Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

BLURRED BORDERS AND SOCIAL INTEGRATIONS 105a narrative. In other words, some ‘science’ is presentbut the manner in which it is utilized is not really andactually a requirement for the story to live or die.Opposing oppositions, dissecting dichotomies: Thediscourse of science and technology in Asian sciencefictionsFor this particular discussion, I opt to focus on threeJapanese science fiction texts and three Indonesianscience fiction texts. The Japanese materials includeKobo Abe’s Inter Ice Age 4 (1970), Hagio Moto andher manga (Japanese comic books and cartoons) TheyWere Eleven (1976), and Masamune Shirow’s Ghost inthe Shell (1991). For the Indonesian texts, we will focuson a television situation comedy entitled Lorong Waktu(Time Tunnel) produced by Demi Gisela CitronSinema in 2003, 4 Ronny Fredilla’s Transpondex (2006),and the first volume of an Indonesian manga calledInside: My Best Friends (2006) by Altis Studio.The general conceptual framework centers on theblurring of boundaries that once were definitiveassertions of fragmented and even antagonisticrelationships between disciplines and particularworldviews. Through discourse analysis, we attempt toexamine the representation of science and technology(ST) in these texts and make palpable the political in ourconstructed relationship with science and technology,especially highlighting the skepticism toward pervasivediscursive binary oppositions that view science as truthand others as myth.Science and spirituality/religionIt seems odd that a text supposedly espousing scienceto form its trope self-permeates elements that couldbe considered counter or contradictory to its masterframework. Science and spirituality, so it seems, aretwo opposing poles: one utterly into the rational andempirical while the other slipping into the unknownand mystical. However, one cannot be more real thanthe other.This is Ghost in the Shell’s (GitS henceforth) propositionas it delivers an exhilarating, action-packed, hi-tech storyabout a world where physical and national boundariesare dissolved through cyberspace, and cyborg assassinsand AIs abound. GitS is about the encounters of oneMajor Motoko Kusanagi who stands as the leader ofa group of top government security agents who arecalled upon by Aramaki, the Chief Security Police ofSection 9, to resolve cases involving ghost hacking,assassinations and other gruesome and heinous crimescommitted for—as it turns out in the end of every stakeout—political,economic and no less personal gains.There is frequent mention of the subject ‘ghost’ that issometimes referred to by the words ‘spirit’, ‘life force’,‘being’ and ‘life.’ It is worth noting that the maindriving force of the plot is the underlying question ofthe definition of ‘being’ as a living entity different frommachines, such as robots, which are highly mechanical,or the androids who, though highly intelligent, arenevertheless inevitably lacking the element of spirit orghost.Perhaps the chapter that finally reveals the characterof the Puppeteer is the single most significant partthat is of particular interest to our purpose, not tomention that it is also the climax of the whole novelafter many deadly encounters of the team with minor,establishing events. The Puppeteer is a strange ‘form’or ‘formlessness,’ perhaps stranger than the ‘ghost’construct because it is beyond discussion of the ghostas spirit. It is actually a discourse on the very essence of‘life’ and affords us some critique of the powerful socialstructures that dictate who or what has the right to lifeor the reality of life.Let us for a moment indulge the Puppeteer in a recitalof its take on life, being, self and spirituality, each timecalling on the discourse of science combined withreligiosity and Western and Eastern philosophies. ThePuppeteer’s profound litany: 5…Gravity and a strong mutual interaction, etc.,continually divide components creating protonsand nuclei creating atoms…Cells and organismsin individual life forms… Multiple species inecosystems…The universe we know is only one outof 2 n ! It’s made up of a combination of 2 m ! kinds!The values of n and m appear to continue infinitelybut we don’t know for certain…Following are lines that appear to be an ecumenicalassemblage of various Western and Eastern spirituality—an amalgamation of philosophies for the purpose ofmore holistically explaining the Puppeteer’s (text’s)conviction and analysis of life itself. It is worth recallingthat this near conclusion of the Puppeteer’s treatisestarted with his mustering of scientific reasoning:The secrets of the Kabbala, the Norse myths, theChinese myths, the tree of wisdom in Eden, thetree of life, the world tree…These are all worthyof being called amenomi-bashira, or “the pillarof heaven”…It’s the system in the universe thatAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows