The raised power

This is another conceptual chapter, fundamentally concerned with revisiting the question of power, central for understanding the effects of necromantic technology. Following on my previous work which contrasted Weber’s charisma with the anthropologically based concept of the trickster, it introduces three different visions of power: first power, the force inherent in every living being, by which it is able to move itself, according to its own inner essence; second power, a force that is external to concrete beings, residing in institutions, apparatuses, or rituals, and by which concrete beings are forced to perform certain actions; and raised power, or power², which can be exemplified in trickster activities, and which uses mechanical, technical means for unlimited, exponential multiplication. It argues that technology is a primary example for the third kind of power, and the chapter discusses the remote origins of technology in metallurgy, exemplified by the figure of the smith, which in earlier societies combined technical expertise with magical knowledge set in motion in rituals, and alchemy, which is a theoretisation of metallurgy.