Eternity of posthuman intellect and algorithmic sentience : a hybrid of reality, memory and consciousness in Japanese visual culture

Consciousness terminates with bodily death of human beings. However, due to extended obsession with eroto-mechanical enhancements, it creates a mind-body dualism which leads to the mutation in consciousness and identity. The significant question which manifests here is: ‘Would consciousness immortalize itself’? This paper examines how the concept of human consciousness metamorphose with that of a machine and how this fusion creates an eternal consciousness in the network. The focus of this paper will remain on two texts: Psycho Pass (2012) and Ghost in the Shell (1995). The common sutra which connects the two texts is the posthuman speculations made by Sibyl System, Motoko Kusanagi, and then how the consciousness evolves using the tools of assimilation and dissemination of knowledge. Through the portrayal of dystopian futuristic narrative, it creates a caricature of how the collective consciousness can be observed in two main branches - Sibyl System negotiates with how the intellect of posthumans (inspired* by human intelligence) keeps expanding through identity and memory. On the other hand, Ghost in the Shell franchise movies develop a hybridity among fake/made-up memories which constructs consciousness (for the utilitarian purposes of the hegemonic structure). Using Posthumanism as the theoretical perspective, this paper builds on the fact that how the digital replication of memory and transmission of consciousness is not a fiction in futuristic posthuman world anymore. Furthermore, how the connection among the different consciousness results in the birth of new kind of consciousness which is also perceived as machinery reproduction. In all the two texts, the system doesn’t die rather it transcends materiality. Using network theory, this paper will elucidate on certain vantage points: how the hybrid of the reality, memory and consciousness creates the intellectualism.