Sword Art Online: A Medical Philosophy

(NOTE: although this paper focuses on and only talks about the first 3 episodes of Sword Art Online Season 1, there are some spoilers for those episodes. Reader discretion is advised)

I: Aincrad

Sword Art Online (SAO)is a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG) in which, with the use of a device called NerveGear, people can dive themselves into the world of virtual reality, thereby controlling their in-game characters with their minds. Activating NerveGearshuts off all sensory information from the external world, leaving them in a conscious yet vegetative state, while their heads are covered with a high-density signaling device. In other words, when diving into the virtual world, what controls their avatars is only their minds and nothing else. Only by choosing to log themselves out of the game in the virtual world can they regain their sensation and thus come back to the real world. The release of such a game attracted so many gamers as well as lay people and SAObecame an instant success, captivating the curious minds.

The story of SAOcenters around one such player, Kirito, who was among the lucky ones to be able to get a copy of which only 10,000 were released in its first sale. In the world of SAO, there is no physical pain or hunger – they can run around and fight with the monsters without physical exhaustion or use of actual money. All the weapons as well as the equipment are purchased with the money they earn by defeating the monsters and their strength comes from the experience they have had by fighting with the enemies. In every respect, SAOprovided the players with the reality they could only dream of. There is no wonder, then, when Kirito speaks to himself that, although it is a virtual world, he feels more alive than he does in the real world.[1]What happens, however, when something goes wrong? In the world where every gamer’s dream comes true, what could possiblygo wrong?

The catalyst occurs when Kirito finds that there is no log-out button embedded in the system. Just as he was wondering why there is no announcement of any sort with regard to this issue, he and the other players are all forcibly transported into the agora in the center of this created world called Aincrad. As all 10,000 players have been instantaneously gathered, the creator of the game appears himself in the form of a nondescript person covering himself with a dark red robe as if on the screen that is the sky. He then explains as matter-of-factly that it is the feature of SAOthat one cannot log out and that he created the virtual world just so that he could meddle with it. Not only can they not log out of SAO of their own will, but also should anyone in the real-world attempt to shut down or remove the NerveGear, the transmitter inside the device will emit powerful microwaves and destroys their brain, thus ending their life. Furthermore, there is no longer any function (items or magic) to revive someone within the game and the instant their health point drops to zero, their avatars will simultaneously vanish forever and the NerveGearwill destroy their brain. The only condition for escape, the creator tells them, is to complete the game by making their way through the dungeon from Floor 1 and defeating the floor bosses on each floor. Only by defeating the final boss, i.e. the creator, on Floor 100 can they clear the game and get back alive to their reality. But just as Kirito wondered himself, the virtual world they are stuck in now is their reality and is undoubtedly even more real – even with the skillsets in-game characters can use and even with the fear of physical pain taken out of the equation, the reality remains that the 10,000 people that are stuck in Aincradface far more chances of getting killed, literally, and vanish from both worlds, the virtual and the real. The world of Aincradis far more dangerous and renders them vulnerable than the world they came from. How could life be any more real when they are left with their own devices to survive? Further, it goes without saying that the characters in the game have feelings. But how can one feel anything if he is just immaterial stuff? That is where Descartes becomes interesting. This sort of thought-experiment is generally very elusive that it is difficult to think about what mind is or how it behaves without the presence of a body that is attached to it. However, the concept of this virtual reality makes it easier for us to understand what Descartes meant by the union of the mind and body, especially when he proposed to Princess Elizabeth in his correspondence with her to “feel free to attribute this matter and this extension to the soul, for to do so is to do nothing but conceive it as united with the body.”[2]

II: Pain and Sorrow

SAO, in this way, succeeds in making a conceptual distinction between mind and body as two separate substances that actually exist independently of each other. The Cartesian thought experiment is thus delineated in the most scientific way conceivable. As this uniquely ironic setting involving Kirito develops into a well-thought-out fictional story, SAOkeeps its philosophical theme intact throughout the series. It is unique because the premise of the game grants the players to actually play it as thoughit is real, making their dream come true; it is ironic because this every gamer’s dream, on being realized, turns into nothing but a horrific nightmare from which everyone becomes desperate to escape. The fact that no magic or items to revive exist becomes their experience all the more surreal and their loss endearing. In this way, SAOcreates the world in which all the avatars represent their actual selvesas genuinely as possible. Their avatars are indeed nothing but the visual manifestations of, what would otherwise be, the immaterial and imperceptible will and reason of each individual. Notice here, as well, that the relationships among the characters are transient or irrelevant at best for survival. What matters is the fact that one is alive, i.e. thinking itself as existent, and to outsmart the creator. In fact, the world of Aincrad is very much similar to the world in which Descartes envisions in his Meditations. All the other avatars in Aincrad may or may not exist. The person you may be interacting with at any given moment may be an NPC (Non-Player Character), a computer-generated automaton. Kirito has never met any of the ‘owners’ of these avatars in real life – indeed, it is just as if one were to “look out of the window and see men crossing the square… Yet do[es he] see any more than hats and coats which could conceal automatons?”[3]No, but he judgesthat they are men. All he knows for certain is that he has dived into the virtual reality and that he would die unless he must revolt against the creator. The fact that he is thinking proves that he is, and the only other thing he is certain of is the existence of the one who has brought him there. Everything else could be a trap and hence should not be trusted.

It has been established in the first episode already that in Aincrad the players do not feel pain. This is a deducible feature from the premise of the game that those that control each avatar are res cogitans (thinking stuff), and not res extensa (extended stuff). Therefore, any sensible perceptions, including hunger, physical exhaustion, pain do not by definition exist. All what the players can feelis those inclinations arising solely from rational thought. Therefore, it is the action of the soul, rather than the passion of it, that can exist in the world of Aincrad. It may be worthwhile to say a few things about what is meant by the actions and the passions of the soul so we can have a clearer understanding of what is possible within the limitations put by this thought experiment. Descartes defines an action of the soul as volitions, such as will, judgment and intellection. However, we are immediately faced with the apparent contradictions in SAOwhen the players feel fear, joy and sorrow. For these are often known to us as sense-perceptions and have physical objects as their cause. It is, for instance, not easy to believe that the players can exhibit all these emotions in the world where, we are led to believe, there exists no physicality whatsoever. Kirito certainly feltthe fear of not ever getting back to reality when he rushed out of theTown of the Beginning. There is no doubt that Asuna was scaredof disappearing into nothing. The tears shed by the guild members Kirito joined on the 11^thfloor could not have been any more authentic.[4]How are we to understand these emotions displayed by the avatars throughout the series when the fundamental premise of Aincrad is that players are completely severed from the sensible information?

In order to better understand the world of SAOand how philosophically sound and consistent the anime’s premise is, let us lay out the functions of human nature as expounded by Descartes in The Passions of the Soul. There are two principal kinds of thought in human being, some of which are actions of the soul and others its passions.[5]Actions of the soul are those experiences that directly proceed from the soul and are dependent on it, while passions are those perceptions and modes of knowledge that are present in us that are excited by being represented to the soul. An example of the former is a variety of volitions, while an example of the latter may be imaginingscaused by the body. These two kinds (i.e., volitions and perceptions) are further divided into 1) the volitions that terminate in the soul, such as will to love God. i.e. an action directed to anything immaterial, 2) the perceptions that are caused by the soul, such as perceiving that willing is taking place, i.e. apperception or awareness of the actions, 3) the volitions that terminate in the body, such as will to walk, and lastly, 4) the perceptions that are caused by the body, i.e. those perceptions that are not filtered by rationality, such as apparitions and illusions.[6]The first two of these (i.e. volitions terminating in the soul and perceptions caused by the soul) are taken to be one and the same thing, and therefore we have three kinds of thought at play.[7]However, the last one (i.e. perceptions caused by the body) is not relevant here as the bodies of the players in SAOare rendered insensitive and thus players do not experience things that are represented to the soul “through the fortuitous course of the spirits,” for these experiences share the roots with “the impressions which come into the brain through the nerves,” and they differ from the neural sensations only in degree of their vivacity, as the memory of something sour differs only in degree from tasting something sour.[8]Hunger, thirst and other natural or physiological appetites have no place in Aincrad. Since the sensory communication between the bodies of the players and their minds is severed by the system, no experience can come to be represented to their soul unless these passions are actually in the soul, i.e. unless they are volitions or perceptions that originate in their soul. Furthermore, the volitions that terminate in the body, such as will to walk, cannot exist either in the virtual reality, for although the players maketheir avatars move, these movements only exist in their mind and they are not actually moving their own feet.

From what has been discussed, it is clear that there is only one kind of rational activities that could happen in the world of SAO, that is to say, volitions or perceptions that originate in the soul, which may include the feelings of joy, anger and the like. This explains why people do not feel hunger as Kirito mentions and why the feelings of joy and sadness exist while there exists no physical pain or carnal desires.[9]

III: The Passions of the Soul

Although there is no sensation and hence no physical pain in Aincrad, abundance of feelings exists and emotional conflicts abound. In the world of SAO, one might think that in the world where there is only res cogitans, there would be neither suffering nor disharmony. After all, if all there is is rational thought, would such a world not behave rationally so as to maximize the chance of getting as many players as possible out of this death game? Yet that this cannot be the case is elucidated in the previous section, for there are variety of passions in the rational soul. It has been often observed that the history of humankind is flawed with uncertainty due mainly to the desires and emotions arising from the body, rendering any attempts to science the future of humanity futile. Human history has thus been unpredictable even though rational actors have tried to steer its course. This thought experiment in SAO, however, makes it blatantly obvious that it is not the bodily sense-perceptions that mud our judgments. No, it has never been. For what is happening in Aincrad is nothing but the clash among the rational thoughts of the individuals. But how could that be, in the world where the reason dictates? As we have seen earlier, emotions such as joy and sadness, selfishness and hatred, roam around as the passions in the soul.[10]Indeed, SAObegins by dissipating all forms of trickery and disguise at the outset so that the volitions and perceptions involved are as real as possible. This is why all forms of magic items or means of revival as well as all forms of modifications made in the avatars have been disabled. First, because if people can freely revive and recover from death, this thought experiment would not reveal anything interesting about human reason. Second, if the avatars could be male or female, old or young, irrespective of the players in their real life, they could playcertain characters and behave differently from how they would behave ordinarily. The purpose of this death game isto understand how human mind works when it has been freed from their bodily constraints. But humanmind turns out to be as complex as it is when attached to the bodily organs. This is why the first time Asuna speaks to Kirito, she mumbles inaudibly that the reason why she has left the first town and is risking her life to fight is so that “I can still be me.”[11]Like everyone else, Asuna is stuck in this world, fearing an eventual death. She realizes that the only way she can still be herself is by acting in accordance with wherever her mind takes her, and that does not include her locking herself up inside an inn back in the first town where she would just slowly rot her existence away. Although her resolution is firm and unshakable, she explains rather dispassionately, “even if I am defeated by a monster and die, I don’t want to lose to this game… to this world.”[12]Aincrad, in this way, exposes the players to the most vulnerable state that is the bare personhood without hats and coats to cover them up. They arethe choices they make. Asuna made her choice when she left the first town and she keeps making choices not to merely survive but to live the life of her own. Kirito, on the other hand, does not appear to know why he resists against the creator. After all, did he not hate making friends and communicating with others? Was that not the reason why he became so skilled at what he did in the game, by making the absolute minimum contact as he could? He found himself a safe space in the world of Aincrad because he did not know how to make a lasting connection with others. This is also why he hesitated to bring Klein with him in the town of the beginning. He did not dislike people but he was not good at being with them. He enjoyed the private time of his own and on occasion enjoyed some companies with whom he could develop a superficial, transient relationship with to achieve a shared goal.[13]This is why he was drawn into the world of virtual reality, precisely because everything there (including how he appears) was fake. He did not want to live a social life, or at least he thought he didn’t. This is why he refused to form a party with Klein when he first asked him.[14]And Klein well understood that people come to thisworld specifically to have no commitment whatsoever. Then, why is it that Kirito is fighting? There is nothing waiting for him even if he goes back to the real world.

Kirito finds himself agonizing over the desire to socialize with others on the one hand, and the fear of exposing himself to everyone on the other hand. What if he turns out to be boring and he has nothing to offer? What if they deem him as a bad person? He is already diffident about himself to begin with – he does not need any more confirmation that he sucks. His predicament is nowhere more clearly seen than when he attends the group meeting to discuss about how to defeat the first-floor boss in the arena. This meeting was summoned by a player named Diabel in order to share as much information as possible with the other players so as to cooperate with one another and to show everyone that it is possible to advance in this game via team effort. Everyone around him starts forming parties with their friends and, before he knew, Kirito finds himself isolated. He sees a girl who is also isolated and asks her to form a party with him just for this time. Kirito succeeds in forming a party without telling anything about him, as this girl also does not seem to care about getting to know the others. On the following day, as Kirito and others march against the floor-boss, Kirito sees in Diabel what he has always aspired. It is Diabel who led the parties, who motivated them and who governed them with prudence. He is respected, looked up to and loved by all. This is why Kirito experiences anguish when Diabel is killed. Kirito takes Diabel’s words to heart that the one who is most experienced and who has the most information must lead the way so as to shine the light upon the uncharted world to bring about hope for salvation. This is the moment when Kirito sees his raison d’être, as it were. “All I thought about was my own survival when this death game started,” the thought filled his mind, as reflects back his behavior, “but what [Diabel] accomplished to do is what I could not bring myself to do.” While being a skilled player, Diabel never abandoned the other players; instead, he led and fought for everyone else.[15]That this is when Kirito suddenly appears alive is further supported by the theory of how human mind works. For, as has been said, the perception of oneself being aware of performing an action is exactly what is meant by Descartes when he explained that “it is certain that we cannot will anything without thereby perceiving that we are willing it.”[16]That is to say, boththe volition of willingandthe perception of our willing it are necessary for us to be truly human. Nay, neither the volition of willing nor the perception that we are willing it can happen unless we are indeed human. These two activities that originate and terminate in the soul are what differentiate us from merely being animals. It is thus fitting that, at the moment Kirito cognizes himself as human, he is faced with the choice to make. He is now blamed for Diabel’s death simply because he is an experienced player who knows a lot about this world. If he concedes that he is one of the skilled players, i.e. so-called beta-testers, then distrust towards other experienced players would abound among the players and they would become divided rather than united. That is not something Diabel would have wanted. However, even if he lies and hides about the fact that he is more knowledgeable about this world, the same feeling of distrust among the players is unavoidable. The choice Kirito made in order to preserve what Diabel died protecting is to publicly undermine the ability of the beta-testers, who were rumoured to be canning and deceiving. “I wish you wouldn’t compare me to those newbies,” Kirito bursts out into laughter. “The beta-testers didn’t even know how to level up,” he continues, putting on the façade, “even you guys are much better than them.”[17]He thus makes himself superior to the beta-testers, while at the same time, convincing the players that they are far more skilled than those beta-testers. Kirito made it impossible for any of them to speak ill of the beta-testers without at the same time condemning themselves. In this way, he preserved the trust among the players, while taking on the mantle himself of being a scapegoat.

IV: A Miracle from the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Kirito continues on as a solo player, when he happens to have saved a party in trouble from an enemy. The party members thanks him graciously and buys him dinner. The leader of the group, Keita, invites Kirito to his party as a teacher for one of the party members, Sachi, who wishes to be more confident in the way she fights. Kirito, although still reluctantly, agrees. In this way, Kirito joined a party, accepting the responsibility it comes with having someone to protect. Although he parted from Asuna and the others right after the boss raid on the 1^stfloor, the only reason he did so is because he now realizes what his purpose is in this death game: to use his rich knowledge and sword skill he has developed from being a beta-tester in order to save those who are wanting techniques and skills. Joining a party as a tutor seemed to him like a good start. His conviction that he must make use of his skills and experience to protect others is further strengthened by the informal conversation with the leader of the party. “What do you think it is that sets us apart from the Assault (Advanced) Team?” Keita asks, reading the paper praising the recent accomplishment by the said team to have conquered the 28^thFloor. Kirito immediately responds that it is probably the information, explaining that the advanced teams know how to efficiently earn EXP necessary to level up yet they do not share it with others. However, Keita disagrees, “I think it has more to do with willpower.”[18]Kirito wonders what is meant by willpower, to which Keita explains it is a determination not only to protect your friends but also all the players. “Although we are still being protected, but I think my will is just as strong and we wish to join the ranks of the Assault Team someday too.”[19]Hearing this, Kirito heartily hoped that Keita and his party members could make rapid progress and reach the front lines, his ideal might change the insular atmosphere of the Assault Team now.

At night, Kirito quietly leaves the inn he and his party are staying. During the daytime, he can only focus on teaching while protecting his friends, so he goes out at night to level up while everyone else is asleep. It happened one night that Sachi could not be found anywhere, and the other part members messaged Kirito for help. He immediately finds Sachi, using his advanced skill, ‘tracking’, approaches towards her, who is sitting under the bridge by the sewage. Sachi looks particularly sad and her words flew out dispiritedly, “Let’s run away together.” He detects so much anxiety, sorrow and despair in her voice. She jokes that she wants to die and disappear from Sword Art Onlinewith him, but then recomposes herself and rationalize that if she really wanted to die, she would not have hidden within the safety of the town. Then she asks the inevitable question. “Tell me,” her voice trembling, “why can’t we leave this place? Why do we really have to die, even though it is a game? What’s the point of all this?”[20]Kirito does not have an answer. “I’m afraid of dying,” Sachi continues, “I am so scared that I haven’t been able to sleep at all lately.” Kirito assures her that she will not die because he and the others are there to protect her. He reassures her that she will live to see this game cleared and that she will get back to reality. Sachi’s face turns into a smile with gentle hope from utter dejectedness. She thanks Kirito for being there for her with a drop of tear.

Getting back home, Sachi feels uneasy sleeping alone in her room, so she comes to sleep right by Kirito. It occurs to him then that people trapped in this game have various emotions and desires to get back to the reality. Even though many fear death like Sachi does. Yet, they still laugh, cry and try with all their might to live in this world. A thought that had never occurred to him before. This human sentiment convinces him that these players are not just hats and coats, with whom he cannot determine whether they are automatons. He is ever more resolute that this death game must be brought to an end, and at the same time, he swears that he will protect his party members no matter what. The following morning, Keita goes out for buying themselves a house. The party members are left without the leader and they decide to earn some more money before Keita comes back with a house. To make a quick money, to Kirito’s dismay, they hurried to try the hunting on a higher floor. When they see a hidden room with a treasure chest in the middle of it, Kirito warns them to get back, only to find it too late. They are trapped in the room and it is soon swarmed with monsters. They try to teleport with an item but to no avail. One by one, the party members got killed. Sachi too fell to the monsters’ victim in front of Kirito’s eyes.

On December 24^th, Christmas Eve, on the 49^thfloor, Kirito sat in the agora. He had leveled himself up much faster than anyone could and had also gathered enough information from an information broker. According to which, there will appear an event boss, Nicholas the Renegade, beneath a certain fir tree. Even though there is no bringing back the dead in Aincrad, the rumour has it that Nicholas will drop an item that can revive a dead player. Kirito had been determined for sometime to get this item so that he could revive the party members he let die because of his arrogance. The event stage is said to be in Forest Maze on the 35^thfloor. He defeats the event boss all by himself, retrieving the rare drop item. However, he finds out that this item can only be used to revive someone who has just died within the last 10 seconds. Kirito’s ambition was utterly shuttered and he lost all hope. Just as he languished in his room, he receives an automated message in the form of a gift box. When he opened it, what he heard was none other than the very voice of Sachi. The message reads as follows:

“Merry Christmas, Kirito. By the time you hear this, I’m guessing I will be dead. How can I explain it? Um, you see… to tell the truth, I never really wanted to leave the Town of the Beginning. But if I fight with that attitude, I’m sure I will end up dying one day, right? And it’s no one’s fault. It’s my own problem. Kirito, ever since that night, you’ve been telling me, night after night, that I won’t die. So if I ever get killed, I know that you will really blame yourself. That’s why I decided to record this. Also, I know how powerful you really are. You see, a while ago, I peeked accidentally. I thought really hard about why you would hide your level and fight with us, but I never did figure it out. But when I found out how strong you really were, it made me feel so happy. I felt so relieved. So even if I die, you do your best to go on living, okay? Live to see the end of this world, and to see why it was ever created… The reason why a weakling like me ended up here… And please find the reason why you and I met. That’s what I wish. Bye, Kirito. I’m so glad that I met you, that I could be with you. Thank you. goodbye.”[21]

V: Conclusion

Kirito finds courage and reason to continue his journey to clear this death game and to keep a promise with Sachi. As it has been amply shown, although the players are nothing but res cogitans,moving independently of res extensa, they experience variety of emotions, including but not limited to, love, contempt, sadness and joy. Indeed, Descartes himself never denied the emotions in mind, in fact, he thought it is almost impossible to feel anything unless mind and body are united in some way. And this union of mind and body appears to be exactly what SAO is trying to clarify. The show makes a point that human mind is inseparable connected on some level with the physiological selves, and it is only separable in concept but not in actuality. The fact that each one of the players goes through complexities of emotions and desire to get back to the reality, while inevitably some do not, is itself a Cartesian exposition that this very diversity of thoughts and distinctness of minds in SAOhelp us see what it means for the mind and body to be distinct yet at the same time inseparably united. Many views on the Cartesian dualism has been explained in reference to stories and movies, but I believe that Sword Art Onlineoffers a unique view, the likes of which we have never seen before, that the mind must be intricately linked with a particular body that is its own. This specificity of the soul attached to a particular soul gives rise to, or further supports, the individuality of the soul. For if a mind can be detached and connected to any number of bodies, as those thought experiments using robots tend to suggest, there can be no personal experience that is unique on its own. And without such uniqueness and individuality, there cannot be the salvation of individual minds. For, if the mind is just an indeterminate mind stuff, then clearly, there is no reason to believe that each of what we have experienced and what we chose to do would be judged and differentiated at the time of salvation while remaining as an indeterminate, extension-less as well as dimensionless immaterial stuff before the separation of mind from body.

SAOseries is still ongoing anime, and having elucidated the Cartesian system of the passions of the soul in the form of thought experiment that is most scientific to date, it continues to try and apply the Cartesian theory into a medical practice, as later episodes will show.

Bibliography

Descartes, Rene. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes Vol.1. Translated by John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff and Dugald Murdoch. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

—Meditations on First Philosophy: with Selections from the Objections and Replies. Edited by John Cottingham. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

— The Correspondence Between Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia and Rene Descartes. Edited and translated by Lisa Shapiro. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

[1]EP1

[2]Descartes, The Correspondence, “Descartes to Elizabeth 28 June 1643 Egmond du Hoef”. 71. See also how he continues, “it will be easy for her to consider that the matter that she has attributed to this thought is not the thought itself, and that the extension of this matter is of another nature than the extension of this thought, in that he first is determined to a certain place, from which it excludes all other extended bodies, and this is not the case with the second.

[3]Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Second Meditation. 21.

[4]EP3, the name of the party is Moonlit Black Cats.

[5]Rene Descartes,The Passions of the Soul, Part 1, 17, 335.

[6]Ibid., 17-21, 335-336.

[7]Ibid., see 19. “although willing something is an action with respect to our soul, the perception of such willing may be said to be a passion in the soul. But because this perception is really one and the same thing as the volition, and names are always determined by whatever is most noble, we do not normally call it a ‘passion’, but solely an ‘action’. 335-336.

[8]Ibid., 26. 338.

[9]See EP1 and 3.

[10]Descartes, The Passions of the Soul, Part II, 53-68, 350-353.

[11]EP2

[12]Ibid.

[13]See, for example, EP2, when Kirito feels forced to find someone to team up with.

[14]EP1.

[15]EP2.

[16]The Passions of the Soul, 19, 335.

[17]EP2.

[18]EP3.

[19]Ibid.

[20]Ibid.

[21]EP3.