Is this ever explained?
>Lain is an AI
Shittiest theory.
>>142222601
It was just a fun cameo from the director himself obviously
Here's the obligatory ayy lmao post
>>142222601
It's not that kind of show
>>142222601
It is if you understood the show correctly. The aliens, the kids and Lain herself are all pretty connected. People think it was pointless info dump but the children project and the alien experiments help contextualise a lot of the non-computer happenings.
>>142222640
It's not a theory there is certainly a Lain AI. The trick is understanding the rest of the show as well as the computer parts.
>>142222861
So go ahead and elaborate
ayyy
>>142222601
Men in black tribute.
>>142222861
>The aliens, the kids and Lain herself are all pretty connected.
?
I was under the assumption that it was a red herring.
I kind of want to rewatch Lain since I did enjoy it but I remember it being so fucking slow
An alien falls in love with a girl.
Unable to confess, he is gifted by a deus ex machina with the girl's phone number. Never minding the strange area code, the grey immediately calls her, and is overjoyed to find out that she has a crush on the spaceman as well.
But, the next day, when he recounts the previous day's confessions to the girl and was about to anal probe her, she only looks at him with a perplexed expression. After some investigation, he finds out that the girl he called is not the same girl he fell in love with. In fact, she doesn't exist in this universe at all. She is the girl's alternate universe counterpart, who has fallen in love with E.T.'s own AU self, who too is blissfully unaware of her crush.
Hijinks ensue as the two strike up a deal to give each other their darkest, most private secrets in order to equip the other with the weapons they need to conquer the heart of their other selves. While the two chase their respective loved ones, DRAMA ensues as they begin to fall in love with each other instead and question the NATURE of SPACE.
lmao
>>142222693
>>142223190
>>142223208
hilarious.
you're out with your sectoid gf and this pod slaps her on the ass
what do
>>142222601
Lain stayed up all night watching shit about area 51 and dreamt that an ayy lmao fugged her.
>>142223263
I fuck off back to /v/ and I stop posting images from shit games on an amime and manga board.
>>142222861
I thought that the series had implied that the protocols for interfacing reality with the electronic one was derived from alien technology.
was lain just schizophrenic the entire time?
>>142223204
>Ai-LMAO
>>142223320
>amime
>running a sectopod overwatch
nice
>>142223198
I felt the same way; I rewatched it a few years later and actually enjoyed it way more the second time. I also had originally watched it on DVD, so it was nice seeing its BR rips.
>>142223198
People who call it a red herring are those that switch off in the last episode
>>142223160
I keep saying I'll write it all up. I reckon I'll do it in a month or something when I am off semester
Basically the common interpretation is that she is merely an AI in a body, yeah? That all she is doing in the wired is changing memories
This is impossible because she resurrects the suicide victim from one of the earlier episodes
Further if she were just an AI her experience of "something more" when she ascends to talk to the thing that looks like her dad is also impossible to explain
Re watching the kids exposition and the alien exposition starts laying down fundamental ideas about how the human mind can affect its environment and so on. Naturally, there's more to it but again, I'd really rather write it up properly
Re watch if you like. Pay attention to any mention of the terms, and derivatives of 'past', 'present' and 'future' and how they relate to information and experience
>>142223204
FINDS
I
N
D
S
>>142223332
yeah I was under the same impression
also nice dub trips
>>142223332
Most people completely deny the idea of aliens and dismiss the whole thing as a red herring like idiots though.
>>142223204Google "3206139". Shit bricks.
>>142223204
Daily reminder that they tried to make Keit-ai real but failed, so stop trying.
http://keitai-project.wikia.com/wiki/Keit-Ai_Project_Wiki
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lkrImF41W7AuUlcvlxOeapyB2DfDI0tXUICez6E-yiE/edit?pli=1#gid=3
>>142223473
Are you seriously always on /a/?
God I hate when people call it a red herring. There's no reason for it to be, people just say that because "I dont get it so it must be to confuse me"
>>142223204
>Keitæ„› OST
OP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycfdfinG_P8
ED1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXDNGS9V4Us
ED2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4DyTjrruVo
OP Full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NShEKYoPXw
ED 1 Full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIX9aoN7g4o
ED 2 Full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woiMYzVTl9c
>Keit愛 TVアニメ
PV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcVGDV67L-g
EP 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_rz1bluG_k
>>142223473
That art gallery looks like edgy western art
>>142223505
This is literally the most used argument with people who a) didn't get Lain and b) didn't like it. I've seen people claim that the use of exposition was pointless and that Lain as an experienced was crafted poorly.
You ask them how and they just say it all is and that they totally get it shut up. It would be hilarious if it weren't so depressing.
>>142223432
Nothing in Lain struck me as a red herring; everything felt very deliberately placed, the aliens especially.
The entire series has so much to do with conspiracy anyway; why would you discount the alien part? Hell, Lain is followed around by fucking Men In Black.
Anyway, continuing from what I originally said about the interface protocols, I also think that Lain was eventually able to interact with other "realities" and exchange information with other consciousnesses in unexpected ways, culminating with that entity that looked like her father. She probably "ascended" in a manner at the end to a higher level of consciousness.
There are theories about greys/aliens that they are higher-dimensional beings, etc. that can slip into our reality the way a 3D being can slip into a 2D one. There's also ideas that the greys are actually humans from the future.
Whether you think that is utterly retarded or silly is irrelevant, because the point is that the grey alien and the UFO in Lain act as symbols for both alien technology and various levels of reality.
That's my theory, anyway.
>>142223505
Well what's your take on it then anon, I'm interested to hear a different view so I can be on the look out for stuff when I rewatch.
>>142223204
LEAVE MIO ALONE
>>142223664
I like theory crafting Lain man. That isn't my full interpretation but it's better than toeing the "red herring" line.
I think Lain ascended into the global human unconscious and has technically always been there.
Once she ascends it's shown that she has a vast control over space and time (her reseting things to the way they were). This in the show used the terms memory and information as a short hand. At one point in the show they explore the idea of experience (from a human perspective) purely being the process of info. Furhter there is another section where the idea of information being free of time is elaborated with (as accurately as I can recall) this is a message from the past the future of the present, depending on when you hear it. Tied in with the first lines of the show: Present day; present time. Hahaha. It starts to take on more meaning.
ayyy lmao
>>142223818
>Furhter there is another section where the idea of information being free of time is elaborated with (as accurately as I can recall) this is a message from the past the future of the present, depending on when you hear it. Tied in with the first lines of the show: Present day; present time. Hahaha. It starts to take on more meaning.
Damn, that's really fascinating to think about.
The entire aesthetic of the show, combined with the subject matter makes it so compelling and ripe for theory crafting. I'd put Lain in the top 5 of best written anime, easily.
I think it feels overwhelming and at the same time "slow" (which adds to your theory that it's underlying meditation is about information being a thing independent of time) the first time you watch it; at least, that's how it was for me. I'd really recommend anyone who watched it and thought it was just random bullshit give it another watch; it's a really carefully constructed and thoughtful show.
It's also a bit unsettling and creepy in a way no other anime manages to be; I mean even with the way Lain interacts with her family in otherwise "normal" situations is often disturbing.
ayylain
>>142223204
>combining cancer and AIDS
>>142222861
>>142223401
I have my own interpretation of it. And no, I would not say that the "Wired" Lain is an AI. I am too lazy to write it up, but what makes your interpretation any more valid than anyone else's?
Except idiots that think Lain was an AI, as in, every Lain shown wasn't human. The show certainly deals with technology, but more so the internet rather than anything else. There is something very human, very spiritual (I think this is the correct term) about the whole show, especially so in the later episodes when Lain meets "God."
>>142223818
To elaborate further, after exploring the concept of experience as information processing there's more to see in Lain's basic transformation.
Physical Lain uses the wired, not the internet (which still exists in Lain's world) to reach out. The wired is special because it uses a chip to trip out and access the human unconscious
Wired Lain is the first Lain and lives inside this data based abstraction of human unconscious.
Lain ascends from physical, electronic, wired and into full unconscious, taking control of and more importantly becoming an aggregate of human reality
I stress that she is an aggregate because earlier on in the series Lain is seen fucking with people, or watching people at random. People play this off as the Wired but the show goes to great lengths to display that Lain has differing personalities
Every one has an interpretation of Lain. We ALL love Lain. The Lain at the end is the culmination of all the personal versions of Lain that have been created.
AND YOU DON'T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND
>>142224063
>There is something very human, very spiritual (I think this is the correct term) about the whole show
I agree. Lain to me at least effectively becomes the human equivalent of a God.
On the point of technology it has to be said that there is at least ONE version of Lain that is AI and potentially two. This isn't up for dispute as the show and associated materials spell it out pretty well.
Thing is most people get to stuck on the technological parallels.
Your interpretation is equally as valid. I'd like to hear it. Honestly, I think Lain is intentionally supposed to have multiple thematic, narrative and sub-textual interpretations and layers I was simply ousting red herringfags.
>>142224010
Cheers man. As I said I intend to rewatcch it more actively soon and write up a definitive narrative interpretation.
I think it's pretty well crafted as well. I think it's one of two shows where I've actually enjoyed the recap episodes.
>>142222601
From what I understand Lain was hallucinating .
>>142224167
>I think Lain is intentionally supposed to have multiple thematic, narrative and sub-textual interpretations and layers
This. A lot of themes are nested. At the most basic layer, it looks like a meditation on the alienating social effects of the internet and technology, and this branches into various sorts of philosophical explorations of consciousness and being.
I think the structure itself is clever, because it both resembles how a computer runs on multiple layers of code, and how consciousness is often the waking interpretation of many neurons firing all at once and culminating in a singular idea.
I still have no fucking idea what the aliens mean, beyond aliens commonly tying into conspiracy theories which the show also touches on. Lain is so overwhelmingly dense that even after 3 watches I'm unclear on some things.
Scene scared the shit out of me though. I hate greys.
>>142224410
>This. A lot of themes are nested. At the most basic layer, it looks like a meditation on the alienating social effects of the internet and technology, and this branches into various sorts of philosophical explorations of consciousness and being.
Took the words right out of my mouth. There are the basic primary thematic points (social), narrative (AI interpretation) and sub-textual (internet in the 90s). All of those can be expanded upon a heap though. The show just leaves hooks everywhere if you're looking. Their discussion of the neoteny is an example of this.
>>142224481
>I hate greys.
It's weird how unnerving they can be at times.
>>142224481
Interesting that you posted Utena, because I also consider it one of the best written anime series, along with Lain.
ayy man
>>142224167
If your post is the one above, the one above concerning the aggregate of reality, then let me just say that I could only discern between two Lains. The physical Lain and the wired Lain. I am not too keen in picking visual metaphors and symbolism, which is, I think, the primary way the show gets information across. I have also only watched it once; I felt a rewatch straight after watching it once was too much.
Anyways, my TL;DR interpretation is: Wired and reality begin to interlap (visually shown as the purplish shadows). Wired Lain is basically the equivalent of an online ego, and Lain's become sentient. People saying they saw Lain "being wild," the spread of rumors (the suicide chick, the guys spying on Lain), and Lain's sister being catatonic though she died are the real world and the wired interacting. Wired Lain becomes God, and the Wired then becomed less like the internet and more like a wish fulfillment VR.
Something along those lines.
>>142224614
I think Utena (and Ikuhara in general) really has a similar appeal.
It's like an ogre brah, it's got layers
>>142224657
>that I could only discern between two Lains
The art book explicitly describes three Lains and that's not even including the weird ones that people hallucinated like Ayy lmao lain and so on.
>>142222601
The only part of the show I never understood is how does lain get all those computer parts seemingly overnight
>>142225659
The dad was working with the company and had a vested interest in seeing what Lain would do
>>142225701
But it gets bigger even after dad leaves
I miss when computers were bulky beige boxes, like in Lain.
They just have such a unique, warm aesthetic.
>tfw no wired to live in
How long until we can live on the internet without a body
>>142226522
>without a body
I would rather be something like Chappie and be able to jump from one robot body to another.
Having just finished watching this for the first time yesterday, I'm keen to know if there are any others like it. I love anything that has a heavy focus on technology and science.
The KIDS part made me think of the similarities with Akira, and the whole being part of the Wired world is similar to GitS.
Any suggestions for more stuff like it?
>>142228842
Any of the other ABe stuff, likeDespera.;_;
>>142229506
Thanks for that, Anon!
>>142223204
>>142223204
thank you very much for this
