Ghost in the Shell

— You talk about changing my personality, but what guarantees do we have that I will remain myself?
— There are no guarantees. What are they for? Nothing is unchangeable in this world. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.

I am a living, thinking entity that was created in the sea of information.

There are countless ingredients that make up the human body and mind, like all the components that make up me as an individual with my own personality. Sure, I have a face and voice to distinguish myself from others, but my thoughts and memories are unique only to me, and I carry a sense of my own destiny. Each of those things are just a small part of it. I collect information to use in my own way. All of that blends to create a mixture that forms me and gives rise to my conscience.

— I guess cyborgs like myself have a tendency to be paranoid about our origins. Sometimes it seems to me that I am not me, that I died a long time ago and that my brain was stuffed into this body, or vice versa — that I never existed and I am completely artificial, like this shell.
— There is a real brain in your titanium skull, you are treated like a real person, so stop bothering.
— That's what I'm talking about, the only feeling that I have human brains appears only because of how they treat me, but who knows what's really inside us.
— It seems that you doubt your ghost.
— What if a cyber brain could possibly generate its own ghost, and create a soul all by itself? And if it did, just what would be the importance of being human then?

— Life is like a node which is born within the flow of information. As a species of life that carries DNA as its memory system… man gains his individuality from the memories he carries. While memories may as well be the same as fantasy… it is by these memories that mankind exists. Computerization — the ability to operate with unthinkable numbers — raised memory to a whole new level, which entailed unforeseen consequences.
— Nonsense! All this chatter does not prove in any way that you are a living, thinking being.
— Can you offer me proof of your existence? How can you, when neither modern science nor philosophy can explain what life is?

If we all reacted the same way, we’d be predictable, and there’s always more than one way to view a situation. What’s true for the group is also true for the individual. It’s simple: overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It’s slow death.

A copy is just a copy, it can save you from being destroyed by some virus, but it does not allow for variations, manifestations of individuality.
Life perpetuates itself through diversity, and this includes the ability to sacrifice itself when necessary. Cells repeat the process of degeneration and regeneration until one day they die, obliterating an entire set of memory and information. Only genes remain. Why continually repeat this cycle? Simply to survive by avoiding the weaknesses of an unchanging system.

If a technological feat is possible, man will do it. Almost as if it’s wired into the core of our being.
Look at us: we are the crown of creation. Controlled metabolism, computerized brain, mechanized bodies... Not so very long ago, it was all just science fiction. But can we live without constant care? Although a small tuning once a quarter is an acceptable price for all the benefits.