I'd suggest picking up the currently-being-released GitS TV series, 'Stand Alone Complex.'
As for the cyborgs, the activities or even existence of Section 9 and other special ops teams is not well-known. HOWEVER, cyborgs generally are common as dirt. Virtually everyone has at least a cyberbrain. Robots are fairly common; all of the bridge bunnies working for Aramaki are robots, not human, and of course there's the fuchikomas. And it's not unusual to see blatantly full conversion cyborgs -- for example most of the judges at Maj. Kusanagi's trial in the manga are those little black cubes on legs.
Even that garbageman had a cyberbrain, which is how he was able to get brain hacked by the Puppetmaster. Without one you're pretty much fated to even more menial jobs than that, even if there is the added assurance that you won't get hacked.
In the TV series, there is an assassination by a person who's face is masked with a computer generated overlay. Everyone sees it, and that's what the cameras pick up too. Only a couple of bums ever see the guy's real face.
Given that he can only use a computer as well as the natives for a few minutes per day, Doug would have problems getting by if he were in the GitS world for any significant span of time. In fact, I'm definately thinking of the scene in the TV series where various people are reading hardcopy documents that consist of barcodes of encrypted data. I'd bet Doug isn't literate in UPC.
However, not all of the Section 9 operatives are heavy cyborgs. Maj. Kusanagi and Bateau are full conversion 'borgs, but Togusa is almost entirely human.
Anyway, when I have a chance I can send you the fansubs of the GitS TV series. At the moment I've got a bad case of the finals, however. How did you like the Abenobashi stuff, incidentally?
As for the cyborgs, the activities or even existence of Section 9 and other special ops teams is not well-known. HOWEVER, cyborgs generally are common as dirt. Virtually everyone has at least a cyberbrain. Robots are fairly common; all of the bridge bunnies working for Aramaki are robots, not human, and of course there's the fuchikomas. And it's not unusual to see blatantly full conversion cyborgs -- for example most of the judges at Maj. Kusanagi's trial in the manga are those little black cubes on legs.
Even that garbageman had a cyberbrain, which is how he was able to get brain hacked by the Puppetmaster. Without one you're pretty much fated to even more menial jobs than that, even if there is the added assurance that you won't get hacked.
In the TV series, there is an assassination by a person who's face is masked with a computer generated overlay. Everyone sees it, and that's what the cameras pick up too. Only a couple of bums ever see the guy's real face.
Given that he can only use a computer as well as the natives for a few minutes per day, Doug would have problems getting by if he were in the GitS world for any significant span of time. In fact, I'm definately thinking of the scene in the TV series where various people are reading hardcopy documents that consist of barcodes of encrypted data. I'd bet Doug isn't literate in UPC.
However, not all of the Section 9 operatives are heavy cyborgs. Maj. Kusanagi and Bateau are full conversion 'borgs, but Togusa is almost entirely human.
Anyway, when I have a chance I can send you the fansubs of the GitS TV series. At the moment I've got a bad case of the finals, however. How did you like the Abenobashi stuff, incidentally?