This is mostly a shorter version and general skim over what I'm going to thoroughly dig into, plot-wise, on the post I make that follows this one, so this post will remain mostly spoiler free, with me giving no more than summary level details and a queue into what main subjects I'll be dealing with in thorough detail later on, and topics worth consideration.  

Hip hip hooray for grey morality!

Ghost in the Shell tackles controversial issues within the confines of it's own fictional universe, and brings about some concerns regarding the repurposing of the human mind in cybernetic sciences as well as that regarding the recognition or rejection of sapient artificial intelligence.  Analyzing Ghost in the Shell as a work of fiction deals with the same subject matter, but from a more meta perspective.  As the viewer, one has the detached and unbiased lens (relative to those in the film's setting) through which they observe what conflicts in moral ideology take place.  

We follow Motoko, whose specific cybernetic qualities I won't yet discuss so I can further delve into later, as she goes about trying to reign in the issues surrounding a hacker known as the puppet master, as her occupation pertains to the upkeep and security of her region.  The film is set in the (not so far off) 2029, where the world is completely interconnected through an electronic network, making those who prey on or even through such a thing a matter of international security.  This is the best summary I can give you without revealing more than the official movie summary or anything important that I'll discuss later on.  

I'll be honest, I chose this movie specifically because I love AI's and cyborgs and morally dubious controversy regarding how sapient inorganic beings are to be considered.  Of course, I love them enough that I always want affirmative resolutions.  I'm the kind of person who'd say absolutely to the question "should we really consider these sapient things as people?  They aren't anything like us-" (Yes.  You should.  Be humane.  Also this is a call back to my Metropolis post). This movie falls right into my alley. That's all for now, MUCH more to come. 

I've always heard about the more eccentric and iconic instances of Star Trek's quirkiness, and I'm glad I finally got to see a couple of episodes (mostly because a few memes make a little more sense now since they've been given proper context).  I'm mostly speaking about the Trouble with Tribbles episode, because it was far more engaging and less full of these extremely gendered antiquities that I wish we could drop even now in the present.  

It was cute and needless of analysis for enjoyment, as I would assume most of the other veiled jabs at what used to be current international dilemmas would be.  Brazen in it's own way, Star Trek displayed such controversial topics of the time in such a negligible way, so as to keep some level in the entertainment business, but still instilling a sense of awareness to the kinds of conflict they present in countless analogous forms.  Groundbreaking in so many ways for it's casting and treatment regarding a diversity, I'm sort of wanting to watch them all for the sake of sci-fi nostalgia.  My grandpa and used to watch them all day before we moved to Texas, so I have a lot of bits and pieces that my barely five-year-old mind could remember (like Kirk's battle with the badly costumed lizard man).  When I got down to assessing why I liked the episode so much, while fully aware that TwT wasn't the standard for Star Trek, I guess it had more to do with the inane scenarios, which I happen to know is plentiful in Star Trek. 

I suppose this is more of an appreciation post again, and this is only the first and most shallow installation of the series.  I will admit that while I rolled my eyes and groaned for pretty much all of the other episode we watched, it still felt like the series could be a promising guilty pleasure of a tv series even today.  The insanity of the stereotyped gender stuff is miserable in my opinion, but I'm sure it was that era's cup of tea, and at least we don't have a ton of that now.  I mean Spock is with Ahura and Kirk is still an overbearing lady's man sometimes, but now those are the smaller, irrelevant tangents and not the drive for half of the story.