Traece's Blog

Anime Relations: Koukaku Kidoutai

Quality can be measured best by scale. A true masterpiece of science-fiction creates not just characters and situations, but entire worlds that seem almost as if they could exist. However, those masterpiece worlds created in manga and anime are usually great because they are achievable in the lifespan of the human race. Thus a masterpiece of science-fiction does not generate an entirely new world, but predicts the future of our own.

Ghost in the Shell (GitS) is the finest example of this. Whenever I think about the world of 2032 in Ghost in the Shell, I think about how achievable everything in that piece of fiction is. Possibly one of the biggest factors in its success is that GitS portrays a world that is almost an eventuality of humankind. The average individual likely wouldn't think of it as anything more than entertainment, but the beauty of GitS lies in the science behind it. The combining of the human element with machines is not something that is unheard of even in today's society. Every day our race becomes more and more capable of integrating itself with machines as science attempts to create human-like prostheses. My personal belief is that rather than being just science-fiction, GitS is a hint of what is to come. Change is coming.

With this being said, however, we must be reminded of the frailty of humankind. The Matrix, which was influenced by GitS, shows us the dangers of what is quickly becoming the machine age. So too does the classic series Terminator, depicting war against machines just the same as The Matrix. Even iRobot can be thought of as a warning. While machines could potentially threaten the entire human race if their creation is handled improperly; the combining of the human element with machine would pose no more threat than humanity already poses. Humankind is already evil, and cyborgs would pose no larger threat on a grand scale.

In summation, I do not advocate an age of machines where the threat of robo-revolution looms over the heads of mankind (I prefer a claptrapless society, if you will). That is not to say however that I frown upon the evolution of humans into cyborgs. Humans are a species that are intended to adapt quickly, and do anything it sets its minds on. I look to Mobile Suit Gundam as well as a glimpse of the future, with humans going forth to space and developing at the very least space station colonies. We have created an age of computers and created machines smarter and more adaptable than ourselves. I believe without question that our next step will be to become the very computers that we have developed, and could no longer survive without.