I wrote a response to an article written by a
friend who runs a site on blogger.com. So, Ethan Mills, this one is for you,
although it is still mine. It was one of those responses that you write without
thinking, and then afterwards you discover it's all wrong. All very wrong. The
subject was Ghost in the Shell, a simple enough title, but I referred to it as
Ghost in the Machine. It has been a mistake that I have made since the very
first time I watched it, a long time ago. I now wonder if this effected my
reading of the film. Is there something mechanistic in the concept of the
machine confuses or overlays the sense of the organic form of the shell. So,
like every diligent researcher, I began to follow the clues across the
archives; but then I thought this is a blog, so I stopped at the level of
titles and then Wikipedia.
The title Ghost in the Machine has a history
of its own, which can be traced to Gilbert Ryle in his book, Concept of mind
that was published in 1949. It is a book that I would have come across as an
undergraduate; it was at that time that I wanted to study analytical
philosophy, although what I was reading was logical positivism (these
distinctions are not important for now: I am reminiscing). At that Time, I
thought that A. J. Ayer's Language Truth and Logic (1936) was the best
book ever; Although I was taking a course on Ludwig Wittgenstein, (Taught by
Jim Grant at the Polytechnic of North London in Kentish Town, North London).
and writing an essay on the possibility of, (it is not), of secret language
from the pages of Wittgenstein's Philosophy
of Language. If I wrote now it would have to have Saul Krippe, Wittgenstein, On Rules and Private Language
(1982).
Gilbert Ryle, his book, the Concept of the Mind was a sustained criticism of Rene Descartes’
Medications, and the implied dualism
that many have argued is an implication of Descartes’ philosophy. Jean-Luc
Marion argues against this reason by claiming Descartes is not describing a
world in which mind and body are distinct realms, but that it is an examination
the two different methods for validating knowledge. I suspect that Marion is
taking a stance developed from a reading of Aquinas, validation by what we see,
and validation through the divine light, but that is another topic. What Ryle
book, like David Hume’s Inquiry into the
Subject of Human Inquiry, presents is a skeptical account of metaphysics;
For David Hume, and for Ayer, this text is a sustained criticism of
verification of knowledge when metaphysical and naturalist based judgments are
used, For Ryle involves striking against
the idea of a mind, soul, or invisible spirit called the mind; they all use the
term Dogma to describe things that are known but not open to validation and Koestler
is critical all of these factors that we believe makes us special, or/and different
from all other animals, and machines, we think that we are so wonderful yet,
despite our self-appointed genius, we may delusional mistake, an error in the
tree of evolution. (I would rather be trapped in an elevator with Hume or/and
Ayer, than with Koestler.
If they create a television show, or better yet a mighty web-based
broadcast, the closest example would be a collision with Penn And Teller and
the X-Files, they would not only follow Dana and Scully
around exposing their errors, but also would have a sustained criticism of their
secret enemies, then they would bleed all over the channels and….Penn and
Teller in search of Dogma.
But Why Ghost in the Shell
Its more organic...
Shells have more calcium...
They are nice and crunchy when you stand on them...
There is no reason why Ghost in the Machine is
different from Ghost in the Shell, although there is a convention of common
titles in films, and its gives a better sense that you have watched the film.
A possible area
However, within Zen Buddhism its Tibetan forms, the shell, as conch is one of the sacred special symbols. Much as I would like to, and I could write about the differences between Buddhism’s, with Zen Buddhism, and Pure Land Buddhism (one of the main forms of Buddhism, in China, and Shinto, but I would only demonstrate what I do not know. But, there, is that the tip of an elephants trunk you can see or is it it's tail(that was satisfying--is it it's tail): There is a problem with assuming that the creators of the manga or the film have a deep knowledge of these religious and philosophical traditions and are consciously referring to them; consider if you will the series, The 4400,the character Jordan Collier is killed returns from the dead, rough and worn out and as he comes out of his facial hair and begins to becomes mid-America Jesus; yet did you think, as soon as he came back alive and in the company of tramps that the narrative might take a messianic turn. There are these elements that are accessible through acculturation.
However, within Zen Buddhism its Tibetan forms, the shell, as conch is one of the sacred special symbols. Much as I would like to, and I could write about the differences between Buddhism’s, with Zen Buddhism, and Pure Land Buddhism (one of the main forms of Buddhism, in China, and Shinto, but I would only demonstrate what I do not know. But, there, is that the tip of an elephants trunk you can see or is it it's tail(that was satisfying--is it it's tail): There is a problem with assuming that the creators of the manga or the film have a deep knowledge of these religious and philosophical traditions and are consciously referring to them; consider if you will the series, The 4400,the character Jordan Collier is killed returns from the dead, rough and worn out and as he comes out of his facial hair and begins to becomes mid-America Jesus; yet did you think, as soon as he came back alive and in the company of tramps that the narrative might take a messianic turn. There are these elements that are accessible through acculturation.
I said that the city was an unnamed megacity, but:
Yes, I now know that the city is Tokyo; the
constant city image is that of the Chiyoda ward and behind them on the right is
the Shibuya district with scramble junction, the bizarre junction where it
always rains, there are always people with umbrellas, time keeps stopping, and
sometimes there are zombies, and to the left there is the Sibuya district, with
an imperial place, a Supreme Court judge, the parliament building. It must be a
view that every 5-year-old in Japan would recognize.
The things I could tell you about what I don’t know about Buddhism.
That Japanese Buddhism have their own histories:
Pure Land Buddhism, and not to mention Shinto, with its divergent strands. The
regular clanking sound, bell? when the Major is speaking brings in the Pure
Land Buddhism, probably. And I am considering the possibility that the creators
of the manga and those of the film might have a cultural. The sort of thing
that happens if you watch Journey to the West in it various forms; I have tried
reading it, and watched different versions, but none feels as right as the
seventies Japanese series; and I watched the actor who played the Monkey God
once who clearly did not have a clue what it was about, or why anybody would
want to talk to him about it. It might be as simple as that, or not.
A Brief account of the narrative
Film prospective
What sustains our sense of being, it is memory that gives us
our sense of a unified sense of memory; although in this world our memories can
be created, added, and changed if our ghosts are hacked. Remember the man, I
have a wife and I drive this truck, who in the end is just an empty shell.
What is not explained is the nature of the Ghost: soul, spirit
coding, Ghost suggests something that can’t be hacked..
The leader of this country has been overthrown
(North Korea?) and is attempting to get asylum so either they give him Asylum
or gain a good relationship with the country, could be Korea. Somehow, he knows
about the agent in his translators head. He was returning the code so that he
could gain asylum, but the foreign ministry wanted to renege on this deal but
do not want to dirty their hands.
The foreign leader is aware of the agent and has
somehow been involved in bring it into the country, or more likely he was aware
of its presence and offered assistance in its capture on behalf of the foreign
ministry.
The foreign ministry persuades section 9 to carry
out the killing because their grumpy leader is seen as too independent. This
becomes more obvious in the 2nd film.
However, the Agent, itself, has gained
consciousness, in some kind of emergence due to the complications of the net
and the information it has picked up; it always happens in sci-fi.
And this is important because it objects to their
plans for its future, they want to extract the secrets, which are now its
memories, and such an operation would be death, because we are our memories.
The agent escapes into the translator because
section 6’s firewalls are too complicated even for this agent. Section 6
exploits this situation because the agent is now trapped and can be destroyed,
section 6 also exploits the happy coincidence that it is now in section 9,
which they sought to avoid by arresting taking hold of the asylum seeker first.
It can not only extract these secrets, and more that it has acquired from
section 9
Agent 6 exploits this in two ways, first the agent
is trapped and second it is now in section 9. They want the agent in their
control, and can use the situation as a patsy for the bungled mission, which is
why they attack section 9 covertly.
Agency 6 is working against agency 9 so that they
may stay in the good graces of the foreign ministry, they want the agent to be
agent 9's hands so they can implicate them for the assignation-yes they did it
but they want to be able to deny the foreign ministry and their involvement,
because that is that is what you do when you work for a Japanese ministry.
The Agent has been interacting with the major,
which is the noise that she hears that caused her to consider the whole issue
of identity and personhood.
The Cyborg runs of with the agent but when the
major arrives they take the step to kill both the major and agent as a strategy
of self-preservation. The mind of the agent and the brain of the major are both
in their heads because that is the polite thing to do.
to the obligatory former factory like building,
which is a former natural history museum whose walls are decorated
illustrations of dinosaurs, where a big tick like insect can shoot all the
giant lizards and most of the evolutionary tree, continually repeating the
insight that perhaps the major/agent is the future and humans are to fall of
the evolutionary tree like all those other animals. Koestler
This creates a parallel between the code in the agent’s
head and the human brain in the cyborg Major's body. The whole story line, for
what is worth appears to come to this moment. After the unification of minds:
The Sidekick saves the major and attaches her head
to a childlike body, and states that
S/he is Major/Agent or Agent/Major, as whatever it
puts it, or neither Agent and neither Major, but Agent and Major, apparently,
it is always good to end with a good kōan. OR IT IS ANOTHER REFERENCE TO THE
MIX OF MEMORIES, WHAT KIND OF MERGING, AN ADDING OF MEMORIES TO THE MAJOR
RATHER THAN A BINDING OF GHOSTS, BECAUSE IN THIS WORLD
GHOSTS CAN NOT BE COPIED WITHOUT KILLING THE
ORGINAL AND PRODUCING A DEGRADED COPY
ALL GHOSTS
ARE UNIQUE
Or perhaps it is as simple as saying that the body
is different, and the exist with their combined memories, because we are our
memories.
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