Ghost in the machine
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The "ghost in the machine" is the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's description of René Descartes' mind-body dualism. The phrase was introduced in Ryle's book The Concept of Mind (1949) to highlight the perceived absurdity of dualist systems like Descartes' where mental activity carries on in parallel to physical action, but where their means of interaction are unknown or, at best, speculative.
Popular culture
The Police named their 1981 album Ghost in the Machine after this concept. Masamune Shirow borrowed the "ghost" concept that figures prominently in his 1989 Ghost in the Shell manga and later related works. "The Ghost in the Machine" is also mentioned in the 1985 film Brazil and referenced in the 2004 film I, Robot based on Isaac Asimov's short stories. Also the rapper B.o.B titled a song "Ghost in the Machine" on his debut album, The Adventures of Bobby Ray. Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010:odyssey two contains a chapter named "Ghost in the Machine", referring to the virtual consciousness inside a computer. There is also an episode of both Futurama and Superman: The Animated Series entitled Ghost in the Machines.
Additionally the X-Files-series also named an episode involving a rogue AI computer system "Ghost in the Machine."
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