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An Opte Project visualization of routing paths through a
portion of the Internet. From Wikipedia, s.v. "Internet"
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A. Ghost in the Shell
To begin this section, watch Ghost in the Shell: Arise.
The YouTube link
is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1z3IV01g1U. Likewise, you can get a
copy of the e-book animé version from me. Ideally, we watch the
animated adaptation and the manga comics "original." The elements that I
would like us to pay more attention to would be:
1. The cyborg status of Motoko Kusanagi
2. The scene of fusion with the Puppeteer
3. The song at the end: "There is no me"
4. Motoko's line: “The net is vast and infinite.”
5. The brain transfer motif in sci-fi in general.
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| Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell, 1995, e-book version .p.348 |
There is also a good background information here, including a review of the recent movie adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson, and some video clips on this page: "How the original 'Ghost in the Shell' changed sci-fi and the way we think about the future," http://uk.businessinsider.com/original-ghost-in-the-shell-movie-influence-2017-3.
B. Cyborgs and prosthetics
1. What is a Cyborg? Do you recall any famous film or TV cyborg character? If you can't, try reading this article from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborgs_in_fiction.
2. Is a Cyborg possible in reality? If you are a big skeptic, try reading through this entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosthesis where you will see the picture below:
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| The myoelectric prosthetic arm of a United States Marine. |
According to Marshall McLuhan who predicted the "World Wide Web almost thirty years before it was invented," technology itself is an "extension" of human beings:
"After three thousand years of explosion, by means of fragmentary and mechanical technologies, the Western world is imploding. During the mechanical ages we had extended our bodies in space. Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned. Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of man — the technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society, much as we have already extended our senses and our nerves by the various media. Whether the extension of consciousness, so long sought by advertisers for specific products, will be “a good thing” is a question that admits of a wide solution. There is little possibility of answering such questions about the extensions of man without considering all of them together. Any extension, whether of skin, hand, or foot, affects the whole psychic and social complex."
From Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Italics mine.
3. What technology are you using everyday that "extends" your body, your senses, and your nervous system? What does "connectivity" imply?
4. When McLuhan wrote,"Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned," what do you think is he referring to?
5. How can we relate this state of technology to Motoko Kusanagi's character?
6. If you are using some technological extension (apart from skinput devices, implantable electronics, augmented reality goggles, mechanical or cyber prosthetics, etc.), wouldn't you be considered a cybernetic organism already?
7. Why do you think the song "There is no me" applies to Motoko? What is the story's idea of the relationship between memory, identity, and technology?
8. Where do you keep your memory of yourself? How do you retrieve it? How is it organized? Who has access to it?
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