Don't Trust Your Memory

Can you prove that your memories are true? Wouldn’t all of the evidence, which itself relies on memory, have the potential to be just as false? With the fluidity of memory, is there any way to be certain of who we are as human beings?
Questions like these are staples for the cyberpunk genre, particularly Ghost in the Shell, which questions the self through the usage of memory manipulation. Our world has a similar psychological concept known as false memories, where a person “remembers” something which never occurred. Researched heavily by Loftus, like in the 1974 car crash experiment, false memories are an interesting topic when they involve the self. When our memories can be untrue, developed through leading questions, suggestion, or imagination, can we ever be certain of who we really are?
Ghost in the Shell is a 1995 anime movie, adapted from a manga of the same name, which follows Major Motoko Kusanagi on the trail of villain Puppet Master, an enigmatic hacker who manipulates the memories of others for their bidding. Through the interplay of Major Motoko Kusanagi and Puppet Master, the animated movie makes many thematic points known in the cyberpunk genre, from the definition of human, to the limits of the self. In this video essay, we’ll analyze the points of both Major Motoko Kusanagi and Puppet Master’s characters, explain how they incorporate these themes, and discuss what this cyberpunk masterpiece can tell us about ourselves.
Memory Manipulation | An anime analysis video essay explaining Ghost in the Shell (1995)
0:00 Part 0 | Introduction
3:36 Part 1 | The Mind
8:37 Part 2 | The Body
14:46 Part 3 | The Self
23:32 Part 4 | Crisis of Self
30:41 Part 5 | Storage of Self
35:28 Part 6 | Fact or Fiction
52:02 Part 7 | Where From Here?
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