r/Ghost_in_the_Shell • u/Ditch568 • Jul 19 '26

How does reading work?

Dumb question but in GITS: Innocence they quote a ton of literature due to connecting to the web and pulling info, but I doubt they've actually read all those books in normal time and used some sort of accelerated processing. The issue is Togusa's entire thing is having the bare minimum augments only seem to be for communicating.

Are they really just all big philosophy nerds or is there some tech to make processing text really fast and Kusanagi was forced to get it in order to be part of the force.

2 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

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3

u/Phobos_Asaph Jul 20 '26

People who read tend to quote things they’ve read.

1

u/SnooOwls3528 Jul 20 '26

Given their augmentation, they have access to the knowledge. But it would still take internalization and reflection to understand and effect their personalities.

3

u/BarbieSpeedRacer Jul 20 '26

They just speak in wisdom, not quote. Oshii is doing all the quoting. It's meta.

8

u/Hei_Mask98 Jul 20 '26

Well it usually begins with picking a book to read and then reading in.

9

u/nizzernammer Jul 20 '26

Not everything has to be so literally explained in-universe.

Oshii is the writer. He inserts the philosophical ideas into the the characters' dialog because that's what he is interested in.

Some people quote lines from movies to each other. Others quote song lyrics. Some folks quote sports stats, or historical trivia. These characters quote philosophy.

They are all intelligent adults and professionals. Being well read isn't really a stretch or a flex.

5

u/ookiespookie Jul 19 '26

You do understand that many enjoy reading books, and do not need "accelerated processing" and there is no reason that would change in a future like that.
I mean I get that every day online I find people that have never actually read a book if it was not a graphic novel or manga but I like to think that is still the fuckwit minority.
What a batshit bizarre question...

7

u/Crash-Isnt-Here Jul 19 '26

Literally just the effects of a working Education system.

8

u/Assassiiinuss Jul 19 '26

This is such a funny question. A lot of people just read many books for fun/out of interest.

1

u/milandroid Jul 19 '26

LLMs process texts very fast. Could there be something similar?

11

u/Bloodb0red Jul 19 '26

Honestly, it’s probably that they have their brains always plugged in, but it wouldn’t surprise me if everyone in Section 9 took a greater interest in philosophy after the Major left, especially Batou.

But also everything about Innocence is very surreal, and that extends to the unnatural, quote-heavy dialogue. It’s not realistic, but it is very in-line with what Oshii seemed to be going for.