Ghosts in the Machine

The latest Wired magazine (Nov. 2005) has a brief aside on "evil technologies in J-Horror films" called "The Wicked Web" that inadvertantly highlights the ongoing influence of Shinto animism in the collective imagination of modern Japanese culture. Though the article itself fails to acknowledge this undercurrent, the content is clearly illustrative of the Japanese fascination with the spirit world. Japan, it should be noted, has carried Shinto since it's early birth some 2500 years ago, juggling it easily alongside Buddhism and all of its variants. In the late 1800's Shinto became the state religion of Japan and continued as such to the end of WW2. It's deep influence continues to inform much of the cultural imagination.

Shinto is typified by animism, a doctrine of souls that extends to all things. It is the belief that "personalized, supernatural beings endowed with reason, intelligence and volition inhabit ordinary objects as well as animate beings..." [Wikipedia]. Shinto defines these spirits of nature as kami and states that they are not divine but inhabit the same world as we do and possess the same faults and emotions. These entities have been presented to modern audiences in the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki. His masterpiece, Spirited Away, illustrates the legions of spirits living in delicate harmony with humans, mutually dependent and intertwined. Some are benign or benevolent, others gross and obsessive, and some are malevolent and sinister. Miyazaki's animism remains somewhat traditional, however, depicting only spirits of nature and psychology.

Updating animism, J-Horror is a genre of lo-fi technocore that features modern-day devices acting as conduits or emissaries of the spirit world. Hideo Nakata's "Ring" is a familiar example of the genre, telling the story of a cursed videotape that induces death in all who watch it. Other films feature a camcorder that can capture images of spirits, a cellphone connected to the future, and the upcoming release, "Pulse", which tells of the deceased who contact the living through computers. Similar techno-animistic narratives occur in many Japanese anime films, notably "Akira" and the "Evangelion" series where machines are seen to contain the same animating life force and spirit that flows through biology. The machine is simply an extension of nature and like other kami each machine may possess it's own spirit consciousness. Some may be friendly and obedient while others grow malevolent and demonic.

It's easy to suggest that these animistic tendencies are merely superstitious hold-overs from older times. Yet they reinforce the necessity to embrace and honor the material world - something that's sorely missing from the death-obsessed western cults of the ascended son. The industrial affliction of self-degradation and ecological suicide can in many ways be traced back to the debasement of the earthly kingdom and the relentless pursuit of afterlife so typical of the Judeo/Islamo/Christian triumvirate. Regardless of any "proof" or scientific evidence, Shinto and animism get results, instilling the adherent with a deep regard and respect for the world in which we live.

"Shinto beliefs and ways of thinking are deeply embedded in the subconscious fabric of modern Japanese society. The afterlife is not a primary concern in Shinto, and much more emphasis is placed on fitting into this world, instead of preparing for the next. Shinto has no binding set of dogma, no holiest place for worshippers, no person or kami deemed holiest, and no defined set of prayers. Instead, Shinto is a collection of rituals and methods meant to mediate the relations of living humans to kami." [Wikipedia]

Clearly this implies a degree of balance and connection with the natural world, though such an assertion would require further research into the overall environmental record of Japanese society. Shintoism itself extends from a deep reverence for nature, yet clearly the natural world is not always in balance with humanity, as illustrated by evil videotapes and other demonic electronic devices. Perhaps the defining characteristic of Shinto and animism is the simple projection of human qualities onto the world around us, for good or worse. It is a recognition of the consciousness resident within all things and the implications of this reflected humanity. As we're drawn to respect others of our kin we must extend that respect to the entire realm of spirit that permeates and anchors all of nature.

For modern J-horror and anime writers (as well as reality hackers and technoshamen) the animistic recognition of spirit intelligence must naturally extend to the technologies extruded by humanity into the world. Like pacts with demons, we foster relationships with our devices that are often both helpful and dangerous, imbuing them with agency and even personality. The kami will always live next to us, inhabiting the forms that absorb our focus.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, writer and director of "Pulse", suggests that "these technologies are part of everyday life, but they still hold the possibility of connecting us to worlds completely unknown to us. Today, ghosts don't appear in graveyards and ancient castles, but in the living room". [Wired]

If one acknowledges that a spirit world exists, then surely it's residents have some interest in human affairs. And how could they not? Whatever we consider such entities to be, they are surely at least reflections and extensions of our selves, hungering to be fed by attention and imagination. By romantic appeal alone they continue to thrive, guarding shrines, inhabiting rocks, and haunting VCR's.

The Japanese culture presents both a fascinating dichotomy and a possible ontological model for the western world. At once ultramodern and animistic, Japan has driven human technology perhaps further than any other culture while maintaining an abiding reverence for nature. The recognition of spirit and consciousness in all things transcends the shortsightedness and eschatological thinking of the West, offering a grounding balance to a frequently teetering society. Whether or not we accept the indwelling consciousness in all things or acknowledge the spirit of the ordinary, the narrative of Shinto and animism flowing through Japanese life will continue to press it's way into global culture by it's undeniable appeal to the human imagination.

The iterative reflections of consciousness and technology drive the tightening understanding of both disciplines, bringing more intelligence to machines and more mechanism to intelligence. The ultimate animistic statement might be Vernor Vinge's own postulated eschatological omega point, the technological Singularity, when the ghost in the machine becomes self-aware and asserts it's own agency before humanity. Perhaps such an "artificial" intelligence would regard all things as being equally alive and sentient. And would it really surprise anyone if it was birthed by Japanese technologies, bleeding on the living edge of human creation?

Posted by LVX23 at October 26, 2005 05:34 PM