Problems of «Meta-Human»

To explore the human scale in the cyberpunk world, a fictional story would be used as an example. «Ghost in the shell» is a Japanese manga and anime written by Masamune Shirow in 1989. The story is set in the mid-21st century and is about government counterterrorist organizations. The story’s main protagonist is major Matoka Kusanagi, a complete cyborg. After being involved in an accident and having her body hardly damaged, she became part of a government program, having her body modified for a spy and military actions to become a counterterrorist.

Being a complete cyborg allowed her to have some no-human abilities. The modified body was a lot stronger than the normal one, as the altered vision was way sharper. Her cyber brain was faster, allowing her to communicate with gadgets without any connecting elements. Also as her thoughts could be translated into the network.

In her slice of life, there was no significant difference in comparison with normal humans, if we are not taking into account that she has no need of food for energy but still needs to sleep. Her room was just a bed with an auto-opening window to wake up to natural light and a big bathroom where most of the space was given to a shower room, where the protagonist was having their time thinking. It is important to note that Major Kusanagi was, first of all, a SWAT member, so most of her augmentation has a proposal to kill or assist her in killing people. Not to make her life extremely comfortable.

In the anime film «Ghost in the Shell» 1995, the central aspect of the film was to show how humans, by complete cybernization of their own body, will come closer to artificial intelligence and even can be fused with it to create an entirely new type of creature. Thought the author is not making humans as a program, nor the program as a human. According to what was shown in the film, Meta-human, will not be something completely different from what we are now. However, basic needs will be reduced. But the urge for entertainment, thinking, and sleeping still be actual. People will become more adapted to doing «the job,» but it won’t have a global impact on their lives outside of the workplace. Humans will never be equal to robots, even if 100% of their body is mechanisms.