Cryptonomicon author Neal Stephenson's essay for the NYT links the final trilogy episode with our somewhat strained relationship to high tech.
"Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging out."
Although he links it to the very first episodes, thirty-odd years ago, I'd argue that the societal issues he's pointing to are really recent -- and probably go hand-in-hand with the increasing presence of computers in daily life rather than any other technology. It's not that the technology is so high tech -- nobody stress over the tech in their airplane or cell phone -- it's that the interface is often so bad. The experience most of us have with technology is not improving as fast as our need to utilize it.
