Sword Art Online
Content
TS: The light novel and anime series “Sword Art Online” is a consistent example that the notion of “the self” refers to the existence of a nonphysical being “the soul” through references and contrasts to the wor! of "aniel "ennett
Where am I? and
#artesian dualism$
Sword Art Online is a light novel and anime series, primarily targetting middle and high school students. 1 Seeking through my memories about the self and its connotations, I found this ctional series interesting, and rather surprising when I realied that it has challenging contrasive !ualities to the work of "aniel "ennett#s Where am I? $hus, I? $hus, every possible possible connotation and link that can be ti tied ed to Where am I? is not only intended, but the main motivation of this work as well.
T%& S&TT'() A(" T%& STO*+,'(& STO*+,'(& O T%& S&*'&S Sword Art Online %SAO& is a 'irtual (eality )assively )ultiplayer Online (ole*+laying ame. $he game is launched in ---. $he game uses a /erve ear, which is a helmet that interacts i nteracts with neurons to simulate the ve senses of a person in a virtual world. 0sing the /erve ear, players cannot use their ve senses in real life, and unless they log out, they do not feel the needs of their real body %hunger, sleep etc.&. etc.&. On th /ovember, the rst rst day of the game, some players realie that they are are unable to log out. $hen, the administrator of the system and the producter of the game Akihiko game Akihiko Kabaya appears in a town center, gathering all the players. $hen, he declares that if a player dies in the game, the /erve ear will ensure that the player dies in the real world, too. If someone physically removes the /erve ear will harm the brain of the user as a microwave, the player ending up dead. 2auto 2irigaya, one of the a thousand beta testers of the game, has the e3perience of the game over the nine thousand regular players and is a skilled player compared to other beta testers. 4ence, he
believes that he can beat the game on his own, and goes on as a solo player with the nick name 52irito6. $he players do not feel the physical pain, unless the administrator sets the pain absorbing level anything other than 17. 4owever, they feel a virtual hunger, need to rest, and some other virtual needs resembling the real life. $he game processes for two years, many real deaths take place and around si3 thousand players who are still alive are connected to machines ma chines in hospitals to maintain their life. 2irito has a virtual friend Asuna, with whom he eventually falls in love. In the end of two years, the top player 2irito manages to destroy the boss and save lives of thousands of gamers. 8hen the game is over, he tries to nd Asuna in real life, in doing which he succeeds. 4e nds out she is trapped in the game along with three hundred other players, he enters the mainframe of the game in which she is trapped, Alfheim trapped, Alfheim Online. 4e saves his lover from that game and nally the two reunite in the real world.
#O((&#T'() T%& "OTS /ow that I have given the introductory information about the series, serie s, it should be easier to realie the similarities between the series and Where am I? 2auto 2irigaya lies on his bed9 his brain does not process anything going on the physical world. :ven if it does 2auto, himself, himself, is is not aware of it. 4e can conceive only what he senses through his virtual senses and what he senses from virtual world. $hus, his real body and his virtual body have di;erent needs and are in di;erent systems with their own realities. $he story keeps its consistence by stating that the surviving gamers are sustained in hospitals, on devices and li!uid nutrients, on the other hand, for the players# mental states, which are aware of the situation and have the ability to distinguish between two dimensions, the administrator charges some /+<#s %non*player characters& to take care of the psychological needs of the users in case of depression, manic attack, suicidal disorders etc. $hereby, it is not not so wrong to think think about 2irito %virtual body of
2augo& as a body without the brain, physically. physically. $his virtual body e3ecutes what the real and only brain commands. It is =ust like like >orick >orick commanding 4amlet, e3cept for the fact that >orick >orick remains in a vat in a lab. 4owever, there is one thing that makes 2irito a more realistic ctional body, if he gets drunk in the virtual world, the /erve ear transmits the brain that the virtual state of the character is drunk, then the communication of the nerves and the senses resemble that of the real world, in terms of consistency. consistency. $he same applies to hunger, sleep, fatigue and many other real physical needs. On the other side, there is another similarity between two e3amples9 it is possible for both >orick >orick and the brain of 2auto to change the bodies they command, rst one in reality, the latter virtually. virtually. 8hen the game begins, every player has a modied look9 however, when they are declared that the game is a fatal role play, the administrator makes everyone#s look e3actly the same as their real appearances. +layers do not feel any type of alienation from their own body, they easily adapted to their real looks in the virtual world, perhaps even easier than >orick >orick got used to ?ortinbras. 2auto believes that what is common in both the real world and the virtual world is the personality of a person. Some gamers develop personas way di;erent than their personalities, which, 2auto states, harm their real personalities. 8hat we have here is one personality, along al ong with two conceived reality and two bodies. $his personality is aware of the senses# trueness, however even in the virtual world he chooses to rest on a sunny day setting, thinking that it would be a waste to spend such a beautiful setting to ght demons of the game on that day. day. So, he en=oys the pleasure that he gets from virtual senses, as does he believes that his own personality must remain the same in both dimensions. 4ere is the !uestion that comes out by itself@ i tself@ 8here does this personality lie within or outside the body If it was a completely cognitive system, it would have
gone through a radical change after the change of all that is conceived. 4owever, to 2auto, it is more about a change in all mechanisms, therefore a change in the way that his brain processes, however there is an e3ceptional thing, personality, which we would gladly like to call 5the self6. 4e says that some pl players ayers e3hibit e3treme behaviors, unlike unlike their real*life characters, thinking that they are not responsible for anything =ust because they are in a video game9 therefore, video games cause personality disorders in their real*life characters. :ven if we consider only what we see on the news about video games and pe personality rsonality disorders, 2auto seems to have a point. In any medium which has its own systems and reality, developing several characters %not a persona, but a completely new character& makes the player su;er, mainly because of the hardness adapt to his roles, wealth, survival capacity in the real life and the virtual life. 2auto has a point. Surely, this is why he went we nt after his lover right after he defeats the game. 4e was aware that what seemed to him could have been a program, an /+<, however, as Asuna, his lover, describes, she believes that she could feel the warmth of his hand, in the virtual world. 8hich leads us to think about what is that non*physical commonly functioning thing thing that that makes her feel a kind of warmth which is not included in the games# coded senses. <ould that be what the scientists failed to synchronie between > >orick orick and 4ubert <ould that be what "escartes calls the thinking, which is inseparable from the self, above sense perception and bodily needs - "escartes statement about perception of the real and the perception of the dreams resemble to 2auto#s account of the self %a stable between real and virtual sensing& as well@ 5Sense* perception $his surely does not occur without a body, and besides, when asleep I have appeared to perceive through senses at all.6 B $herefore, we may think that brain and sense*perception are processing the information for the thinking thinking,, which is yet an une3plained stage. $his is where we need to observe each
particular person behaviorally, by reason of the cognitive process# results# being unable to be completely traced up to the point where the nal stage is functioning. $hat last stage where the datum are evaluated personally, sub=ectively.. $hat personal space, which makes it possible for us to talk about sub=ectively sub=ectivity. $hat soul, invisible system, non*physical entity, which makes us sub=ectivity. individuals. If everything written is not completely faulty, I should should be somewhere close to asking the right !uestions about the self.
#O./ "& )*A#& Cet us introduce all the three sub=ects of this paper to each other, (ene "escartes, "aniel "ennett and 2auto 2irigaya 52irito6. As the administrator of this imaginary community, I deactivate death match and duel modes, robbing 2irito of his advantage. advantage. "escartes, basically, denes denes himself as a thinking thing. In this thinking no sensory part functions, as they completed their part transmitting the codes of what is sensed. 2irito supports a similar way of thinking as we can understand upon his way of thinking where he believes that even though the whole sensory system and the variables go through changes, his own personality, his own way of thinking, is the think that represents the overlap between two dimensions. 4ence, he also believes belie ves that what he really is a thing that things, no matter how deceptive his senses and what he senses are. "ennett would show up to argue this way of thinking by bringing the rst switches between >orick >orick and 4ubert forward, however, the ending of the storyline stands as a powerful proof that there is still an unresolved part in the data, which causes the lack of synchroniation between two cognitive processing systems. $herefore, in my own way of evaluating the proof, between those three arguments, apparently the rst two stand very close to each other, and I am somewhere near them. In my own ctional territory I will let the conversation continue as no physical proof seems to be within grasp yet.
