Laughing Man quotes from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

A basic rule of thumb about hackers is that we live to peek at things that others have hidden, it's our nature. But, the depth of darkness in the hotbed of corruption that I had tried to challenge defeated me, and all I could do was become a deaf-mute, and avert my eyes from it all. Just as you've done these past six years. The Laughing Man, hmm, that was a catchy name they came up with. And here I've been thinking that if I was unsuccessful in persuading you, I'd simply follow Holden's quote and disappear. They went with the Salinger angle, too, good grief.

Welcome. You took longer than I expected.

Motoko

Don't give me that. You didn't even send me an invitation.

"If you stay right where you are, then people will eventually come to you."

Motoko

I believe it was Doisneau who said that?

Yes.

I'll tell you. It was a simple piece of mail I stumbled across on the net that began the whole thing. What I'd found was a blackmail document that had probably been sent to Serano Genomics. It was armed with a thesis that was a comparative of the inadequacy of Serano micromachines versus the effectiveness of the Murai vaccine.

Motoko

Then the original Laughing Man was the person who authored it?

You could put it like that, I suppose. "I am the machine that reveals the world to you as only I alone am able to see it"

Motoko

Dziga Vertov. He was a Russian filmmaker, wasn't he?

Yes. I was kidding myself by thinking it was my personal mission to prove and circulate that information, vital data I alone had happened upon.

Motoko

Failing spectacularly. The pure innocent mediator grew dejected at the base nature of the social system and he turned mute.

Who knew that copies could still be produced despite the absence of the original? If you had to give a name to this phenomenon, what would you label it?

Motoko

It would be "Stand Alone Complex"

Yes, it's the stand alone complex. From the start the very nature of our current social system has contained the mechanisms to trigger such an amazing occurrence. Personally however, I feel this marks the beginning of a new era of despair. What's your opinion?

Motoko

I don't know, it's impossible for me to say. Although I have found one thing that is capable of restoring your individuality after all your information has been syncronised.

Oh really, and what's that?

Motoko

Everyday human curiosity.