Through the Looking Glass
Ghost in the Shell, Transhumanism, and Transcendence through the Virtual
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.35338Keywords:
Ghost in the Shell, science fiction, transhumanism, mythology, anime, film science and religion, singularityAbstract
Masamune Shirow's manga, Ghost in the Shell, is a ‘cyberpunk' classic of the 1990's. It focuses on a fictional counter-cyberterrorist organisation led by Major Motoko Kusanagi known as Section-9. This classic manga was made into an anime by Mamoru Oshii and became a cult hit in the mid-90s. Its popularity fuelled the production of a number of feature length animated films as well as two anime series. It regained popularity in 2015 following the news that Scarlett Johansson signed to play the lead in a live-action version of the anime that was released in 2017. What is interesting about Ghost in the Shell is not only its ‘cyberpunk' motifs but the very transhumanist themes it conveys. Though considered a ‘cultural/intellectual' movement transhumanism has some interesting ‘religious' elements associated with it, albeit ones that may not fit the usual conventional understanding of ‘religion'. This is especially the case if ‘religion' is seen as the sui generis concept that it is popularly known as, rather than a cultural activity. One of the fundamental beliefs of this movement is that humans will advance physically, intellectually, and psychologically, not through the will of a divine creator, but through human ingenuity and technology. Another popular belief held by some transhumanists is one that suggests that in the 'not-so-distant future' humans will transcend their physical and mental imperfections by uploading themselves into a supercomputer. With transhumanist themes in mind this paper will focus on two main points. The first is that Japanese traditions can be used to strengthen the ‘transhumanism as religion' argument as proposed by Robert Geraci. The second will examine how-through the adoption of Japanese mythology and its articulation in Ghost in the Shell-cyborg technology can be used to enhance spirituality, thus introducing a new method for understanding the traditional science v religion debate.
References
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———. 2000. When Science Meets Religion. London: SCM.
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———. 2000. Cyberpunk and Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the World of William Gibson. London: Athlone.
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———. 2007. Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society. London: Manga.
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———. 2005. The Singularity is Near. London: Viking.
Low, M. 2009. “Technological Culture.” In The Canbridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, edited by Y. Sugimoto, 130–146. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521880473.008
Lyden, J. 2003. Myth, Morals, and Rituals: Film and Religion. New York: New York University Press.
Marsen, S. 2011. “Playing by the Rules – or Not? Constructions of Identity in a Poshuman future.” In H+/- Transhumanism and its Critics, edited by G. R. and W. Grassie. Hansell, 84–93. Philadelphia: Metanexus.
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Morevac, H. 1988. Mind Children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———.1998. Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Murguia, S.J. 2011. “Hinamatsuri and the Japanese Female: A Critical Interpretation of the Japanese Doll Festival.” Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 2(2): 231–247.
Okuyama, Y. 2015. Japanese Mythology and Film: A Semiotic Approach to reading Japanese Film and Anime. London: Lexington. https://doi.org/10.1353/jjs.2017.0025
Oshii, M., director. 1995. Ghost in the Shell. London: Manga.
———. 2004. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Produced by M. Oshii and T. Ishakawa Suzuki. London: Manga.
Polkinghorne, J. 1996. Scientists and Theologians: A Comparison of the Writing of Ian Barbour, Arthur Peacocke and John Polkinghorne. London: SPCK. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040571x9810100536
———. 1995. Serious Talk: Science and Religion in Dialogue. Harrisburg: Trinity.
Polkinghorne, J. 1996. The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker. Fortress.
Rose, S. 2017. “Ghost in the Shell’s Whitewashing: Does Hollywood have an Asian Problem?” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/31/ghost-in-the-shells-whitewashing-does-hollywood-have-an-asian-problem
Shelly, M. 1933 [1818]. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. New York: Dutton.
Shunzo, S. 1967. “Shinto; Japanese Ethnocentrism.” In The Japanese Mind: essentials of Japanese Philosophy and Culture, edited by C.A. Moore, 24–32. Hawaii University Press.
Spry, J. 2017 “New Ghost in the Shell Anime Series in Development for 2018.” Syfywire. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/ghost-in-the-shell-anime
Sugimoto, Y. 2010. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomas, J. B. 2009. “Religion in Japanese Film: Focus on Anime.” In The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film, edited by J. Lyden, 194–213. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203874752
Tirosh-Samuelson, H. 2011. “Engaging Transhumanism.” In H+/- Transhumanism and Its Critics, edited by G.R., Grassie, W. Hansell, 19–52. Philadelphia: Metanexus.
Wachowskis, Lana and Lilly Wachowskis, directors. 2003. The Matrix Reloaded. Burbank, CA: Warner.
———. 1999. The Matrix. Burbank, CA: Warner.
White, A. D. 1897. A History of the Warfare of Science and Theology in Christendom. New York: Appleton.
Bainbridge, W.S. 1986. Dimensions of Science Fiction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Barbour, I. 1974. Myths, Models, and Paradigms: The Nature of Science and Religious Langugage. London: SCM.
Barbour, I. 1974. Religion and Science: Historical and Contempoary Issues. London: SCM.
———. 2000. When Science Meets Religion. London: SCM.
Blackford, R. 2011. “Trite truths about technology.” In H +/- Transhumanism and Its Critics, edited by G. R. Hansell and W. Grassie, 176–188. Philadelphia: Metanexus.
Bolton, C. Csicsery Istvan Jr. Tatsumi, T. 2007. Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction Origins to Anime. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bostrom, Nick. 2008. “Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up.” Medical Enhancement and Posthumanity, edited by Bert Gordijn, Ruth Chadwick, 107–137. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8852-0_8
———. 2016. “Transhumanist Values.” https://eclass.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/PPP566/Bostrom%20-%20Transhumanist%20Values.pdf
Bould, M. and S. Vint. 2011. The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction. Abingdon: Routledge.
Carter, M. 2007. Minds and Computers: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Cavallaro, D. 2007. Anime Intersections: Traditions and Innovation in Theme and Technique. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
———. 2000. Cyberpunk and Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the World of William Gibson. London: Athlone.
Chipman, J. S. 2010. “So Where Do I Go from Here? Ghost in the Shell and Imagining Cyborg Mythology for the New Millenium.” In Millenial Mythmaking; Essays on the Power fo Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, edited by J. D. Whitt Perlich and David Whitt, 167–192. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Collings, H. 1998. The Golem and Large: What We Should Know About Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp.1999.12.2.5.2
Charkraborty, R. 2017. “What is the Difference Between Posthumanism and Transhumanism?” The Transhumanist. http://thetranshumanist.news/2017/05/21/difference-posthumanism-transhumanism/
Dalai Lama of Tibet, His Holiness the 14th. 2003.”A Collaboratinon Between Science and Religion.” 14 January. https://www.dalailama.com/messages/buddhism/science-and-religion
Davies, P. 1992. The Mind of God: Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning. London: Simon & Schuster.
Draper, J. 1878. History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science. New York: Appleton.
Fitzgerald, T. 2000. The Ideology of Relgious Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Geraci, R. M. 2010a. Apocaplyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artifical Intelligence, and Virtual Reality. Oxford: Oxford Scholarship Online.
———. 2010b. “Cyborgs, Robots, and Eternal Avatars: Transhumanism Salvation at the Inerface of Brains and Machines.” In The Routledge Companion to Religion and Science, edited by J. W. Peterson G. R. and M. L. Spezio Haag, 578–590. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203803516.ch53
———. 2011. “There and Back Again: Transhumanist Evangelism in Science Fiction and Popular Science.” Implicit Religion 14(2): 141–172. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.v14i2.141
Gibson, W. 2015. Neuromancer. London: Harper Voyager.
Glinert, L. 2001. “Golem! The Making of a Modern Myth.” Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures 55(2): 78-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/00397700109598306
Grassie, W. 2011. “Millennialism at the Singularity: Refletions on the Limits of Ray Kurzweil’s Exponential Logic.” In H+/- Transhumanism and Its Critics, edited by G. R. Hansell and W. Grassie, 249–269. Philadelphia: Metanexus.
Haraway, D. 2016 [1985]. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. In Manifestly Haraway, 5–90. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05194-3_10
Hughes, J. 2010. “Contradictions from the Enlightenment Roots of Transhumanism.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35(6): 622–640. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhq049
Kamiyama, K., director. 2002. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. London: Manga.
Kamiyama, K., director. 2004. Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG. London: Manga.
———. 2007. Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society. London: Manga.
Koch, T. 2010. “Enhancing Who? Enhancing What? Ethics, Bioethics, and Transhumanism.” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine 35(6): 685–699. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhq051
Kurzweil, R. 1999. Age of Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. New York: Viking.
———. 2005. The Singularity is Near. London: Viking.
Low, M. 2009. “Technological Culture.” In The Canbridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, edited by Y. Sugimoto, 130–146. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521880473.008
Lyden, J. 2003. Myth, Morals, and Rituals: Film and Religion. New York: New York University Press.
Marsen, S. 2011. “Playing by the Rules – or Not? Constructions of Identity in a Poshuman future.” In H+/- Transhumanism and its Critics, edited by G. R. and W. Grassie. Hansell, 84–93. Philadelphia: Metanexus.
Mendlesohn, F. 2003. “Introduction: Reading Science Fiction.” In Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, edited by E. and Mendlesohn, F. James, 1–13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol0521816262.001
More, M. and Vita-More, N. 2013. The Transhumanism Reader. Chichester: Wiley.
Morevac, H. 1988. Mind Children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———.1998. Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Murguia, S.J. 2011. “Hinamatsuri and the Japanese Female: A Critical Interpretation of the Japanese Doll Festival.” Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 2(2): 231–247.
Okuyama, Y. 2015. Japanese Mythology and Film: A Semiotic Approach to reading Japanese Film and Anime. London: Lexington. https://doi.org/10.1353/jjs.2017.0025
Oshii, M., director. 1995. Ghost in the Shell. London: Manga.
———. 2004. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Produced by M. Oshii and T. Ishakawa Suzuki. London: Manga.
Polkinghorne, J. 1996. Scientists and Theologians: A Comparison of the Writing of Ian Barbour, Arthur Peacocke and John Polkinghorne. London: SPCK. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040571x9810100536
———. 1995. Serious Talk: Science and Religion in Dialogue. Harrisburg: Trinity.
Polkinghorne, J. 1996. The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker. Fortress.
Rose, S. 2017. “Ghost in the Shell’s Whitewashing: Does Hollywood have an Asian Problem?” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/31/ghost-in-the-shells-whitewashing-does-hollywood-have-an-asian-problem
Shelly, M. 1933 [1818]. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. New York: Dutton.
Shunzo, S. 1967. “Shinto; Japanese Ethnocentrism.” In The Japanese Mind: essentials of Japanese Philosophy and Culture, edited by C.A. Moore, 24–32. Hawaii University Press.
Spry, J. 2017 “New Ghost in the Shell Anime Series in Development for 2018.” Syfywire. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/ghost-in-the-shell-anime
Sugimoto, Y. 2010. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomas, J. B. 2009. “Religion in Japanese Film: Focus on Anime.” In The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film, edited by J. Lyden, 194–213. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203874752
Tirosh-Samuelson, H. 2011. “Engaging Transhumanism.” In H+/- Transhumanism and Its Critics, edited by G.R., Grassie, W. Hansell, 19–52. Philadelphia: Metanexus.
Wachowskis, Lana and Lilly Wachowskis, directors. 2003. The Matrix Reloaded. Burbank, CA: Warner.
———. 1999. The Matrix. Burbank, CA: Warner.
White, A. D. 1897. A History of the Warfare of Science and Theology in Christendom. New York: Appleton.
Published
2019-07-30
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Shalet, D. (2019). Through the Looking Glass: Ghost in the Shell, Transhumanism, and Transcendence through the Virtual. Implicit Religion, 21(4), 413-432. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.35338
