“Ghosts” are human sensoriums that inhabit augmented or fully artificial human bodies and can instantly move between the real world and virtual worlds. Although the anime series based on the books is excellent (I left it off because I wanted to include the book) Shire’s manga masterpiece is visually striking, fantastic yet hyper-realistic, and frighteningly prophetic. From a user interface perspective, Shire creates immersive environments that you feel compelled to try and understand, even while you know they would never actually pass any usability tests.
Review of 'Ghost in the Shell (Ghost in the Shell, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
An incredible journey, Ghost in the Shell is full of intrigue and action and it took me only about a week to get through with my slow pace of reading. Ghost in the Shell illuminates adventures of a secret police organization called Public Security Section 9, which is assigned on different cases, ranging from assassinations to political intrigue and infiltration. A theme most widely explored here is how the society will change when almost everyone has a "cyberbrain", which effectively connects all people together via communication media, and implications of widespread prosthetics, meaning entire bodies can be swapped at will.
As a disclaimer, I'm a huge fan of the 1995 animated film and the original Stand Alone Complex anime (2002-2005), and after diving deep into the manga version, I'd consider it an essential reading for anyone in any shape or form interested in cyberpunk or the philosophical implications of cyberization. …
An incredible journey, Ghost in the Shell is full of intrigue and action and it took me only about a week to get through with my slow pace of reading. Ghost in the Shell illuminates adventures of a secret police organization called Public Security Section 9, which is assigned on different cases, ranging from assassinations to political intrigue and infiltration. A theme most widely explored here is how the society will change when almost everyone has a "cyberbrain", which effectively connects all people together via communication media, and implications of widespread prosthetics, meaning entire bodies can be swapped at will.
As a disclaimer, I'm a huge fan of the 1995 animated film and the original Stand Alone Complex anime (2002-2005), and after diving deep into the manga version, I'd consider it an essential reading for anyone in any shape or form interested in cyberpunk or the philosophical implications of cyberization.
Ghost in the Shell synergizes quite well with the other stuff I've been reading recently (on Buddhism, quantum mechanics, societal changes upon industrial revolution...) and makes me wonder how every book I seem to pick up reminds me of something else I've been reading, talk about special interests... Might have to look into John Neumann, which was recommended in the margins of the ending of the story, just to fill in the gaps.
Review of 'Ghost in the Shell (Ghost in the Shell, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Although significantly different in some ways from the various movies and shows that have come from this, the core ideas are all there, and the mix of deep philosophical inquiry and gritty futurism that made this manga so influential still hold their value 30 years after it was first published.
