Ghost in the Shell

[DRC]

You need to stop thinking that cyborgs are all metal on the inside. They have synthetic skin covering them that looks, feels, and acts like a normal person's skin. It'll tear and cut just like anyone else's. The same applies for the synthetic organs inside. They're designs to act and feel like regular organs.

Anyways, episode 13: NOT EQUAL, shows Batou eating a candy-bar like food, while episodes 28, 34, and 48 show sandwiches. Batou mentions that there's a whole industry made just for the nostalgia factor, so you'd find just about everything.

[Ranlsa]

So, the ortgans inside are just like regular human organs ya mean?

[DRC]

Yeah. The subject isn't brought up too much in the series. Chapter 6 of the first manga has Motoko's friend Ran showing to her how a cyborg body is made. Shirow Masamune included some author notes regarding how he imagines the complexities involved with designing certain organs such as the endocrine system, lymph nodes, and such. I would imagine that certain organs wouldn't be needed. There's no need for a liver since alcoholic molecules are instantly broken down by nanomachines inside. I suppose a digestive system beyond a stomach could feasable, but it's not something that's ever brought up, much less how cyborgs deal with waste.

Since the brain is still living cells, it needs a source of oxygen and red blood cells, so lungs and a heart are still necissary. I don't know enough about the human body to know if organs like a spleen or kidneys would be needed.

[Ranlsa]

Hmm....that itself raises a thoughtm, especially for a character like Aramagi wth a cyber brain. When you die it means brain death, But if you have a cyber brain that doesnlt need oxygen and is basically a computer...would it keep functioning even after your heart stops? And if so, are you clinically dead?

Also, if people like Motoko have cyber bodies and yet can drink alchahol...yet the molicules of alchahol get broken down...can they still get drunk? After all the molicules are being broken up like food, so my guess is that they would only reach the brain in tiny peices...so can you still get drunk?  

[DRC]

You're brain is the only thing NOT replaced with machines. A Cyberbrain is where your brain and parts of your spine is placed inside a protective shell. This allows you to beconnected to the net and such as you see in the show all the time. Your brain inside the shell casing is still organic. Part of the philisophical themes of this series is questioning how much of you is still actually human when all you have left of your natural organic body is the brain inside. For that reason, the brain still needs oxygen and energy, and in due time the mitochondria in your brain cells will start to break down and you will eventually die of old age. That part is inevitable.

As for getting drunk... Well at the end of the first chapter in the manga, we see Motoko and the gang all hanging out at a bar, and Motoko herself is completley sloshed. In the Mamoru Oshii movies though, Batou mentions the breaking down of molecules thing. That you could "slam a few back while on duty" and be ready to respond to a situation if one comes up. Togusa also mentions this in FAKE FOOD, that he's envious of cyborg bodies because they can do that. The series doesn't really show very many examples of people actually drunk. If I had to guess, a person can choose to get drunk if they want to.

[Ranlsa]

So I guess what that means is you can get drunk but it takes more time than a normal person would?

Also, so her boss (forget how to spell his name) just had a protective coating over his brain, and his brain isn;t cyberized like Motoko's body? So, what paerts of him ARE cyberized like Motoko's? Or his his brain the only thing?

[DRC]

It's never stated how much of Aramaki is prosthetic. Most people just assume he's just like Togusa, in that he only has a cyberbrain, and his body is flesh and blood.

.... For that matter, they don't say anything about Ishikawa either in that regard.

[Ranlsa]

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DRC wrote:

It's never stated how much of Aramaki is prosthetic. Most people just assume he's just like Togusa, in that he only has a cyberbrain, and his body is flesh and blood.

.... For that matter, they don't say anything about Ishikawa either in that regard.

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Yeah, that's what I figured. But the cyberbrain is really just the normal brain tat's been updated if ya will, right? So if his heart stopped he would really die, rght?

Hopefully not for a long long time. He is one cool boss!

[DRC]

Everything in the body can be replaced except for the brain. If his heart stopped, he'd just have it replaced.

[Ranlsa]

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DRC wrote:

Everything in the body can be replaced except for the brain. If his heart stopped, he'd just have it replaced.

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So he can basically live for as long as he chose too, ight? Fascinating...

[GodspreadThin]

I bet that's really funny!

[greenleaf]

Yes,yes i would.For the obvious reasons,but,mostly for the enhancement.How could I not?