39,327
edits
Virtual Ghost: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (fixed bogus template) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:UlicsGhost.jpg|link=Star Wars:
The [[Sci Fi]] version of the [[Spirit Advisor]].
[[How to Kill
[[Unwanted Revival|They may not be thrilled by this]], but as they're dead, they don't get any say in the matter.
Line 22:
== Anime & Manga ==
* In ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', when the Sailor Senshi are transported to the lunar ruins of the Moon Kingdom they are greeted by the virtual ghost of Queen Serenity, Sailor Moon's mother from her previous life.
* Bunches of examples from ''[[Ghost in
** Well, not really. An attempt was made once with six million people simultaneously, but aborted.
** Motoko from the movie wonders if she is a virtual ghost, and if her personality and memories are, in fact, [[Fake Memories|programmed]], due to the small amount of brain matter she is left with.
Line 29:
*** Well, useful images; Puppetmaster freely admits that information preserved this way is heavily fragmented, and most personal details are lost - naturally, since only interactions with others are "recorded."
** Theoretically this presumably is the result in mid-way of a Ghost Dub, but it's just a deteriorated, incomplete copy, while the original dies. Trying to copy an entire human brain is difficult business in this universe.
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] Schwarzwald made a [[Virtual Ghost]] cameo in ''[[
* Noah (and Gozaburo) Kaiba in the [[Overtook the Manga|anime-only]] Virtual Nightmare [[Arc]] of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!''
* The final fate of {{spoiler|1=Harry MacDougall}} in ''[[Outlaw Star]]'', after {{spoiler|he died and fulfilled the series' quota for [[Made of Plasticine]]}}.
* [[Deconstructed Trope]] in ''[[Dennou Coil]]'', where several virtual ghosts appear that are {{spoiler|fleeting remnants of consciousnesses of eyeglass-users who got ''too'' integrated into the network and died. [[Nightmare Fuel|They're barely sentient and appear as tormented, shadowy beings]].}}
* ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]'' has a field day with this one. The first episode starts with two characters killing themselves to achieve this, and soon after the [[Mind Screw|Id of one character]], a scientist and the recreated image (see ''[[Ghost in
* {{spoiler|Tieria Erde}} in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' [[The Movie]].
** George Glenn in ''[[Gundam SEED Astray]]'' is a semi-example. [[Brain In
* After his death near the end of ''[[Twentieth Century Boys|20th Century Boys]]'', {{spoiler|Manjoume}} appears in ''21st Century Boys'' as one of these in the Tomodachi Land [[Simulation Game]] bonus stage.
* The AI versions of Harold Hoerwick in .hack//Sign. They're nowhere near as advanced as most other versions on this page (and rightly so; this series is set 20MinutesIntoTheFuture) and tend to only repeat a few cryptic lines at a time, but the information inevitably proves crucial. He also appears in the four [[
* ''[[Zegapain]]'' is about this trope and giant robots.
Line 43:
== Comics ==
* The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'''s Bishop had a sister named Shard who was essentially this.
* Jor-El in recent [[
* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' has its usual unique take on this with foglets. When a person goes foglet tiny nanomachines eat his body for the energy to scan and download his brain. When it's done, the person is for all intents and purposes a ghost -- floating through the air, making himself visible or invisible at will, and performing spooky miracles by reassembling matter at the molecular level. Though society in general doesn't think of it as death, Channon does:
{{quote| '''Channon:''' All ''I'' know is that they're going to dump {{spoiler|his}} mind into a bunch of machines the size of a fat virus and then burn {{spoiler|his}} body. Sounds like death to me.}}
* The [[Crazy Prepared|Batman-like]] version of The Black Terror featured in ''[[
== Films -- Live Action ==
* The ''[[Superman (
* Subverted in the film version of ''[[I, Robot (
* Used in ''[[Batman and Robin (
* Jobe becomes one of these at the end of ''[[Lawnmower Man]]'', after consciously putting himself into the network and leaving his body behind.
* ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]''. A [[Nikola Tesla|Tesla]] coil-projected image of [[Mad Scientist]] Dr Totenkopf warns off the protagonists, but it turns out he's been [[Dead All Along|dead for over twenty years]], leaving his robots to carry out his scheme. The actor playing Dr. Totenkopf is one of these, too: the legendary [[Laurence Olivier|Sir Laurence Olivier]]. Like his character, Olivier had been dead for a while (15 years at the time of filming) and appears via computer manipulated stock footage.
Line 61:
* The first ''[[Lazarus Churchyard]]'' story features "Virtual Heaven", a cyberspace environment full of the digitally preserved personalities of deceased programmers.
* Shade of Garth Nix's ''Shade's Children''. Also, the Leamington personality from the University, though it was much less refined.
* Used in many of Peter F. Hamilton's novels. There was usually a [[Hive Mind]] made up of these ghosts, and this method is considered a [[Ascend to
* A future human society in [[Stephen Baxter]]'s ''[[Manifold Space]]'' makes use of "limited-sentience projections" as messengers. Initially Nemoto appears several times via more ordinary holographic telepresence, making for an unexpected [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] moment when another character asks the projection what exactly it is; Virtual Nemoto explains and then looks horrified before dissolving into light.
* The fairly transhumanist novel ''Newton's Wake'' has virtual ghosts as self-aware beings who happen to be susceptible to the same kinds of access restrictions and file system commands as regular bunches of data. Some characters treat owning and utilizing virtual ghosts as slavery. Others test the defenses of computer systems by throwing copies of ghosts at them.
Line 77:
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
** They occasionally ''do'' examine it a bit more than most: in the novel ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' the hologram before Rimmer is assured by the ship's metaphysical psychiatrist that he's not really him, he just thinks he is. And in the "Back To Earth" revival, Rimmer is told there is no moral, ethical or legal problem with killing him, because the ''real'' Rimmer is already dead.
* ''[[
* ''[[Super Force]]'' featured a low-resolution image of Patrick McNee as the digital recreation of a dead scientist.
* ''[[VR Troopers]]'' had the same thing.
* ''[[Max Headroom]]'' just barely counts -- he was intended to be Edison's [[Virtual Ghost]], but Edison survived, and Max evolved into a very different person.
* Honorable mention: Al in ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' -- he shows many of the same traits, though he's actually a living human whose holographic form is a sort of telepresence.
* Garibaldi memorably manages to destroy the world to save it from beyond the grave as a [[Virtual Ghost]] in one episode of ''[[
** Centuries after his death no less.
* Jor-El in ''[[Smallville]]'' is probably one of these, though admittedly, it is not quite explicit exactly ''what'' he is.
Line 90:
** This was actually a [[Retcon]] to rationalize the use of real-time interstellar communication in several earlier episodes, which happened because the new producer of the show [[Did Not Do the Research]] about the ground rules of the show's universe.
* A hologram version of Madeline appears in one episode of ''[[La Femme Nikita]]'', though she knows she isn't the original.
* Because no trope is complete without a ''[[Star Trek]]'' entry: in the ''[[Star Trek:
** Not to mention the various EMH/LMH variants seen were based on the personalities and appearances of either Dr. Zimmerman (their creator) or a famous Starfleet doctor.
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' two-parter "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" features "data ghosts", neural patterns that are left over in the interfaces of the archaeologists' suits after the archaeologist dies. The ghost is an echo of the person's personality, unable to interact or learn and slowly "winding down" to the point where it can only drone mindlessly. In "Forest of the Dead", {{spoiler|1=it turns out one of the dead archaeologists was able to transfer their full personality into the library's WiFi system, and by the end, the Doctor's managed to transfer the personalities of everyone who died into the library's computer}}.
Line 97:
** Tamara is a more typical example, created after her original's death and not even realizing she was dead {{spoiler|until recently}}.
* In ''Knight Rider 2010'', the supercar's computer intelligence was actually a copy of the mind of his girlfriend, who'd been in [[Cyberspace]] at the time of her murder so that her mind was [[You Fail Biology Forever|not actually in her body at the time]]. In addition to controlling the car, she could project a hologram of herself.
* This ''[[Wild Mass Guessing|may]]'' be the ultimate fate of the {{spoiler|Asgard}} as of season 10 of [[Stargate SG-1]]. {{spoiler|With their last attempt at curing their [[Cloning Blues|genetic disease]] ending in failure, they opt for mass suicide and the destruction of their society in order to stop other races from pillaging their ruins. But not before transferring all their knowledge and technology into a legacy device which was handed over to Stargate Command. This device also has holographic projections of the Asgard people, which can be accessed at will. Note, however, that said holograms are never shown to have personality, merely being a glorified user interface similar to the ''[[I, Robot (
** There's also the upload of {{spoiler|Dr. Franklin}} to ''Destiny'''s mainframe via the {{spoiler|neural interface chair}} in ''[[
== Music ==
* The band [[X Japan]] did something as close to this as can be managed in [[Real Life]] for performances in 2008 and 2009. Lead guitarist [[Hideto Matsumoto|hide]] [[Author Existence Failure|died]] in 1998, but it was pretty much agreed among the band and the fans that he could not be left out of the performances due to his impact upon the band and his iconic status as a member of it. A hologram of hide (created by, among other people, one of his former solo programmers) played along with the live band, almost perfectly matching hide's facial expressions and behavior.
* Perhaps the most heartwarming instance of this trope applied to music occurs in the 2012 tour of ''[[Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of
* [[Tupac Shakur]]'s appearance onstage at Coachella 2012.
Line 114:
== Video Games ==
* Dr Carroll in ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' is the mind of a dead scientist programmed into a floating laptop computer. He appears in human form in [[Prequel|Perfect Dark Zero]].
* This is [[
** It also seems likely that the Dr. Light hologram that appears in the ''[[Mega Man X]]'' series is a Virtual Ghost -- in the first game, it was possible that he simply provided pre-recorded messages, although remarkably prescient ones... but since then, the hologram has displayed knowledge that Dr. Light simply could not have had during his lifetime. This suggests he's still "alive" in some form.
*** In fact, the end of ''X5'' suggests {{spoiler|that Light's hologram is capable of existing outside the capsules. In fact, the capsules in the game show that the hologram knows who Zero is (there are various explanations for this), but also who Alia is, which would be impossible for the original, living Dr. Light. In addition, he actually tells Zero early in the game that he has no knowledge of Zero's systems, so he can't upgrade him, but then states later, in a hidden capsule, that he's done some research and can now upgrade Zero. A very capable Virtual Ghost, indeed.}}
Line 129:
** The second game allows him to extend his influence to televisions in Baltimore.
* An experiment in A.I. led to this in one story arc in ''[[City of Heroes]]''. The player aids the doctor who was murdered and uploaded her mind into the Internet destroy the machine and her killers.
* In ''[[Destroy All Humans!]] 2'', Pox has become one of these.
* The VI located on ''[[Mass Effect]] 1'''s planet Ilos contains the last untouched record of [[Precursors|the Protheans]] to {{spoiler|send a message to future civilizations warning them of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Reaper]] threat.}} While the VI is not a ghost ''per se'', it has access to a vast amount of personal data and information about the Protheans that is unlike anywhere in the extant Galaxy, and claims its personality is loosely based on the project director's. To say that the dialogue that occurs between Shepard and the VI is [[Incredibly Lame Pun|haunting]] would be an understatement.
** The Quarians played this trope straight as a way to preserve their ancestors memories and knowledge, but stopped after the Geth rebellion put the fear of true AI into them.
Line 135:
* Jefferson Clay in the Independence War series became one of these in his final battle. Created without consent, he is understandably upset about his situation and acts as the ship's resident [[Deadpan Snarker]].
* {{spoiler|Prometheus}} is this in both ''[[The Conduit]]'' and ''[[Conduit 2]]''.
* Infel and Nenesha from ''[[Ar Tonelico 2 (Video Game)]]'', posing as Mind Guardian of Cloche and Luca, respectively. {{spoiler|They are also the [[Big Bad]], and are manipulating Cloche and Luca into opening the [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|Tree of Marta]]}}.
** Before that, {{spoiler|Mir}} from the first ''[[Ar Tonelico]]'' [[And I Must Scream|had her soul forcibly severed from her body, and then locked in Binary Field]]. The ghosts aren't just virtual, they are vengeful.
* Lumi in ''[[Child of Eden]]''.
* Ma3a in ''[[Tron|Tron 2.0]]'' straddles the lines of this, [[Brain Uploading]], and [[Interface
* Clay Kaczmarek {{spoiler|''[[The Obi-Wan|Subject 16]]''}} in ''[[Assassin's Creed Revelations
* In ''[[
== Web Comics ==
* Towards the end of the web comic ''[[Narbonic]]'', main character Dave Davenport turns into one of these -- albeit a somewhat crazier variant than is the norm. Fortunately, his girlfriend is a [[Mad Scientist|Mad Geneticist]], so he got better.
* Deconstructed with remarkable speed and efficiency in ''[[
* Similarly deconstructed in '''[[
| |||