Would you like some philosophy with your GitS?

[dr_tectonic]

We finished the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex this evening. It was good, although it had a fairly big lump of exposition/philosophy at the end that made my brain feel bloated. (Not as bad as the movies, though.) I can't really complain; it's nice to watch something entertaining that also requires you to think about it afterwards.

The series handles questions of identity and individuality quite nicely, but the ideas about leaderless emergent social phenomena (the 'stand alone complex' of the title) are the really interesting food for thought. Sometimes particular ideas seem to be "abundant in the ether", waiting to sprout in whatever fertile mind they find. Would we recognize an emergent event if we saw it?

Comments

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

I think seeing SAC in bits and pieces has spoiled some of my view on the series. I really liked it though.

I think we often recognize the emergent events even when they're in progress. Recognizing it, however, requires a sense of self that a lot of the population doesn't have. Those who are introspective/introverted are more likely to recognize it, IMO, than those who are extroverted. But even if we recognize the phenomena, we're often at a loss to explain the cause or source.

I think such things are memes in the truest sense: They're viral ideas. Viruses require fertile ground that is ready for them. The idea has to be ready for its time.