In the diving scene of “Ghost In The Shell” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2q0OKYPsRM) and during a period of intense reflection with Batou, Kusanagi states that, “If man realizes technology is within reach, he achieves it, like it’s damn near instinctive.” This thought, that human technological advancement is an intrinsic quality that results in inevitable progression, is something that we come to understand as a double-edged sword. With GITS, we see the dark undercurrent that runs beneath technology, as the capacity for violence and shadowy government action grows exponentially with the presence of technology (think of the high-capacity bullets and “invisibility” coat of the hacker, and Project 2501 itself).
The “Terminator” franchise, a widely known and beloved American pop-culture entity, sees human progression in a similar light. Skynet has become an infamous symbol for the vary dangers that the technological singularity theory predicts: the rapid advancement and self-proliferation of robots and artificial intelligence. Most are familiar with the story, of the rise and dominance of robots, coupled with the plucky resistance of the humans. It’s a plot reminiscent in another famous American movie franchise: the Matrix. What both of these movies share is what GITS and the technological singularity theory imply, which is that humanity’s drive and desire for technology and advancement may lead us to a place we don’t want to go. In class we talked about the onset of autonomous weapons and what that meant for the world, and I remembered seeing news on the Internet of how someone had figured out how to rig a handgun to a flying drone. This intersection of technological potential and violence doesn’t seem good at all.