Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell
I think it might be appropriate to do a brief introduction for western readers about Japanese (Shintoist+Budist) philosophy first. If you're an <i>old school</i> manga/anime consumer you probably know a bit about it indirectly with Studio Ghibli movies and others.<p>In most modern philosophy spirits are assigned to humans (with exceptions), while in Japan everything in nature has a spirit/energy [1]. This makes the concept of nature different between our cultures, animals even more different so the concept of a robot is really different.<p>So a <i>Ghost in the shell</i> for us westerns is kind of obvious; a robot has nothing, it <i>is</i> a shell by default, and you can add a human consciousness which is just a group of thoughts like you'd add a different program. However for the Japanese culture where everything has <i>vital</i> energy this is not entirely the same concept. An empty shell/robot is a void much larger than what a robot is for us and a normal, working robot in the real world has <i>something</i> making it move. Heck, even "electricity" includes the word "気" (spirit/energy).<p>Of course I am not good at explaining all of this and just know it because I like learning about it. But I do think that there are important cultural differences when watching this movie and many details are lost from a western point of view.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami</a>