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The cyberpunk film Ghost in the Shell is based off a Japanese comic book from 1989. In the film, the city of Tokyo is facing a new kind of domestic threat: cyber terrorism. In Tokyo’s future, there exists a massive online network that everyone is connected to via cybernetic implants. All of the characters in this film are cyborgs at some level. The introduction to the film is a four minute presentation titled, “The Making of a Cyborg”. In this scene, there is a lifeless, metallic skeletal figure floating in a void, its skull compartmentalized and open while a brain encased in metal is inserted into the opening and closed. A monitor then shows that the brain is functioning. The scene goes on to show the step by step assembly of a cyborg. This scene illustrates the nature of capitalism and the desire for technological growth and provides a tangible example of cyborgs as a means for capitalistic growth. Moments of this scene look like childbirth and others like a car assembly plant.
The cybernetic industry in this future is a combination of Apple (a consumer electronic giant) and Blackwater (a military contractor). The military and the police departments have all been upgraded with the latest cybernetics. The majority of citizens in neo-Tokyo are equipt with at least some type of brain modification. The achilles heel of the cybernetics industry is also its greatest strength, the online network. Cyber terrorism has become the fear of a society that is dependant on cybernetics. The cyber terrorists, or hackers, present a potential devastating problem. Using the network, they can hack into a brain and take valuable information, insert fictitious information, and/or sometimes completely take over your bodies functions. In the pursuit of development and improved technology, the industry has made political enemies and created an unpredictable artificial life that they cannot control. The concept of cyber terrorism is not native to this film, it exist in present day. Ghost in the Shell address the negative possibilities of cyborgs and technological advancement, and is not that far off. There is a recurring theme of overconsumption and overproduction. What happens when society walks out too far, and is mankind ready for their technological growth?
Cyborgs 