9 ms·

Security? Whose official vehicles are in the basement parking lot? According to the register, a Mr. Nakamura from the Treaties Bureau and a Dr. Willis, sir. G

Security? Whose official vehicles are in the basement parking lot? According to the register, a Mr. Nakamura from the Treaties Bureau and a Dr. Willis, sir. Get me the video records of their entrance. Again. In infrared this time. One thousand, one; one thousand, two; one thousand, three. Now get the records of the pressure sensors for basement parking stalls B8 and B7. Major, this is Togusa, Code 09. What's up? Does that Nakamura guy have a special-order cyborg body? No, there aren't any cyborgs in Section 6. They don't even ship them to serve overseas because they're too hard to maintain. There's diplomatic considerations too. Then, even if the other guy that was with him is a cyborg, the two of them together couldn't weigh over 1,000 pounds. Ah, you checked the pressure sensors in the parking structure, didn't you? Right, but neither man looks like the type to drive himself. The security cameras show only two people. But remember how sensitive the sensors on the entrance doors are? They took a full three seconds longer than usual to close after the two went in. And it's illegal to use therm-optics inside government facilities. It's a serious violation of the National Security Act. Section 6 must be up to something. Are you ready? With my trusty Matever, anytime. - Ghost in the Shell 1995: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_(1995_film)

tzahola 8y ago
Transporting a listed programmer out of the country violates our arms export treaty. My all-time favorite.
- brlewis 8y ago
  DES encryption was once treated as munitions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos_(protocol)#History_and_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos_(protocol)#History_an...
  - rrix2 8y ago
    We’re the cryptographers who wrote it allowed to leave the country?
    - _jal 8y ago
      They were NSA employees and IBM engineers. There are no blanket prohibitions on travel for NSA folks, although I believe there are more or less 'don't go there' advisories about specific places. I also imagine there are folks there who know things that put them in special travel categories. I don't think the IBMers had any special conditions imposed on them.
      - rbanffy 8y ago
        I'd bet they are closely tracked from a certain distance and, whenever they buy a ticket or cross a border, someone gets an alert.
- teekert 8y ago
  This movie is full of nice quotes regarding tech and it's from 1995! Japanese people really have a fundamentally different view on tech, tech is always a tool. We Westerners love the classic Terminator plot, the classic Asimovs laws gone bad plot (I, Robot). The Japanese use tech, they sit in battle robots, they use it connect their consciousness directly to the internet. I love it. Ok, some more from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, fully off topic but hey I'm getting pretty fired up, I'm going to watch both movies again really soon... The movies are so timeless because they don't focus on exact tech, they focus on the philosophical implications of the tech, it keeps them highly relevant. Scene 9: Golden Sky (In a vehicle flying across the remains of a city) Batou: "This is one of the largest cities in the Kureal Islands, it was once prosperous, originally built to be one of the most important information centers in the Far East. See those towers? This city was really something. But its dubious sovereignty has made it the ideal haven for multi-nationals cooperations and the criminal elements that feed off their spoils. It's now a lawless zone, beyond the reach of the e-police. Reminds me of the line, 'What the body creates, is as much an expression of DNA as the body itself.'" Togusa: "Doesn't that apply to beaver dams and spider webs as well?" Batou: "If the essence of life is information that is carried in DNA, then society and civilisation are just collossal memory storage systems, and a metropolis is simply a sprawling external memory." Togusa: "As it says in the bible. 'How great is the sum of all thy thoughts. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.'" Batou: "Psalms 139, Old Testament. The way you spontaneous spout these ancient exotic references, I'd say your own external memory's pretty twisted." Togusa: "Look who's talking." Speaker: "Sorry to interrupt, but we're about to fly over Locus Solus. I'm changing the route just for you, so take a good look." Speaker: "So much for the free tour. Now prepare for landing." Togusa: "'His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced / Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks'" Batou: "Now you're quoting Milton, but we are not Satan."
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    > Japanese people really have a fundamentally different view on tech, tech is always a tool. We Westerners love the classic Terminator plot, the classic Asimovs laws gone bad plot (I, Robot). The Japanese use* tech, they sit in battle robots, they use it connect their consciousness directly to the internet. I love it.* I think your conclusion is correct in the sense that the Japanese use tech enthusiastically, but very wrong in the assumption that the reason is that they just view it as a tool. If anything, they seem to anthropomorphize a lot more than Westerners. I once attended a lecture by a Japanese professor researching robotics who basically seemed to live by the idea that if his robots looked and appeared to behave human enough, they would magically "be" human. It made it look like the anthropomorphization of robots its perfectly normal even on academic levels over there. Also, note how until Boston Dynamics, the majority of (research) robots that resemble humans or animals came from Japan. But paradoxically, I think the reason is that they view tech less like a tool - all things have spirits in Japanese Shintoism, right? Perhaps therein lies the paradox: maybe due to this, the idea of AI becoming self-aware is less scary - objects are already treated as having a "spirit" anyway! I think the story of Roujin Z contains a very interesting example of this[0]. An old man becomes (unwilling) part of an experiment for robots designed to take care of the elderly. The robot then becomes a rampaging AI, which turns out to be because it's secretly a government experiment for re-arming Japan. Due to uploading the voice of the wife deceased of the old man, the AI also takes on the persona and becomes a caring (but still rampaging) AI. Let me emphasize: only the old lady's voice is uploaded - which important because it implies anthropomorphized magical thinking: like Zhang's dragon coming to life when he gave it eyes[1], giving the AI the voice of a sweet old lady magically made it a sweet old lady. So if we go back to generalising, I think the difference is that Westerners fear tech, with stories of AI turning against us, while Japanese people consider it a potential new friend. Making them much more enthusiastic about new technology. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujin_Z https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujin_Z [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Sengyou https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Sengyou (yes, I know, China is not Japan)
- rbanffy 8y ago
  Let's face it: our brains could probably qualify as weapons of mass destruction if we were so inclined.

tzahola 8y ago

Transporting a listed programmer out of the country violates our arms export treaty. My all-time favorite.

brlewis 8y ago
DES encryption was once treated as munitions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos_(protocol)#History_and_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos_(protocol)#History_an...
- rrix2 8y ago
  We’re the cryptographers who wrote it allowed to leave the country?
  - _jal 8y ago
    They were NSA employees and IBM engineers. There are no blanket prohibitions on travel for NSA folks, although I believe there are more or less 'don't go there' advisories about specific places. I also imagine there are folks there who know things that put them in special travel categories. I don't think the IBMers had any special conditions imposed on them.
    - rbanffy 8y ago
      I'd bet they are closely tracked from a certain distance and, whenever they buy a ticket or cross a border, someone gets an alert.
teekert 8y ago
This movie is full of nice quotes regarding tech and it's from 1995! Japanese people really have a fundamentally different view on tech, tech is always a tool. We Westerners love the classic Terminator plot, the classic Asimovs laws gone bad plot (I, Robot). The Japanese use tech, they sit in battle robots, they use it connect their consciousness directly to the internet. I love it. Ok, some more from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, fully off topic but hey I'm getting pretty fired up, I'm going to watch both movies again really soon... The movies are so timeless because they don't focus on exact tech, they focus on the philosophical implications of the tech, it keeps them highly relevant. Scene 9: Golden Sky (In a vehicle flying across the remains of a city) Batou: "This is one of the largest cities in the Kureal Islands, it was once prosperous, originally built to be one of the most important information centers in the Far East. See those towers? This city was really something. But its dubious sovereignty has made it the ideal haven for multi-nationals cooperations and the criminal elements that feed off their spoils. It's now a lawless zone, beyond the reach of the e-police. Reminds me of the line, 'What the body creates, is as much an expression of DNA as the body itself.'" Togusa: "Doesn't that apply to beaver dams and spider webs as well?" Batou: "If the essence of life is information that is carried in DNA, then society and civilisation are just collossal memory storage systems, and a metropolis is simply a sprawling external memory." Togusa: "As it says in the bible. 'How great is the sum of all thy thoughts. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.'" Batou: "Psalms 139, Old Testament. The way you spontaneous spout these ancient exotic references, I'd say your own external memory's pretty twisted." Togusa: "Look who's talking." Speaker: "Sorry to interrupt, but we're about to fly over Locus Solus. I'm changing the route just for you, so take a good look." Speaker: "So much for the free tour. Now prepare for landing." Togusa: "'His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced / Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks'" Batou: "Now you're quoting Milton, but we are not Satan."
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  > Japanese people really have a fundamentally different view on tech, tech is always a tool. We Westerners love the classic Terminator plot, the classic Asimovs laws gone bad plot (I, Robot). The Japanese use* tech, they sit in battle robots, they use it connect their consciousness directly to the internet. I love it.* I think your conclusion is correct in the sense that the Japanese use tech enthusiastically, but very wrong in the assumption that the reason is that they just view it as a tool. If anything, they seem to anthropomorphize a lot more than Westerners. I once attended a lecture by a Japanese professor researching robotics who basically seemed to live by the idea that if his robots looked and appeared to behave human enough, they would magically "be" human. It made it look like the anthropomorphization of robots its perfectly normal even on academic levels over there. Also, note how until Boston Dynamics, the majority of (research) robots that resemble humans or animals came from Japan. But paradoxically, I think the reason is that they view tech less like a tool - all things have spirits in Japanese Shintoism, right? Perhaps therein lies the paradox: maybe due to this, the idea of AI becoming self-aware is less scary - objects are already treated as having a "spirit" anyway! I think the story of Roujin Z contains a very interesting example of this[0]. An old man becomes (unwilling) part of an experiment for robots designed to take care of the elderly. The robot then becomes a rampaging AI, which turns out to be because it's secretly a government experiment for re-arming Japan. Due to uploading the voice of the wife deceased of the old man, the AI also takes on the persona and becomes a caring (but still rampaging) AI. Let me emphasize: only the old lady's voice is uploaded - which important because it implies anthropomorphized magical thinking: like Zhang's dragon coming to life when he gave it eyes[1], giving the AI the voice of a sweet old lady magically made it a sweet old lady. So if we go back to generalising, I think the difference is that Westerners fear tech, with stories of AI turning against us, while Japanese people consider it a potential new friend. Making them much more enthusiastic about new technology. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujin_Z https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujin_Z [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Sengyou https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Sengyou (yes, I know, China is not Japan)
rbanffy 8y ago
Let's face it: our brains could probably qualify as weapons of mass destruction if we were so inclined.