“Ghost in the Shell M.M.A. – Messed Mesh Ambitions_” the fourth feature is published
The media project “Ghost in the Shell M.M.A. – Messed Mesh Ambitions_” is designed to contemplate and discuss various subjects facing contemporary society while actively continuing the many pioneering “questions” posed by the “Ghost in the Shell” series.
The theme of the fourth issue is “Variance.”Unlike in the past, this edition does not have a supervisor; instead, the members of the editorial staff compose the editorial team for each project.
“I’m having a lucky day!” Borrowing the brains of the elderly who are innocently playing pachinko, Ishikawa and his team try to maintain the system. Even those old guys can make a lot of power if they are parallelized.
A casual scene inserted in “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” episode 21, “The Trail of Leaving Behind ERASER,” is reminiscent of “cryptojacking,” in which people’s computers are used to mine virtual currency without their permission. However, this is merely an association that trivializes the science fiction imagination depicted here. When everything is connected by the electronic brain, society, people, and their lives are “rationally” dispersed without limit. Then, where will the things that fall out of the information space and the urban space go?
Here, I would like to consider the possibility of “decentralization” that does not fit into decentralized or distributed systems. The contents are as follows. Urban historian Kengo Hayashi’s “Ghost in the Shell” urban landscape theory. Neuroscientist Taiyo Hamada explores the realities of a decentralized society beyond the technologies, movements, and ideas that occur around Web3 and neuroscience. Designer Ken Fujiyoshi considers the nature of participation in the coming aging society, drawing on various examples of inclusive design in Europe. An extraordinary paper by writer/designer Arata Aoyama ponders the relationship between humans and all other species, including his own Shih Tzu dog. Finally, religious anthropologist Yohei Fujino sheds new light on the concept of “ghosts” through the flexible and diverse nature of Taiwanese folk beliefs.
Read the article #04 “Variance” here(English version is coming soon).
Illustration: Heijiro Yagi