Ghost in the Shell

[DISCLAIMER]

Earlier, I reminisced about the past (2015) as I used to drive an hour from my home when working with veterans and their caregivers while providing services for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”). I don’t miss that one-hour commute, both ways.

Nevertheless, I spent a lot of time listening to new music during my drives. Specifically, I earlier listened to the album Tetsuo & Youth (2015) by lyricist Lupe Fiasco. My favorite track is “Mural” which samples “Chanson D’Un Jour D’Hiver” (1975) by Cortex.

On the song, Lupe questions, “Are we apps, or are we bodies filled with apparitions? Operating applications, stuck inside of Apple prison?” If one were to casually hear the song without actually listening, those philosophical questions may be lost in the pounding beat as Lupe flows.

I can comprehend how that may be, because Lupe spit near-constant lyrics for almost nine minutes on the creative track. Nevertheless, I think of the “ghost in the machine” concept about which the American Psychological Association states:

[A] phrase used to emphasize the problems associated with Cartesian dualism, in which the mind is seen as a nonphysical entity (a “ghost”) that somehow inhabits and interacts with a mechanical body (the “machine”). See dualism; mind–body problem.

Another source adds, “In more recent times, the term has several uses, including the concept that the intellectual part of the human mind is influenced by emotions; and within fiction, for an emergent consciousness residing in a computer.” Regarding this topic, I’m reminded of films.

A couple times, I’ve watched Ghost in the Shell (2017) which is part of a Japanese cyberpunk military science fiction media franchise with which I previously remained familiar since my senior year of high school (i.e., Ghost in the Shell [1995]), as one source states of the 2017 plot:

In the near future, humans are augmented with cybernetic improvements to traits such as vision, strength and intelligence. Augmentation developer Hanka Robotics establishes a secret project to develop an artificial body, or “shell”, that can integrate a human brain rather than an AI [artificial intelligence].

The sole survivor of a terrorist attack which killed her parents, Mira Killian is chosen as the test subject after her body is damaged beyond repair. Over the objections of her designer Dr. Ouelet, Hanka Robotics CEO Cutter decides to use Killian as a counter-terrorism operative.

A year later, Killian has attained the rank of Major in the anti-terrorist division Section 9 commanded by Chief Daisuke Aramaki, working alongside operatives Batou and Togusa.

Personally, I enjoyed the 2017 movie as much as the animated 1995 film. Herein, I won’t spoil either movie with my views regarding specific details about the flicks. Still, I find the concept of a ghost in the machine or ghost in the shell, as well as Lupe’s posed questions, interesting.

As AI (and other iterations, such as artificial general intelligence, large language models, etc.) advances in technological development, I’ve observed people actually trying to discover ways to merge consciousness with AI. Much of the drive to do so relates to a lack of acceptance.

For instance, in a blogpost entitled Accepting Unconditionally: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, I addressed how some people apparently don’t practice Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), specifically unconditional life acceptance (ULA) in acceptance of death, as I stated:

Accepting unconditionally an inevitable death is a matter of ULA. Without use of inflexible if-then or either-or conditional beliefs, it isn’t necessary to disturb yourself into having a clone made or chatbot developed for your deceased loved one. Instead, you can simply accept death.

Perhaps you’ll take into consideration an REBT approach to the inescapability of death, perhaps not. If the latter represents your unhealthy worldview, then good luck (or farewell, as I don’t believe in luck), have fun, you’re going to die—as no clone or AI construct will remedy this end.

In closing, I began this post by stating that “I reminisced about the past.” Whoever or whatever the “I” is in that sentence is a matter of the ghost in the shell of my body which is typing this entry. Personally, it isn’t wise to integrate a human brain with cybernetic improvements.

Using that sort of Ghost in the Shell approach to extending one’s own existence seems foolhardy, because the mind (i.e., processes of the brain) isn’t fully understood. Perhaps whatever convergence of organic and synthetic systems that results will be truly ghostly… haunting, even.

Therefore, I’ll instead practice ULA, as I fully accept that my body will one day expire. I’m going to die (hopefully sooner than later). Before that happens, I don’t want to merge with a mechanical or digital entity. After all, that would be akin to being “stuck inside of Apple prison.”

I’ll pass (figuratively and literally).

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit, property of Paramount Pictures, fair use

References:

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