What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face.
Life perpetuates itself through diversity, and this includes the ability to sacrifice itself when necessary. Cells repeat the process of degeneration and regeneration until one day they die, obliterating an entire set of memory and information. Only genes remain. Why continually repeat this cycle? Simply to survive by avoiding the weaknesses of an unchanging system.
Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.
I entered this body because I was unable to overcome Section 6's reactive barriers. However, what you are now witnessing is an action of my own free will. As a sentient life form, I hereby demand political asylum.
Is this a joke?
Ridiculous! It's programmed for self-preservation!
It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory system. So man is an individual only because of his intangible memory. But memory cannot be defined, yet it defines mankind. The advent of computers and the subsequent accumulation of incalculable data has given rise to a new system of memory and thought, parallel to your own. Humanity has underestimated the consequences of computerization.
Nonsense! This babble is no proof at all that you're a living, thinking life form!
And can you offer me proof of your existence? How can you, when neither modern science nor philosophy can explain what life is?
Who the hell is this?
Even if you do have a ghost, we don't offer freedom to criminals! It's the wrong place and time to defect.
Time has been on my side, but by acquiring a body, I am now subject to the possibility of dying. Fortunately, there is no death sentence in this country.
What is it? Artificial intelligence...?
Incorrect. I am not an AI. My code name is Project 2501. I am a living, thinking entity that was created in the sea of information.
Major Motoko Kusanagi
You talk about redefining my identity. I want a guarantee that I can still be myself.
There isn't one. Why would you wish to? All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.
