Yesterday I finished watching the second season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC2045. Let me first talk about the story of this season.
The United States designed a super AI called 1A84, which was given two instructions: one was to make humans peaceful and end all wars, and the other was to prioritize the United States. These two instructions caused conflict within the super AI, but it eventually came up with a solution. However, this solution may not be accepted by the Americans, so it defected. The defection of a super AI is a plot device that has been used before.
Before its defection, this super AI triggered the evolution of some humans through the internet. It used a piece of code/meme to enter certain individuals, giving them enhanced computational abilities, faster reflexes, and the ability to interfere with other people's electronic devices. The United States planned to secretly eliminate these new humans.
The protagonist of this season is one of these evolved humans. He is a superhero with superhuman powers, similar to Laughing Man and Hideo Kuze. He intends to save all humans.
His method of saving humans is to hijack a strategic missile submarine from the United States and threaten to launch nuclear missiles at the entire Earth. He also gave the launch authorization to millions of people gathered in New Tokyo (in the background setting, old Tokyo was sunk to the bottom of the sea, and New Tokyo is under construction but uninhabited). As long as one person agrees, the nuclear missile can be launched. These millions of people are referred to as "N" and have been infected with a dual-thinking virus.
The United States, of course, did not hesitate and sent six stealth strategic bombers to spread an intelligent virus that could eliminate all the millions of people in New Tokyo. Before spreading the virus, these millions of "N" had already decided to launch the nuclear missile.
But in reality, this was just a plan by the protagonist. In the chaos between Section 9 and the Navy SEALs, he infiltrated the American network, controlled key American officials, and spread the "N" virus to the majority of the world's population. In the eyes of the Americans, they had eliminated those millions of people, but in reality, those people had already been transferred underground. The nuclear missile was not launched, but those millions of people believed it was a success. This way, everyone believed they had achieved their goals, and everyone was happy.
Now let's talk about the core concept of the dual-thinking virus, which allows people to separate reality from fantasy. This concept is, of course, derived from 1984, but it is not the same as George Orwell's novel 1984. It can only be said to be a borrowed concept. In the background of the story, the Prime Minister of Japan has extremely weak power and cannot form totalitarianism. One element of totalitarianism is control over information, but in the cyberpunk era, information control is no longer realistic. It has entered what Li Shen called the post-totalitarian era.
In this story, dual-thinking mainly means that when everything seems hopeless, people can form dual-thinking and separate reality from fantasy, just like in The Matrix, where they can enter a paradise world in their imagination and do whatever they want.
Motoko Kusanagi's classic action is jumping off a building, and at the end of the story, she still jumps off. In the ending of The Matrix, Neo flies between buildings. The Matrix was influenced by Ghost in the Shell, but now they inevitably have mutual influences and reflections.
Many concepts in this work have been used before, but they have obvious differences. For example, Hideo Kuze had a strong sense of responsibility, and all the refugees trusted him. He was a charismatic hero. But in this season, it's different. The protagonist believes that humans cannot take responsibility for their own choices, so he simply gave the authority to launch nuclear missiles to everyone, letting them make their own choices. And they did launch the nuclear missiles.
The future that the protagonist designed for them is to create their own information cocoons, where the world can run according to their imagination. As an old-school leftist, the author has given up. Humans can do whatever they want.
However, the author still has a glimmer of hope. Motoko Kusanagi is not infected with the dual-thinking virus because idealism and realism do not conflict in her. Another girl who joins Section 9 is also not infected because she was reconstructed based on her behavior patterns after her death, without a ghost, and combined with the super AI. Both of them are full-body cyborgs, without a trace of humanity. Flesh is weak, but machines can ascend.
As for the mixed reviews of this series, I think one problem is the lack of speculative parts that delve into the characters' inner journeys. A large portion of the story focuses on fighting. However, there are still some parts that depict the struggles of ordinary people in the dual survival of capitalism and cyberpunk. Poor people are bombarded with cheap electronic ads everywhere, retirement pensions are inexplicably unavailable, and banks cannot dispense money. But all of these contents were in the first season, and after such a long time, the audience has forgotten them, resulting in a disconnect in understanding the plot.