Yesterday, as an alternative of going out to get my weekly groceries like a wise particular person, I stayed at dwelling and binge-watched Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045. In hindsight, which may not have been the wisest determination, and never solely as a result of the one meals I’ve left is a few cake batter and rooster drumsticks.

SAC_2045 was… alright, I assume?

Certain, the present had its justifiable share of attractive cyborgs capturing big robotic spider tanks, however it was, to my disappointment, lacking one thing essential. Like attractive cyborgs capturing big robotic spider tanks whereas philosophising on the character of id and consciousness.

Anyway, a little bit of background – Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 is an animated sci-fi TV anime and one of many many, many, many variations of the Ghost In The Shell (GITS) collection.

The unique was a manga by Masamune Shirow, and featured the attractive cyborg Motoko Kusanagi combating crime in a futuristic cyberpunk world. Robots had been widespread on a regular basis tech, cybernetic enhancements blurred the traces between people and machines, and nearly everybody has willingly upgraded their gray matter into cyberbrains that may instantly hook up with the Web.

Each different adaptation of Ghost In The Shell that I’ve watched all the time had one thing attention-grabbing to say concerning the intersection of human lives and know-how. The primary movie adaptation examined the idea of self-identity when all of your ideas/recollections might be quantified as software program and your physique is replaceable {hardware}.

The Stand Alone Advanced (GITS: SAC) anime TV collection explored the results of memetic propagation and memetic mutation in a society that’s intrinsically linked to its info networks, and the catastrophic social and political aftershocks from a easy act of hacktivism.

And the dwell motion GITS movie starring Scarlett Johansson made me look deep into my soul to query why I paid cash to observe this horrible Hollywood model.

Principally, the great variations of Ghost In The Shell tended to ask large questions and discover what might occur to actual world human societies when fictional (although excitingly and/or terrifyingly attainable) know-how is launched to it. In different phrases, the great variations of GITS had been good sci-fi tales at the beginning.

And dangit, I believe we’d like extra good sci-fi tales to make us take into consideration the tech we introduce into our lives, as a result of in any other case we as a society are going to plunge head-first right into a scientifically superior dystopia.

Considered one of my favorite examples of exploratory sci-fi comes within the type of the online game Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

In that 2011 online game, “augmentations” are launched in a near-futuristic world, which means everybody can get bionic limbs that work higher than our pure gear. The catch is, these augmentations are costly, and when you’ve changed your limbs with cyber-prostheses, you change into depending on a drug that retains your organic-cybernetic interface functioning.

This state of affairs created a wildly dystopian state of affairs the place poor individuals had to enter debt (and amputation and drug dependency) to get cyberlimbs, as a result of they merely couldn’t compete economically in any other case.

It actually makes you assume: what’d occur if this fictional sci-fi know-how truly turned a actuality? How would cybernetic limbs additional widen the hole between the wealthy and the poor?

Would you be keen to switch your physique if it’s the one solution to feed your loved ones? And in the event you assume cybernetics is mistaken, and also you someway handle to move a nationwide legislation banning cybernetics in your nation, what occurs when one other nation mandates all its residents to get upgrades to be further environment friendly? You simply can’t win, by hook or by crook.

Deus Ex managed to discover these philosophical concepts by nice world-building, whereas nonetheless giving the gamers the cathartic enjoyable of operating round as a half-machine half-human hero with sword arms and the flexibility to punch unhealthy guys by partitions. (As a result of being a cyborg is all the time superior so long as you’re the hero of the story. Whee!)

Truthfully although, we don’t even have to solely take a look at fancy-schmancy know-how like robotics and house ships to discover attention-grabbing sci-fi questions – I imply, why hasn’t anyone written a sci-fi story about digital funds? As a result of that tech might be disruptive as heck, and we have now it proper now.

Think about a world the place no person carries any money in anyway, and completely all funds are executed digitally. How would that world work?If all transactions depend on always-online fee networks, would anybody make a backup plan to maintain enterprise going when the underlying infrastructure goes kaput? (Spoiler alert from the actual world, primarily based on the Visa fee outage throughout Europe in 2018: in all probability not.)

If somebody got here as much as you and requested, “excuse me sir/ma’am, are you able to please spare me a greenback so I can eat?”, how would you donate to them? Would that particular person have to have a QR code on their physique you’ll be able to scan?

Wait, truly, wouldn’t being a poor particular person be even worse in a society that doesn’t use bodily cash? As a result of to even have any quantity of digital cash, you’d want to have the ability to afford entry to a checking account, and presumably a cell phone to really handle your cash. A totally cashless society has the potential to shortchange low earners, and folks from an older era who’ve difficulties adapting to on-line banking.

That is why we’d like good sci-fi tales – to make us take into consideration the impression of know-how earlier than we go adopting all of it willy nilly.

Look, I’m not saying that Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 is a nasty present as a result of it’s not science-fictiony sufficient. In actual fact, it’s completely wonderful leisure – it has an attention-grabbing plot with a good quantity of thriller, and it has actually good visuals. And it’s arduous to outright dislike a present the place a one-eyed cyborg sniper shoots a mecha battlesuit with an anti-tank rifle after heading off killer AI robo-dogs, as a result of scorching dang that’s superior.

However for me at the very least, on the subject of good science fiction, all of the cool robotic combat scenes and awesome- trying know-how are simply the scrumptious chocolate icing on the cake. It’s the far-reaching questions and philosophical contemplation of the impression of know-how that varieties the actual meat and bones of this, uh, cake? This… sci-fi meat cake?

Yikes, this metaphor simply received bizarre, however let’s faux that the concept of somebody cooking this ludicrous chocolate-glazed meat cake is the premise for my upcoming sci-fi story. And contemplating the determined state of my pantry, this might need a really near-future setting.

Raised by wild Nintendo consoles and skilled within the methods of the pc scientist, Shaun A. Noordin tries to make use of his data of net growth, know-how and video video games for the better good. Or for leisure and amusement, whichever is simpler. He has a whole lot of recommendation to share, however they’re all inadvisable to observe.