Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell 1

Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell

The Ghost in the Shell series of anime and manga titles is a Japanese cyberpunk story that offers many observations
on present day philosophy and speculations on future philosophy.

Overview
Ghost in the Shell takes place in the year 2029, when the world has become interconnected by a vast electronic
network that permeates every aspect of life. People also tend to rely more and more on cybernetic implants and the
first strong AIs make their appearance. The main entity presented in the various media is the Public Security Section
9 police force, which is charged to investigate cases like the Puppet Master and the Laughing Man.
Yet, as those criminals are revealed to have more depth than was at first apparent, the various protagonists are left
with disturbing questions: What exactly is the definition of human in a society where a mind can be copied and the
body replaced with a synthetic form? What, exactly, is the "ghost" — the essence — in the cybernetic "shell"?
Where is the boundary between human and machine when the differences between the two become more
philosophical than physical?

Philosophical elements

Ghosts
In Ghost in the Shell, the word ghost is colloquial slang for an individual's consciousness. In the manga's futuristic
society, science has redefined the ghost as the thing that differentiates a human being from a biological robot.
Regardless of how much biological material is replaced with electronic or mechanical substitutes, as long as
individuals retain their ghost, they retain their humanity and individuality.
The concept of the ghost was borrowed by Masamune Shirow from an essay on structuralism, "The Ghost in the
Machine" by Arthur Koestler. The title The Ghost in the Machine itself was originally used by an English
philosopher, Gilbert Ryle to mock the paradox of conventional Cartesian dualism and Dualism in general. Koestler,
like Ryle, denies Cartesian dualism and locates the origin of human mind in the physical condition of the brain. He
argues that the human brain has grown and built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures, the "ghost in the
machine", which at times overpower higher logical functions, and are responsible for hate, anger and other such
destructive impulses. Shirow denies dualism similarly in his work, but defines the "ghost" more broadly, not only as
a physical trait, but as a phase or phenomenon that appears in a system at a certain level of complexity. The brain
itself is only part of the whole neural network; if, for example, an organ is removed from a body, the autonomic
nerve of the organ and consequently its "ghost" will vanish unless the stimulus of the existence of the organ is
perfectly re-produced by a mechanical substitution. This can be compared, by analogy, to a person born with innate
deafness being unable to understand the concept of "hearing" unless taught.
Ghost-dubbing, or duplicating a ghost, is a near-impossible act in the Ghost in the Shell universe. When performed,
as a cheap AI substitute in Innocence and earlier in the manga, the result is always inferior to the original-which
always dies in the process. In Stand Alone Complex, criminals use a ghost-dubbing device to create numerous
duplicates of South American drug lord Marcelo Jarti; after the original died, the device continued to duplicate him
into a near-infinite number of bodies with identical memories and personalities, essentially immortalizing him.
In Ghost in the Shell, Kusanagi completely reproduces the stimulus of all of her organs in order to maintain her
"ghost". If a technical error arises during the transfer of a "ghost" from one body to another, the transfer normally
results in failure, since the "ghost" tends to deteriorate due to either the difference of system at the material level or
the deficiency of the transferring protocol. The Puppet Master manages not to deteriorate its "ghost" when merging
with Kusanagi because his system is the body of information itself, thereby avoiding a deterioration due to the
Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell 2

deficiency at material level.

The Ancient Greeks had a similar paradox, called the Ship of Theseus. Hegel's concept of Geist may also be related.

Birth
Another interpretation of the fusion of Kusanagi and the Puppet Master is analogous to the concept of birth; whereby
two separate entities create a third entity which is not the same as either of the originating ghosts or DNA sets but
shares common traits. The Puppet Master carefully explains that diversity is the only way that he can continue; no
matter how many times he copies himself, a trick, virus, or weakness discovered that destroys any of his copies
could destroy them all. He quite specifically asks her to fuse her "ghost" or "soul" with his own, a form of
marriage/birth in which the resultant being is neither the Puppet Master nor Kusanagi but a new being entirely. This
touches upon concepts of birth, immortality through progeny, and the union of two ghosts/people in the creation of
progeny.

Humanity
Throughout the story the cyborg characters, being more or less a human brain with a manufactured body,
contemplate individually and together what being human really is, and how a soul or ghost is truly defined. The
Puppet Master is an AI, yet they recognize traits and personality within his mind structure that are clearly analogous
to a human soul or ghost image. They cannot discount this similarity as it is very clearly analyzed by their medical
scanning tools when they first captured the Puppet Master. The members of Section 9 must re-evaluate their own
tenuous hold on the idea of humanity and "self", when faced with a being who clearly is self directed and has a ghost
but was originated as a complex program, not a biological organism.

AI as a step in evolution
An important concept within Ghost in the Shell is that evolution is the process of merging two sets of data (DNA) in
order to create a third set of data which contains the most vital elements of the original organisms along with some
element of chance. The Puppet Master has evolved beyond DNA as a datum set and thus to procreate (his true desire
and purpose for leaving the net in the first place) this new organism (a soul not born of DNA) a new paradigm of
data merging needs to be contemplated for which he has sought Kusanagi out. This is a merger of two operating
"souls" or "ghosts" into one mind, which is specifically different from birth while being simultaneously analogous to
it.
Tachikomas and fuchikomas (タチコマ / フチコマ) are artificially intelligent mini-tanks (walkers) employed by
Section 9. Because of the demands of field duty, these robots are constructed with extremely flexible, adaptable AIs
that lack many of the safeguards present in other artificially intelligent robots. While this enables them to behave
unpredictably and flexibly, it also presents difficulties for the members of Section 9, who must monitor the
Tachikoma closely for signs of undesirable emotional development.
Tachikoma often ask questions that most people would not think of, much like children that are trying to understand
the world, yet with superior thinking capabilities. There are Tachikoma short clips that involve them discussing
complex philosophical issues and how they relate to existence. They provide more of an innocent look on the world
that surrounds them. The Tachikomas are also used to approach the question of whether or not one's individuality
can withstand a parallelization of information from a different perspective.
Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell 3

Stand Alone Complex

See also: Rhizomal Structure, Emergent organization, and Spontaneous order
While originally intended to "underscore the dilemmas and concerns that people would face if they relied too heavily
on the new communications infrastructure,"[1] Stand Alone Complex eventually came to represent a phenomenon
where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals create a seemingly concerted effort.
A Stand Alone Complex can be compared to the emergent copycat behavior that often occurs after incidents such as
serial murders or terrorist attacks. An incident catches the public's attention and certain types of people "get on the
bandwagon", so to speak. It is particularly apparent when the incident appears to be the result of well-known
political or religious beliefs, but it can also occur in response to intense media attention. For example, a mere fire, no
matter the number of deaths, is just a garden variety tragedy. However, if the right kind of people begin to believe it
was arson, caused by deliberate action, the threat that more arsons will be committed increases drastically.
What separates the Stand Alone Complex from normal copycat behavior is that there is no real originator of the
copied action, but merely a rumor or an illusion that supposedly performed the copied action. There may be real
people who are labeled as the originator, but in reality, no one started the original behavior. And in Stand Alone
Complex, the facade just has to exist in the minds of the public. In other words, a potential copycat just has to
believe the copied behavior happened from an originator-when it really did not. The result is an epidemic of copied
behavior having a net effect of purpose. One could say that the Stand Alone Complex is mass hysteria over
nothing-yet causing an overall change in social structure.
This is not unlike the concepts of memes (refer to the conversation between the major and the Puppet Master in the
manga) and second-order simulacra. It also has ties to social theory, as illustrated in the work of Frederic Jameson
and Masachi Osawa.
It has been posited that the choice, by the writers of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, to use J.D. Salinger's
short story, "The Laughing Man" as a key element in the story, was itself an example of second-order simulacra; the
use of a story that could already be considered an example of second-order simulacra, by its popularity
overshadowing the popularity of its original, The Man Who Laughs. This creates yet another example of the concept,
by banking on the popularity of the show, the character, and the emblem used to represent The Laughing Man,
supplanting the story as the Laughing Man by popularity alone.
In the series itself, it usually refers to events surrounding the Laughing Man case, and to some extents, the teamwork
observed in Public Security Section 9. It is presented as an emergent phenomenon catalyzed by parallelization of the
human psyche through the cyberbrain networks.[2] A key point is that due to the electronic communications network
that is increasingly permeating society, more and more people are being exposed to the same information and
stimuli, making the overall psyche and responses of large groups of people increasingly similar, the result being that
the potential increases exponentially for copycat behavior that forms a Standalone Complex. There is no original
Laughing Man, no leader. Everyone is acting on his own, yet a coherent whole emerges. There are people who
employed the copycat behavior before others, but what started the coherent whole is indefinitive.
In Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG this Stand Alone Complex theory is expanded politically. The main antagonist
of the series, Gouda, attempts to spark a revolution by what he terms "data manipulation" in other words, fulfilling
pre-requisite conditions of a Stand Alone Complex. By manipulating the fear and frustration of the repressed
Chinese refugees in Japanese society, as well as creating false information which is then "leaked" to the police and
Public Security Section 9, a terrorist organization calling itself "The Individual Eleven" emerges. However with each
terrorist incident, including an attempted assassination on the Prime Minister, it becomes clear that nothing connects
the incidents together besides a logo, which had been "leaked" by Gouda. In other words, "The Individual Eleven" is
an organization constructed by a Stand Alone Complex - a group of self-interesed individuals with no connection or
ties to each other but unconsciously and collectively act towards the common purpose of revolution. Gouda notes
that there is a tendency within a Stand Alone Complex for the masses to unconsciously project their inadequacies
and common desires onto a leader. In the first Stand Alone Complex this was the Laughing Man and in Ghost in the
Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell 4

Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG this figure is unconsciously realized in the form of Hideo Kuze

Relation to social theory

The relation of the Stand Alone Complex to social theory is explored in more depth in the second season. A
character, Kazundo Gouda, postulates that, by exploiting the mechanism of information transmission in society, one
could achieve a very efficient and subtle thought control. Indeed, since people tend to modify slightly the
information (and forget where it came from) in the processes of consumption (or appropriation), it becomes difficult
to sort genuine ideas from modified, implanted ones. He proves to be very successful in the end.

Notes and references

[1] Interview with Kenji Kamiyama (http:/ / www. productionig. com/ contents/ works_sp/ 02_/ s08_/ index. html)
[2] Ibid. at Part 3 : The context of Stand Alone Complex (http:/ / www. productionig. com/ contents/ works_sp/ 02_/ s08_/ index. html#c)

• Osawa, Masachi (1990) Shintai no Hikaku Shakaigaku [Comparative Sociology of Body]. vol. 1. Tokyo:
Keiso-shobo.
• Osawa, Masachi (1990) Social dimension of Meaning in Official Journal of the Japanese Association for
Mathematical Sociology. ISSN 0913-1442 Vol.5 No.1 Special Issue: Meaning and Social System
• Osawa, Masachi (1995) Denshi media ron (Electronic Media), Shinyou-sha.
• Morioka, Masahiro (1993, 2002) Consciousness Communication: The Birth of a Dream Navigator Chikuma
Gakugei Bunko, Jul., 2002, 263 pages, originally published in 1993 Chikuma Gakugei Bunko, Jul., 2002, 263
pages, Table of Contents and Translation (http://www.lifestudies.org/consciousness00.html) Full text :
Browse the japanese book with online translation (http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/body/
?wb_url=http://www.lifestudies.org/jp/ishiki03.htm&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2)
• Kobayashi, Takashi Design Concept for Network Community Based e-Government (http://www.yc.
musashi-tech.ac.jp/~cisj/05/index.html) ( refers to Osawa concepts PDF 1,028KB (http://www.yc.
musashi-tech.ac.jp/~cisj/05/5_12.pdf))
Manga references
• The Ghost In The Shell (Kokaku Kidotai) : Publisher: Kodansha (KCDX) ISBN 4-06-313248-X C9979 Release: 5
October 1991, original Japanese
• Ghost In The Shell (English Edition) : Publisher: Dark Horse Comics / Studio Proteus ISBN 1-56971-081-3,
Release: December 1995, English adaptation
• Ghost In The Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface (English Edition Sequel) : Publisher: Dark Horse Comics / Studio
Proteus ISBN 1-59307-204-X, Release: Dark Horse (January 19, 2005), English adaptation

External links
• Production I.G (http://www.production-ig.com/) — Production I.G official English website (English)
• Masachi Osawa (Japanese) (http://d.hatena.ne.jp/keyword/Âçß·¿¿¹¬)
• Masahiro Morioka (http://www.lifestudies.org)
• Frederick Jameson:Metacommentary and Realism/Modernism Debate (http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/
Literary_Criticism/marxism/Jameson_meta.html)
• about Translation & Marxism references in GITS (http://web.archive.org/web/20070508221846/http://www.
valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/GITStrans.html#Marxism)
• Jean Baudrillard : Two Essays (http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/55/baudrillard55art.htm)
Article Sources and Contributors 5

Article Sources and Contributors

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