Are we Just a “Ghost in the Shell”? Transhumanism and Christian Anthropology

In 1995, the San Francisco 49ers won the Superbowl, OJ Simpson was found not guilty, and Ghost in the Shell showed in theaters. If you don’t remember this last one, don’t worry. No one else does, either. Ghost in the Shell bombed. The joint UK-Japan anime effort appeared to be headed for the dust-bin of history.

But then, Blockbuster and the VHS rental market intervened. Ghost in the Shell made back its production costs and then some, and went on to be massively influential in its own right.

Ghost in the Shell (GITS) tells the story of Major Motoko Kusanagi and Public Security Section 9. Section 9 is the clandestine wing of Japanese government security. They do what the other, more visible branches cannot: assassinations, secret arrests, and violent suppression of various and sundry bad guys.

In GITS, the Major and section 9 are tasked with stopping a hacker named the Puppet Master using any means necessary. The Major has doubts, though. Why does the government care so much? What does the hacker know?

This sounds like a standard government thriller plot. There are two elements that set GITS apart from all others:

• 1. The visual style. GITS takes the gritty, worn-out dystopian setting developed in films like Robocop and Blade Runner, places it in an anonymous Japanese port city, and mixes it with frenetic anime action in a totally non-Western setting. The end result has had a lasting impact on worldwide cinema. The Wachowski’s, creators of 1999’s Matrix cite it as a central influence on their film’s aesthetic vision. James Cameron, director of Titanic, Avatar, and Aliens, described GITS as, “a stunning work of speculative fiction . . . the first to reach a level of literary excellence.”

• 2. Transhumanist philosophy. Julian Huxley, brother of Aldous Huxley, is generally regarded as the founder. With roots in the 19th and even 18th century, transhumanism envisions a future wherein humans use technology to “complete” evolution and ascend beyond their biological limits to achieve immortality and freedom from all suffering.

In the universe of GITS, transhumanism is an established fact of life.

The Major is a full-conversion cyborg. Outwardly, she appears to be an unremarkable, ordinary human, but inwardly, her only original organic parts are her brain and parts of her spine. At the start of the film, the transhumanism of GITS has physical limits. One must still have organic parts to be a person. In a scene at the very center of the film, the Major comments on the nature of humanity and her existence:

Just as there are many parts needed to make a human a human there’s a remarkable number of things needed to make an individual what they are. A face to distinguish yourself from others. A voice you aren’t aware of yourself. The hand you see when you awaken. The memories of childhood, the feelings for the future. That’s not all. There’s the expanse of the data net my cyber-brain can access. All of that goes into making me what l am. Giving rise to a consciousness that l call ”me.” And simultaneously confining ”me” within set limits. (Ghost in the Shell 1995)

The major wants to push beyond the remaining physical boundaries. In this scene, she’s just returned from deep sea diving- an activity that is very dangerous for her. Her teammate asks what she gets from such risk, and she answers that in the ink-black, potentially fatal waters, she sees “hope.” It’s a visual illustration of the film’s central message- that humanity is called to push through risk and danger to reach the next stage of evolution.

The Major and Section 9 discover that the Puppet Master is actually a self-aware program, with no physical body. In a crucial scene, the Puppet Master states:

As an autonomous life-form, l request political asylum. (…) I submit the DNA you carry is nothing more than a self-preserving program itself…

…Life is like a node which is born within the flow of information. As a species of life that carries DNA as its memory system man gains his individuality from the memories he carries…

…While memories may as well be the same as fantasy it is by these memories that mankind exists. When computers made it possible to externalize memory you should have considered all the implications that held. (Ghost in the Shell 1995)

What is a human person?

The Puppet Master defines personhood in terms of data (memory) and then argues that it is a person on equal terms with flesh and blood humanity. Thus, the Puppet Master believes it is entitled to the rights and privileges of a human.

This broadened definition means that any self aware system of data can be a person. This broadened definition of personhood is a central aspect of transhumanism. 

Most transhumanists reject dualism, or the idea that there is a separation between soul/ mind and the body. They argue that the mind/ soul is generated by the body. 

The title Ghost in the Shell is a direct reference to a 1949 book (Gilbert Ryle’s Concept of Mind) in which the author systematically dismantles dualism and argues that the mind/ soul is nothing more than a “ghost in the machine.” This means that a person’s mind/soul is nothing more than data, and that as such, it can be recorded and transferred to other media.

Christianity also rejects strict dualism.

In the early days of Christianity, some argued that the body was evil, and that to be truly good and pure, Christians must destroy the body. This led some to extreme fasting and self-injurious behavior.

Others took the opposite position- since the body was evil and Christians were good, then it didn’t matter how the body was used. Christians could eat, drink, and be merry in whatever ways they wanted.

The church condemned both approaches…

Over the years Catholic Christianity came to argue that while the body was subservient to the soul, the two were linked in an essential manner. The soul is most fully expressed when enfleshed in a body, and a body is only truly itself when inhabited by a soul.

But a body can’t have just any soul- it must have the specific soul that was created for it. In other words, you aren’t fully yourself without your body.

Catholic Christianity, building on St. Paul’s arguments in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, asserts that what one does with the body affects the soul, and that what one does in the soul affects the body. Further, all Christians look forward to the time when Jesus will return in His glory and the dead are restored to life in a general resurrection.

Christianity teaches that while a person has a soul and can exist outside of the body, we are most fully ourselves when we exist in both body and soul.

Later on, in a conversation with the Major, the Puppet Master goes on to say:

I am connected to a vast network, of which I myself am a part. To one like you, who cannot access it you may perceive it only as light. As we are confined to our one section, so we are all connected. Limited to a small part of our functions. But now we must slip our bonds, and shift to the higher structure. (Ghost in the Shell 1995)

The goal is to become something more, beyond the boundaries of our current physical existence. Maybe this doesn’t sound so bad from a secular point of view, but what’s the Christian church’s response?

The Christian answer begins with the fact that technology is a tool (or group of tools) used by humanity to solve problems. Medicine, mechanical engines, electronics and all the rest- they’re objects meant to be used by people.

One of the problems inherent in transhumanism is that transhumanist philosophy blurs the line between object and person. To put it a different way, it makes objects into people and people into objects.

In GITS, for example, the Major and her teammates don’t own their bodies. Should they decide to find another job, they must first return everything their employer has given to them- including their memories. In the Major’s case, she’d leave with just a brain and part of her spine. So is the Major an object? Or is she a person?

We are called to remember that we are people, and not things. We’re also called to remember that we’re humans, and not God.

Technology should serve us in our quest to know our Creator and our world. The relationship should not be reversed. Ghost in the Shell gives us hints as to what could happen if we get things backwards.