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heart havok
17-04-01, 08:41 AM
i personally found the site "thought experiments lain" definitely full of the most well researched theories of Serial Experiments Lain so i decided to create threads discussing Lawrence Eng's wonderfull descriptions on different topics. i would add my opinions, but there's not much for me to add seeing as he himself has pin-pointed my own personal theories on the series to almost perfection. where i disagree i will make note, and i will add additional opinions as time goes on.

Originally written by Lawrence Eng (http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm)

Devices

Interpretation:

All and any technologies.
Tools which allow interface.
Body parts as devices suggests that humans are technology, that where the "natural" body begins and ends is unclear. All devices extend and amputate us at the same time (see McLuhan). According to Eiri Masami, Protocol 7 allow humans to connect to the Wired without devices. With devices, we extend into the Wired, but cannot fully enter it. As such, we are both enabled and handicapped by devices. If we enter the Wired without devices, we potentially lose our sense of self. Good or bad, total connectedness also implies total loss of ego and identity.

Drizzten
17-04-01, 11:26 PM
:eek:
Damn, that fits perfectly...

Total connectivity implies no sense of Self...you'd fall back to Gaia and meld with everyone else who could connect that way. But what about Chisa? She killed herself, yet she was conscious enough and self-aware enough to send e-mail to her classmates, personalized e-mail.

heart havok
18-04-01, 05:50 PM
definitely, the devices are no more than distortion.

they filter the world into a "reality" of what is "possible" and "impossible" as to what coinsides with the senses.

as for Chisa, perhaps she was another experiment as parsay was Mika.


let's see what Lawrence has to say about it...

Lawrence and his amazing research/respected opinion

Yomoda Chisa

Lain's classmate who commits suicide.

Interpretation:

Chisa represents one extreme viewpoint in serial experiments lain, which is that the Wired is more "real" than Real World, as opposed to Tachibana's view that Real World is more "real" than the Wired. Chisa, for one reason or another, believed those who said that one's body is not necessary. Lain, instead of blindly and easily following Chisa's suggestion to leave her body, takes the more difficult route and goes on a quest to find information, which turns out to be more than she expected. At the same time, Lain discovers that the other extreme viewpoint, that Real World is more "real" than the Wired, is also incorrect.