Ghost in the Shell/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

* In ''Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence'', exactly how did Batou and Togusa even know to go after Kim? (You know, the creepy, doll-obsessed hacker who'd been hacking Batou throughout the film.) I've watched the movie three times, and as far as I can tell, one minute they're traveling to the region where Locus Solus is headquartered (I was also a bit confused about the "Northern frontier" referred to, but presumably it's in the contested region between Japan and Russia), then there's a parade, and the next thing you know Batou's beating up old contacts to find Kim. Were we just supposed to assume the two were doing legwork during the parade that Oshii didn't care enough about to show us? (Not inconceivable, given Oshii's predilection for philosophical rumination over plot mechanics.) Or was Batou assuming that since Kim was one of the few hackers skilled enough to get past his protections and was in physical proximity to Locus Solus, he must be working with them? Or was there something else I missed?

** As far as this troper was able to figure, Batou simply knew that Kim was in town, and wanted to ask his professional opinion about Locus Solus, since he's an expert, and presumably has plenty of contacts in the area. That's essentially what happens when they first meet. It's generally a good tactic to find out as much as possible about the situation when you're in a hostile territory, and any potentially friendly contact who can give you some briefing is a bonus. Kim just happened to be in cahoots with the company, and was trying to take out Batou by the orders of his superiors.

** Well, take just about any robot nowadays (Asimo withstanding) and control it to kill someone, and you'll have difficulty taking it out unless you hit the control surfaces, pneumatic/electric lines, or gears/moving parts (and successfully dislodge/jam them). You can't just really fill it with holes and expect it to die. So, take a more sophisticated robot, designed to last many years without extensive overhauling, and tell it to attack, and, well, that's a problem. If all the systems have tertiary backups, you need to do a ton of damage to take it out. If you still think they'd be too namby-pamby, remember that in the mid-90's lots of kids lost hair after their parents had to rip "Baby Eats Your Hair When You Stick Your Hair Into Its Mouth And It Gets Caught In The Gears" off their heads. ''After'' bashing them with hammers.

** Granted, there's that. But the gynoids were supposedly civilian models, as compared to combat cyborgs like the Major and Batou. I would think it would be little bit of overkill to design them so tough. After all, that's what spare parts are for.

*** They can - a firewall that will ''kill'' the offender who tries to dive into other people's brains without permission. That's why Ghosthackers are incredibly rare - throughout the series fewer than five individuals are shown capableof of hacking people's Ghosts, the Major included, and only a few more who can just break into the artificial implants. That's not common in the show's world - it's only common for the protagonists, because their unit exists to counter such cyber-terrorism.

*** I'm having a hard time imagining a tech tree where "decent firewall" is a prerequisite for "anatomically-correct catgirl sex-dolls".

** I assumed that the hacking was based on knowing secret backdoor keys into the programs, that only the government and lisenced software producers knew about. If there wasn't a legal requirement people would just switch the ports off when not in use. (Maybe they think they have)

** I'd like to add a little detail to the brain-hacking topic: in the first episode of [[SAC 2]] (just an example; it happens in more situations), the Major hacks one of the terrorists who was in autistic mode. How? Well, the cyber-brain was closed, true, but he still had ears and eyes. That means the only true "unhackable" would be... someone completely isolated inside his own mind, without any way of receiving data (or pain). For computers, it's quite easy to see: if you close all the ports, you cannot surf the net... but there are still the USB ports, the keyboard, the CD-reader and (for the really old or complete), the floppy disk. There is, after all, a reason because all that important info was stored in paper the first time we see the document with the Muray Vaccine receptors in the fist season.

*** Input standards don't change because it would mean throwing away all the investment in those standards, but when a new communication format is needed for a new technology, it can appear very fast. Devices talk to computers through wires all the time even today. All you need is a USB port and some software installed on the computer. If all you want to do is simulate having hands on a keyboard and eyes on a screen, then the technology exists even in real life to set that up in mere days.

** It could be something to do with copyright laws in the future, maybe someone's sitting on the technology that allows androids to directly interface like cyborgs. Ex: force-feedback, loading screen minigames, the RIAA & computers' copy function, etc.

** AFAIK, only one Mook died for sure, the guy whose eyes Batou hacked at the major's house (the raid on section 9 was carried out without fatalities, one of the soldiers says as much). His friend in the mech even remarked on it ("No one had to die") before the tachikomas took him out. Whether he died wasn't stated if I recall correctly, but assuming so, that puts the body count to two. I assume Aramaki didn't make too many concessions because they were already dealing with commandos who had shown themselves to be men of questionable scruples (Sunflower Society), so he couldn't be sure his team would be safe. Plus, he probably didn't figure Batou to stick around like he did, thus leading to the fatal incident with the soldiers. Also, bear in mind, that those snipers killed the Major. They couldn't have known she was in a remote body, from their POV, they were trying to kill her. So, how far could Aramaki trust them, really?

** Also, those people were not cops. They were paramilitary black ops on the payroll of the season's elusive [[Big Bad]].