Ghost in the Shell script

When I watched Ghost in the Shell, my most persistent thought was not of the mind-body problem or identity theory or any of the philosophical subjects mentioned in the episode. It was "How am I supposed to show this on YouTube?" Ghost in the Shell features the protagonist nude during roughly half of her scenes. I edited around that, but it was not easy.

 AUDIO 1
 [3:55] Ghost in the Shell is a 1995 animated film directed by Mamoru Oshii. [4:29] In the future, the world is connected through an electronic network. Many access the network through cybernetic bodies called shells, [4:48] which contain their consciousness – called a “ghost” in the film. [0:59] Major Motoko Kusanagi an assault-team leader for the Public Security Section 9, [10:09] is assigned to arrest a hacker known as the Puppet Master. Section 9 discovers that the Section 6 actually created the Puppet Master. [1:06:35] He reveals that he was created to hack ghosts for individuals and Section 6 and that he eventually became sentient – an artificial intelligence.
 [1:06:26] Section 6 attempts to cover up their work. The existence of the Puppet Master might cause panic, and he may have secrets that Section 6 and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may not want made public. [1:12:16] The Puppet Master wants to merge with a ghost in order to become mortal – to be able to reproduce and to die. [1:15:01] Puppet Master merges with Kusanagi She wakes up in a child cyborg body – her physical form was destroyed – [1:17:29] but she is no longer strictly herself or Puppet Master but a combination of the two.   
 AUDIO 2
 [6:00] The synthesis of the shell and the ghost in the film is a modern retelling [7:02] and examination of The Mind-Body Problem, a philosophical concept and question about the relationship between the physical form and what we perceive as our consciousness. [10:17] Modern science often argues for Reductive Physicalism, the notion that all mental states and properties can or will eventually be explained by scientific accounts of physiological processes. [11:33] In a science fiction film like Ghost in the Shell, one might imagine the filmmakers would take this position by default.
 [4:15] This relates to The Mind-Body Problem because Reductive Physicalism suggests that the consciousness simply resides in the brain [15:32] and that all behavior is immediately and unambiguously explainable by neurotransmitters, hormones, health of the brain and memory engram cell connections. [27:59] In Ghost in the Shell, taking the scientific approach of Reductive Physicalism means that the “ghost” – the vague consciousness or mind or soul of the person – does not exist independently of the shell. [1:12:30] Kusanagi and her comrades discover The Puppet Master somehow created his own ghost, his own consciousness. Even a computer is material. [15:44] The Internet cannot be “touched” in the same way that our bodies or other tangible objects can be touched, but it is not ethereal or supernatural.   
 AUDIO 3
 [16:12] It operates under physical laws and exists within the material world in the same way that Kusanagi and every other character exists. [1:09:53] The Puppet Master has always been material, even without the shell. So, his creation by Section 6 and then his own formation of consciousness is merely the progression of the material. [1:11:41] By the logic of Reductive Physicalism, he did not gain a soul – he just grew naturally. He was not material that gained a ghost –  [1:13:09] rather, the “ghost” is material, much in the way that the human brain and body are the mind.   
 [7:25] Reductive Physicalism connects our consciousness and bodies in explainable ways. For example, when the body is tired, the mind has trouble focusing. This is because it is all related. [10:53] They do not exist independently. Scientists argue, if the mind were a separate entity, what would attach it to the physical? [18:52] If there is a physical attachment, then the mind and body are not separate, and if this is not a physical attachment, it does not answer why the mind – this separate entity – settles its home in a human body. [28:24] The philosophical counter-point to that is called Dualism, the concept that mental phenomena are at least in part non-physical. A separation of the two. [27:24] In Ghost in the Shell, this is suggested visually through reflections and the conversations about the difference between the “ghost” and the “shell” forms.    
 AUDIO 4
 [29:55] The film broaches dualism by alluding to 17th century philosopher Renee Descartes. Kusanagi spends much of the film wondering about the nature of her own existence. [31:10] Her comrade suggests that if she thinks, she exists and need not worry about the rest. [31:42] Descartes said “...for there is a repugnance in conceiving that what thinks does not exist at the very time when it thinks. Accordingly, the knowledge, I think, therefore I am, is the first and most certain that occurs to one who philosophizes orderly.”
 [32:51] This all sounds rather simplistic, which is why first year philosophy students always learn it, but later philosophers questioned Descartes, claiming that “I think therefore I am” presupposes the “I” [33:57] and therefore invalidates the rest. So, Descartes would claim that Kusanagi definitely exists and has a mind because she thinks, but Søren Kierkegaard would not, and would claim that it is a circular [34:44] argument with more psychological appeal than fact. He once said “The indifference is forgotten in the Cartesian Cogito-ergo sum, which disturbs the disinterestedness of the intellectual and offends speculative thought, as if something else should follow from it. I think, ergo I think ... is infinitely unimportant.” [37:03] But Kierkegaard's doubts would not only be about Kusanagi but about all the characters of the film, which would make Kusanagi no more or less “real” than anyone else.
 AUDIO 5
 [33:43] The narrative of Ghost in the Shell trudges through the mind-body problem that has confounded philosophers and scientists for centuries, but Kusanagi specifically focuses her attention on another philosophical argument: [38:45] the existence of identity. One's identity, in the philosophical definition, is the relation each thing bears just to itself. An identity is what makes something uniquely itself. [39:57] Motoko Kusanagi is believed to be originally human but has replaced so much of herself – except, apparently, her “ghost” -- with cybernetics.   
 [0:52] Her past is elusive. If she were ever truly human, did she ever stop being human? If she did, when did that happen? When she first became a cyborg? When more than 50% of her body became cybernetic? [39:19] When she gained a cybernetic brain that was possibly scanned from a human brain? [42:40] She broods about her situation that is made possible only through the science fiction world, but these questions can actually be asked of all us. [54:07] The question: Is Kusanagi the same person she was when was born and had so many different parts? -- can be applied to any person. Am I the same person I was when I was a child? [1:17:17] Has enough of my body, cells, beliefs, hormones and attitudes changed in order for me to be considered a wholly different person?
 AUDIO 6
 [13:09] Those who would argue for me being the same person over years of natural development as well as Kusanagi being the same person over years of artificial development believe in some level of a persistent, Personal Identity. [4:26] One branch of personal identity studies is called Body Theory, the idea that you are still you because you are still your body, but Kusanagi is potentially not her original body. [7:14] If we believe in Reductive Physicalism, then her mind – like everything -- is merely the physical and some of her “body” -- which includes her mind – has survived.   
 [1:54] Even if we do not adopt Reductive Physicalism for this debate, [10:20] the other side of Personal Identity – Memory Theory – would function much in the same way, suggesting that even if the mind and body are separate entities, [12:28] if Kusanagi's mind persists from one cyborg body to another, she has retained her personal identity. The problem with believing entirely in Memory Theory is that we [15:37] have to accept that someone suddenly becomes an entirely different person if they lose enough of their memory, such as through amnesia, dimensia or something else. [38:45] Even a healthy brain forgets so much.   
 AUDIO 7
 [16:34] In Ghost in the Shell, a garbageman had his mind hacked, his memory wiped and replaced with the identity of someone with a wife and child. He actually does not have these people in his life. [26:11] They are imaginary and created through hacking. This begs the question: Is this man the same person he was before someone violated his memories? [14:19] He still owns property and has the same occupation as he had before the hack. Society will treat him legally as the same man, but if we believe in Memory Theory, then he is not. [26:45] He is someone else altogether.   
 [19:42] If we disbelieve in a persistent, personal identity, then it creates a host of problems as side effects. What are our obligations to other people if they are always changing and never truly the same [21:22] person from day to day or year to year? How responsible do we feel about our own actions if we are not persistent people? [27:17] Kusanagi and other Section 9 operatives maintain law and order. If she believed that she definitely does not have a persistent identity, one could argue she would not feel [29:54] as much obligation to working towards an ordered society.
 AUDIO 8
 [31:56] Not everyone believes in a true form of personal identity. 18th century philosopher David Hume, once skeptically said “For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.” [33:51] Now that is a bit of a mouthful, but what Hume meant was that identity does not persist over time.   
 [34:39] Even without cracking open a philosophy textbook, people generally believe in or at least tacitly accept personal identity theory if we assign some level of responsibility to our actions, as a [35:41] society of laws generally does. [40:40] Kusanagi is a Major in Section 9. Her rank does not disappear day to day. Society believes she is the same person on Tuesday as she was on Monday. [44:17] Most characters in Ghost in the Shell seem to believe in some level of personal identity, but the ending raises more questions than it answers. [1:14:56] Kusanagi and the Puppet Master merge their ghosts – their individual consciousnesses – into one. Since there is no real world parallel to this science fiction scenario, [1:16:06] it is difficult to answer whether this child cyborg at the end of the film is part Kusanagi and part Puppet Master or a wholly new personal identity. Are Kusanagi and Puppet Master dead?
 AUDIO 9
 Artificial intelligence is also another subject in the film that is currently relegated to science fiction, but as technology is progressing at such an incredible rate, it is topic that the real world may need to broach one day. Defining artificial intelligence is complicated by the fact that we, as humans, still have not reached a philosophical consensus on personhood and personal identity, but much in the way that society casually accepts the persistent identities of people by giving them driver's licenses and home loans, and the world of Ghost in the Shell believes Major Kusanagi is still Major Kusanagi no matter how far her artificial body progresses, humans may have to tactily accept artificially intelligent androids as people for purely functional reasons.
 If an AI android walks down the sidewalk to speaks to another human, the human will either ignore the android as one would a toaster or speak to it. If the human does speak to it, then that human is at least passively accepting it as intelligent enough to converse with, functionally treating it as a person whether it legally is or not. Much in the same way we have not all understood personal identity, we functionally treat it as part of our day to day life every time we see recognize something we believe we have seen before or speak to someone we believe we know. If artificially intelligent beings begin to populate the Earth and operate in the same way we do, they will have to be functionally integrated into society in one form or another even if there is some pushback as it relates to whether they are people or not.    
 
 AUDIO 10
 In Ghost in the Shell, The Puppet Master is an artificial intelligence, but this can be more readily accept in this future sci-fi world because humanity has abandoned the idea that somehow organic matter makes something more “real” -- Major Kusanagi has a rank and friends and probably a lease on her apartment. In the real world, by the time strong AI exists, technology may be so far advanced in so many other ways that an artificially intelligent android will not be shunned or have its personhood questioned but rather be seen as the inevitable consequence of our growing understanding of the universe and what we can accomplish.
 The Puppet Master was programmed and not “born” in the biological sense, but we are all programmed through our DNA to be pre-disposed to a variety of things. We grow from there, but apparently, so does The Puppet Master, as he, much like a human who is not solely defined by his genetic limitations, has outgrown his original programming. The film shows us The Tree of Life, suggesting that artificial intelligence may simply be the next step for humanity, no stranger than natural evolution.     
 AUDIO 11
 Reductive Physicalism is resisted, in part because it suggests a lack of “specialness” about humanity, that we are nothing but matter, no more amazing or supernatural than water or clouds or food. Kusanagi doubts the existence of a human mind inside of her – wonders about the nature of her own “ghost” -- and sees trash and muddy water, perhaps contemplating that she may be no more special than garbage, but she could try to accept another possibility: that if she is only matter with no ghost, fully human people may be as well. She may not have a soul, but neither does anyone else. And with that knowledge, she does not have to be alone.