New Wastes. Nature Is Not an Unlimited Station

Living in today’s disfigured environment, where nature is but a fragment of an ancient beauty and richness, means living in a global allegory, where humans are forced to dwell in a lunar landscape—a locus of rotting trash, made up of all our discarded technological gadgets, where everything is swiftly reduced to “kipple” and “gubble” (P.K. Dick). Because of a strange consumerist schizophrenia, the material universe of waste appears akin to metaphysical evil in the Platonic model: completely disengaged from the immaterial benefits brought by technology (connection speed, ergonomics of smart devices, etc.). To put an end to this strabismus, we need to fully investigate the new 4.0 e-wastes and expose their ontological and circumstantial structure, which deeply affects our concept of space (in terms of geopolitics) and of time (as for the durability of our sensations of wellness).