The Most Profound Moment in the History of Animated Film

by now i think it's obvious to anybody who follows my channel that i have a passion for the profound for things that are drenched in philosophical and psychological depth i hope that by identifying the most profound works in every medium i can provide my viewers with a transformative education i want to make you wake up tomorrow morning and have you look at the world in a permanently different way because that is the mark of true education sure that transformation can sometimes be terrifying but it is something we must do in order to satisfy our evolutionary instincts today i will be looking outside of my normal realm of expertise going from the medium of gaming into the medium of animation a field that is often derided as lesser than that of live action a cartoonish world of bright colors meant to stimulate the brains of children in response to those who hold that needless prejudice i shall present a moment that i believe eclipses most profound moments that can be found in live action film that moment can be found in the japanese anime franchise known as ghost in the shell i challenge any of our supposed cultural bettors with the prejudice against animation to watch either the ghost in the shell movies or the tv shows and then proclaim that it's just a cartoon the entire franchise is one long meditation on the nature of human consciousness what makes human beings special compared to other animate beings is there anything that really differentiates us from animals or cyborgs or androids allow me to present some meditations on this question made not only by ghost in the shell but by the philosophers that the franchise references before i begin i wish to address those of you who have watched my original video on the first ghost in the shell movie if you wish you can skip to this point in the video that way you don't have to wait longer to find out what i believe is the most profound moment in the history of animation however if you have not seen that original video i strongly recommend you pay attention for the next few minutes i am sure that at some point during your secondary or post-secondary education you have learnt of the phrase i think therefore i am arguably the most famous of philosophical maxims the original author of this phrase rene descartes was aware of the limitations of human perception how could we be certain that the world we see before us isn't some illusion brought on by a malevolent force be it a demon or something like the matrix we never can be in the search of an irrefutable reality descartes crafted his maxim if all else is an illusion at least descartes could be certain that he existed because he could think for hundreds of years and even arguably to this day this maxim is held to be self-evident to be the base of all philosophy what a lot of people don't know is that there were philosophers providing challenges to descartes maxim most notably the german philosopher friedrich nietzsche in nietzsche's book beyond good and evil he challenges descartes notion of i in i think therefore i am unlike descartes nietzsche is not so certain that the i or in other words the ego exists if we have the capacity to think who or what gave that capacity to us how do we know that capacity is truly ours and that the thoughts we create are truly our own if you're having a hard time understanding this think of it this way when you get the idea to take revenge on somebody who wronged you did you have that idea or did that idea have you in other words you did not create the idea for revenge rather the idea came to you it is for reasons like these that nietzsche criticized descartes notion of i and thus fostered doubt in this supposedly infallible maxim to make the maxim more accurate nietzsche figured we should remove the notion of i from i think therefore i am and instead assume that something is thinking now i bring all this up because we see this philosophical dilemma acted out in the first ghost in the shell movie the main character motoko kusanagi is a cyborg suffering an identity crisis every part of her with the exception of her brain is artificial the original owner of the brain at least in regards to the first film is unknown with the lack of a personality with the lack of memories to define her individuality we see matoko struggle to find her true identity who was she before she became a cyborg did she even exist at all does she exist now when the character of bato witnesses motoko's struggle with her notion of self he tangentially invokes descartes maxim isn't it enough that she has the ability to think therefore she is though bato never receives a direct response the creators of the film imply the response throughout the story the most notable example is with the scene on the boat while bato and matoko are philosophizing with each other they both hear a voice speak up inside their cyber brains the voice sounds like potoko's when bato asks whether or not motoko was the one that spoke she remains silent the film cuts to the next scene before we can get a definitive answer what this scene is trying to convey relates back to nietzsche's criticism of descartes is it i who thinks or is something else thinking was it motoko that spoke or did something else speak did she think up the phrase or did something else the notion of i or the ego is challenged in other parts of the film notably with the garbage man his memories were implanted into his augmented brain his notion of self therefore is completely false the terror this man feels upon realizing this fact is mirrored in the audience and no wonder if the human brain can be quantified if its mechanisms can eventually be replicated or manipulated maybe our notion of self can be replicated manipulated or worse obliterated worst of all if our egos can be obliterated by technology what does that say about the human notion of a soul maybe there is no soul let alone one that makes human beings special maybe there is no ghost in the shell this was the terrifying element that i referenced towards the beginning of this video when our preconceptions are challenged it leaves us in a state of existential limbo brooding spinning resentful and unsure of where to go billions of people around the world live and die by a belief in the soul in an ego that transcends the body after death if that's not true if we're not actually special and our egos are illusions that can be manipulated by technology then there might be no purpose or meaning to our consciousness and all the suffering it brings luckily ghost in the shell offers two potential solutions to this existential dilemma one solution that we see at the end of the first film is a merging of body and mind with machines doing this will elevate our consciousness to such enormous heights that we can become god-like this is why when matoko's consciousness merges with that of the puppet master at the end of the first film she sees an angel descend from above her mind is rising to a level of greatness that can only be described as heavenly and represented using an imperfect human concept like an angel it's a beautifully poetic notion to evolve beyond our primordial pasts and become immortal it addresses the pain of existential angst to illustrate such an event and also make it somewhat believable it might cause some to declare motoko's transcendence as a profound moment maybe even the most profound moment at least in the history of animated film it's hard to argue against such a declaration given the fact that ghost in the shell is the most celebrated film in the realm of japanese animation with the possible exception of akira however i will boldly challenge this declaration while this moment is undeniably profound i think there is one that is slightly more profound it deals with a potential second solution to this problem of existential angst where instead of becoming like a god one goes in the exact opposite direction this moment can be found in the film's sequel ghost in the shell 2 the story of ghost in the shell 2 takes place three years after the events of the first film matoko kusanagi has long since disappeared into the net after having merged with the puppet master this time around the story centers on the afro-mentioned bato and his partner togesa they are investigating a series of possible murders carried out by sex dolls against their owners the theory is that somebody is implanting replicated consciousness into these sex dolls and programming that consciousness to kill during their investigation into who this programmer might be plato and togosa arrive at a mansion owned by somebody named kim an ex-soldier turned hacker who potentially has ties to the manufacturer of the sex dolls after searching the mansion they come across a human-sized digitally augmented marionette laying lifeless in a chair convinced that this marionette isn't so lifeless bato turns the chair over and addresses the marionette as kim kim then begins to speak when bato and togusa ask kim why he chooses to live in a motionless marionette he responds by condemning humanity's inherent imperfection man's knowledge man's perception of reality both are corrupted for various reasons be it bias or plain irrationality how often do we witness our fellow man ignoring or willfully obscuring reality in order to protect their emotions kim figures that the only way a human can transcend these imperfections is to either become a god via augmentation of the human body or to go in the opposite direction to kim that opposite direction involves becoming a doll by separating the mind from the body the mind's perception of reality won't be corrupted by the body's imperfection kim's mind like matoko's mind exists in the virtual world in the net only returning to the body when necessary when the mind is absent from the body that body becomes more or less that of a doll this notion of separating the body from the mind in order to achieve true enlightenment is typical of eastern religion specifically buddhism the aim of the buddhist is to reject the illusion of the material world in order to achieve nirvana for the sake of this discussion nirvana can also be understood as true reality the creators of ghost in the shell 2's story take this ancient religious concept and coach it in a secular scientific scenario one that could very well happen if and when consciousness becomes digitized in other words the buddhist concept of nirvana could theoretically become real at least in a digital sense we would leave the imperfect reality as perceived through our mortal bodies and we would do that by separating our mind from our body and to drive kim's point home he demonstrates just how easily our perception of reality is corrupted not just to bato and togasa but to the audience at this point in the film the scene of bato and togesa entering the mansion and confronting kim begins to loop the same thing happens three times with only minor details changing at first the two protagonists as well as the audience get the sense that something is off but they don't quite know what it is things become especially odd when the marionette turns into a marionette of togesa and the supposedly real togasa has its insides revealed to be cybernetic for the few minutes that this happens the characters and the audience get a hint that what they are perceiving isn't real but in those few minutes they are unable to determine what if anything is real though it is eventually revealed that kim was hacking into the minds of bato and togusa and was causing this loop in reality to happen we are left with an important question at what point did reality stop and kim's hacking begin if we were in bato or togo's shoes would we be able to know most likely we would forever lose our grip on reality and become the dolls the playthings of somebody or something like kim thankfully for us the audience we were only at the mercy of the film's director mamuro oshi for a few minutes but even then the impact of this scene is permanent for those who truly understand it if human beings to quote kim can be quantified and reduced to simple mechanisms and materials what makes us so different from dolls what prevents us from being played with by forces greater than ourselves to an extent we already are the playthings of our emotions as i stated before when talking about revenge who's to say that one day when brains can become digitally augmented that we couldn't become full automatons that our perceptions of reality could be permanently corrupted that we could forever lose our sense of self and become nothing less than a doll if we assume that human beings are quantifiable then theoretically human beings are dolls to a certain extent and can have their sense of self obliterated the fact that ghost in the shell 2 made not only a convincing case in this regard but also demonstrated how easily our perception of reality can be toyed with truly makes this the most profound moment in the history of animation while i believe the first ghost in the shell film on the whole is better and more important to the medium i don't believe any moment from that film measures up to the level of deep philosophical insight presented by bato and togus's interaction with kim this could easily become our future and thankfully we have this film to prepare us we can decide whether or not to augment our brains we can possibly install software to prevent this sort of hacking from happening having said that though we are all going to have to make that step towards the next stage of human evolution sooner or later the only thing we need to decide however is which route to take do we become like gods where we perfectly augment our bodies and minds with technology or do we become like dolls where we separate our mind from our body and forever become one with the digital matrix let me know what you would choose in the comments section below if you liked this video please 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Channel: Max Derrat

Views: 901,769

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Id: 8BGjub9ZNHg

Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021