United Kingdom. He states that the use of these PHASR weapons can cause permanent blindness and should not be used in the current form.
Michael Ryan and Douglas Kellner discuss the opposition to new technology by the conservative ideology in their article Technophobia. The public’s reaction to a weapon like this would definitely come with some opposition, weaponry denotes a type of power over another being and somehow they lose their personal freedom. This same argument was used for the invention of the fire propelled weapon. Someone had to have said that the idea for a laser used as a weapon was not science fiction. Someone also had to have said that a projectile could be shot from a barrel by having an explosive action propel it forward. Everything that has ever been created was at one point just fiction. It takes courage and intelligence to be able to say that something that is currently not around can at one point be created. George Lucas, of the Star Wars world did not discover the technology of blasters before making his film; he imagined it and put it into practice with the power of special effects.
Now that the technology is developed where does the technology take us in the narrative of real life? In Star Wars the technology brought about peace and security in the New Republic. In real life, how can a PHASR weapon be used to unite and not divide? We have the visual from Star Wars of the heroes receiving their medals and coming together ready for whatever happens next. This technology of guided lasers and microwaves needs to be viewed as the huge privilege that it is. The blaster in the Star Wars universe was used only in times of imminent danger and was used for self-defense purposes. The power of lasers and microwaves could be used safely in the battlefield to destroy a target with pin-point accuracy. We have the new technology of PHASR's but in the end it is still a weapon. It can and will be used for good, but it can and will be used for bad. This is where the balance of Good and Evil comes back into focus. The future is bright with new invention and who knows what other ideas have been spawned from the Star Wars universe, we just have to be ready and willing to accept them.
Star Wars. George Lucas. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford. 1977. DVD. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. 2006.
Knight, Will. “US military sets laser PHASR to stun”. New Scientist. November 2005. < http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8275-us-military-sets-laser-phasrs-to-stun.html>
< http://www.pica.army.mil/PicatinnyPublic/organizations/ardec/index.asp>
Feakin, Tobias. Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project (BNLWRP). Research Report Three. August 2001. < http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/nlw/research_reports/researchreport3.php>
Ryan, Michael Kellner, Douglas. “Technophobia” Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film. Ed. J.P. Telotte. University of Illinois Press; 1st Edition. 1995.
