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Shinatama: Difference between revisions
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A robotic assistant specifically designed to interface with [[Konoko]], the pink-haired Shinatama is one of the most tragic characters of [[Oni]]. | |||
==Development== | |||
In the early phase of Oni's development, Shinatama might have been intended to be a [[Ghost in the Shell]]-esque cyborg with a whole-body transplant: | |||
{{Quote|Factory made as a high-speed computer interface she has a human brain but a mechanical body.|[[Oni/Early_Story#Summer_1999|Early Story]]}} | |||
During Hardy LeBel's creation of the final story, this transitioned to the concept of [[SLD]] technology, where Shinatama is 100% artificial and her cybernetic brain is trained using a human model (Konoko). | |||
The word "shinatama" refers to [[wp:Karakuri puppet|a type of puppet]] from Edo-era Japan that performed tricks, for example making a ball disappear. The word is intended to convey juggling, sleight-of-hand, or concealment. As Shinatama is a "doll" that must "juggle" a large amount of data while interfaced with [[Damocles]] and Konoko, the name seems appropriate in-universe. Considering the way that the story plays out, it could be just as fitting out-of-universe to see her name as representing concealment…. | |||
==Advisor to the heroine== | ==Advisor to the heroine== | ||
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===Human-primed=== | ===Human-primed=== | ||
The biomass of an [[SLD]]'s brain is able to imitate the neural structure of a human brain, but the nurturing process is sped up dramatically, and goes as follows : | The biomass of an [[SLD]]'s brain is able to imitate the neural structure of a human brain, but the nurturing process is sped up dramatically, and goes as follows: | ||
*There's the senseloop, somewhat akin to popular concepts of computer-assisted learning. High input of data, which help the SLD to compensate for the lack of ''memories''. | *There's the senseloop, somewhat akin to popular concepts of computer-assisted learning. High input of data, which help the SLD to compensate for the lack of ''memories''. | ||
*And there's the priming, which at the time of Oni requires an SLD to be patterned after an existing human brain (that's true for [[Shinatama]] ''and'' [[Tanker|Tankers]]). | *And there's the priming, which at the time of Oni requires an SLD to be patterned after an existing human brain (that's true for [[Shinatama]] ''and'' [[Tanker|Tankers]]). | ||
Fact is : Shinatama was primed with such a human "seed". And she was patterned after no one else but [[Konoko|Mai]]. They don't share memories (not like Mai has a lot anyway), but Shinatama's emotional pattern, at the core, is not synthetic. It's human, and it's Mai's. | Fact is: Shinatama was primed with such a human "seed". And she was patterned after no one else but [[Konoko|Mai]]. They don't share memories (not like Mai has a lot anyway), but Shinatama's emotional pattern, at the core, is not synthetic. It's human, and it's Mai's. | ||
===Backup of Mai's innocence=== | ===Backup of Mai's innocence=== | ||
In a way, while the human Mai got corrupted by her upbringing at the [[TCTF]] (as a "violent cop") and the implantation of the [[Daodan|Daodan Chrysalis]] (which further catalyzed violence), Shinatama retained her innocence integrally through it all. Interesting point is | In a way, while the human Mai got corrupted by her upbringing at the [[TCTF]] (as a "violent cop") and the implantation of the [[Daodan|Daodan Chrysalis]] (which further catalyzed violence), Shinatama retained her innocence integrally through it all. Interesting point is that that innocence, too, was no one else's but Mai's. | ||
Thus Shinatama can be seen as a ''backup'' of Mai's "true nature", before her personality got alienated by her adolescence, early adulthood, life at the [[TCTF]], and [[Daodan]] symbiosis. Her death would mean the complete destruction of that backup. | Thus Shinatama can be seen as a ''backup'' of Mai's "true nature", before her personality got alienated by her adolescence, early adulthood, life at the [[TCTF]], and [[Daodan]] symbiosis. Her death would mean the complete destruction of that backup. | ||
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Not only is Shinatama an extract of Mai's ''nature'', she was also directly affected by Mai's ''nurturing'', except for the most physical part of it (field action) and of course the [[Daodan]] symbiosis. "I've seen everything you've seen, felt everything you've felt". | Not only is Shinatama an extract of Mai's ''nature'', she was also directly affected by Mai's ''nurturing'', except for the most physical part of it (field action) and of course the [[Daodan]] symbiosis. "I've seen everything you've seen, felt everything you've felt". | ||
If you think of Shinatama as a backup of Mai, then Shinatama's point of view is a bit disturbing : it's as if the ''innocent Mai'' was following the evolution of an increasingly messed-up ''projection of herself'', live, non-stop, in subjective view and in such detail that she's virtually ''right there'' in the middle of the action, where people are killed and things are blown up. | If you think of Shinatama as a backup of Mai, then Shinatama's point of view is a bit disturbing: it's as if the ''innocent Mai'' was following the evolution of an increasingly messed-up ''projection of herself'', live, non-stop, in subjective view and in such detail that she's virtually ''right there'' in the middle of the action, where people are killed and things are blown up. | ||
Thus, another characteristic trait of Shinatama's innocence is that she's in a non-stop senseloop made of the violence actually encountered and generated by Mai : the human she was patterned after. | Thus, another characteristic trait of Shinatama's innocence is that she's in a non-stop senseloop made of the violence actually encountered and generated by Mai: the human she was patterned after. | ||
Shinatama never killed anyone, and still her existence is filled with that half-virtual violence. Violence ''unto'' Mai is violence unto Shinatama. Violence ''by'' Mai... for Shinatama, is like seeing through the eyes of a maniac/murderer, seeing her own hands kill people, not being able to look away, not being able to do ''anything but watch''. | Shinatama never killed anyone, and still her existence is filled with that half-virtual violence. Violence ''unto'' Mai is violence unto Shinatama. Violence ''by'' Mai... for Shinatama, is like seeing through the eyes of a maniac/murderer, seeing her own hands kill people, not being able to look away, not being able to do ''anything but watch''. | ||
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While subject to something like Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, it is clear that ''nothing's clear'' about an SLD's degree of initiative, free will, or even ''rational thinking'' (which is the only guarantee of predictability and control). | While subject to something like Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, it is clear that ''nothing's clear'' about an SLD's degree of initiative, free will, or even ''rational thinking'' (which is the only guarantee of predictability and control). | ||
Thus an SLD can not, technically, disobey a direct order, but it can | Thus an SLD can not, technically, disobey a direct order, but it can circumvent an ill-stated directive. And Shinatama had been doing just that when falsifying her reports on Konoko: that would mean that lying, for instance, is not ruled out by an SLD's design. | ||
As for irrationality : for example, there was an objective reason why Shinatama disobeyed Griffin in the Omega Bunker (emergency overrides had been switched off without Griffin knowing), but why did she start walking towards him in the first place? | As for irrationality: for example, there was an objective reason why Shinatama disobeyed Griffin in the Omega Bunker (emergency overrides had been switched off without Griffin knowing), but why did she start walking towards him in the first place? | ||
That "Omega Security Mode" just doesn't make any sense... It ''would'' seem that Shinatama's complexity, her uncommon emotional background, her inner conflict (between innocence and violence), and possibly Mai's "conflicting input", made her behave in an irrational way. | That "Omega Security Mode" just doesn't make any sense... It ''would'' seem that Shinatama's complexity, her uncommon emotional background, her inner conflict (between innocence and violence), and possibly Mai's "conflicting input", made her behave in an irrational way. | ||
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If it's the latter, just what happens to Shinatama if her synthetic, simili-human body and brain is damaged, then completely destroyed, and all that remains is her projection in "cyberspace" (to which she was wired all her life)? What could be the features of that projection? | If it's the latter, just what happens to Shinatama if her synthetic, simili-human body and brain is damaged, then completely destroyed, and all that remains is her projection in "cyberspace" (to which she was wired all her life)? What could be the features of that projection? | ||
=== | ===Disembodied Soul=== | ||
(apart from theology, the name echoes a [https://bungie.fandom.com/wiki/Disembodied_Soul humorous concept of Bungie's] : ''this'' is not too funny, though...) | (apart from theology, the name echoes a [https://bungie.fandom.com/wiki/Disembodied_Soul humorous concept of Bungie's] : ''this'' is not too funny, though...) | ||
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Her free will, and her ability to circumvent orders, will most probably remain, but without a "sister soul", her motivations will be somewhat disconnected, "by default", from human-like emotional stakes... She will go progressively out of phase with mankind, becoming a side observer and a critic (or worse) rather than "part of it". | Her free will, and her ability to circumvent orders, will most probably remain, but without a "sister soul", her motivations will be somewhat disconnected, "by default", from human-like emotional stakes... She will go progressively out of phase with mankind, becoming a side observer and a critic (or worse) rather than "part of it". | ||
===[[Oni2:Hikari|Hikari]] | ===Hikari=== | ||
Owldreamer's original character [[Oni2:Hikari|Hikari]] is an Oni 2 concept for Shinatama. Now an electronic ghost who has created an android avatar of herself, Hikari can be seen as the disembodied, seen-it-all Shinatama's ''anchor'' to humanity and to [[Konoko|Mai]]. Hikari's own inner universe is yet another field of investigation, but she's already a powerful character through what she means to Shinatama: without an anchor such as the neural link to Mai, or an avatar such as Hikari, Shinatama is the Disembodied Soul described above. | |||
[[Category:Characters]][[Category:Added value]] | [[Category:Characters]][[Category:Added value]] | ||