Just how human is the Major?

General discussion about Ghost in the Shell

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LordGrise
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Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2013 8:29 pm

Just how human is the Major?

Post by LordGrise »

okay, so this is trolling a bit, but it's still a legit set of questions in my mind, since I'm trying to write a Ghost in the Shell fanfic. So, with no further ado:

How much of the Major's brain remains? Majority of the brain plus portion of spine, just her brain, the majority of her brain with some portions replaced or removed, disparate pieces of her brain interconnected in a computer matrix, or total replacement, IE she is an AI, truly the Ghost in the Shell?

There are arguments to be made all ways; I have my own theory, but I want to get others' ideas. Keep in mind that the various Ghost in the Shell episode runs and movies have subtle contradictions built into them, particularly the movies vs the episodal series, so just taking it all in and processing will not give you a good answer. Also, I do not have access to any of the original manga, so if your answer stems from there, please unpack fully.

Second question: Is the Major capable of sexual arousal? I will stipulate that if she is able to become aroused, then I would fully expect her body to be able to perform the act. This question feeds into and from the first question, obviously.

One caveat: I am well aware that in the Real World of today, there are very rare individuals who are truly asexual. That is not the norm of the human condition. It is a perfectly valid answer to say that the Major is one such individual, but that in turn begs the question of whether her psyche is simply that way, or if asexuality is the result by her physical situation.

Looking forward to some viewpoints!
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Freitag
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Post by Freitag »

Which incarnation of Motoko?

The manga Motoko has reference info.
Dark Horse published two versions of the manga in the US. one contained graphic sexual material. The Major has a sideline making lesbian porn for androids because she can write the software equivalent of the drug Ecstasy and she has 256 sensors per sq cm on her skin (higher than commercially available). I'd say there is also evidence for large portions of her brain to be completely intact. Batou forces a connection to communicate and interrupts one of these episodes and he becomes disoriented when the chemical effects of female arousal hormones are simulated in his brain. And then the Major hacks his arm and punches him in the nose. Even with safe search locked on at my account level a simple image search for "Ghost in the Shell manga" (without the quotes) will return those images in the first page of results.
Later on Batou has the Major in a suitcase (brain container only) and she remotely pilots a body that gets executed.
Man Machine Interface and the other mini story (is Chroma actually Motoko?) don't have a lot of reference material for that AFAIK - although they do go into mysticism a little bit which is a very interesting side story reminding me of the potential in the early Netrunner games that has Amerind mystics doing a Ghost Dance INSIDE a virtual environment. I never played them, just looked at the easy to read blurbs and the cover art, so I may have badly misinterpreted what the game rules actually allowed.
She talks to her friend in that one elevator scene and wonders how much is left herself. She can only go on what she has been told. So she's not 100% sure there is any meat left. So maybe computer circuits use sugar for energy too otherwise you'd know by looking at the post bio process excrement.


The first series Anime has a couple of reference episodes.
Motoko goes in for a replacement body after the big fight and you get the idea that everything is contained in a brain shaped container. Although the synchronization animation a couple minutes later when Laughing Man shares info with her implies part of her extended nervous system may still be intact. But by Solid State Society she moves her mind from body to body and although she complains she can only animate two at a time there is strong evidence that a shard of her personality is animating the 3rd body simultaneously and unknown to her. But this latter thing is a post merge with the virtual entity and so arguably there is more consciousness in there than just one person anyway.
In the episode where she goes to search for background info on Hideo Kuze she meets the street urchin and offers to have sex with him in the hotel room

I do not recall enough about the movies to speculate.

In the new anime (Arise), I have not seen the episodes, only the movie and it at least lacks reference material to answer your questions.


Is post merge Motoko crammed back into the brain or has she been released onto the vast and infinite net? In that version there may be no grey matter left.
People tend to look at you a little strangely when they know you stuff voodoo dolls full of Ex-Lax.
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