History Main / GhostInTheMachine

* Referenced in the BigHero6 episode of [[TheCinemaSnob Midnight Screenings]]:

-->'''Slave-Owner Brian''': (to audience) That means he's thinking.

* Internet comedy group Britanick have done a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo4boNEdoQA&feature=channel_page sketch about this]].

* The upcoming Creator/{{Pixar}} film ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' is based around this concept.

* '' WesternAnimation/OnceUponATime... Life'' used this metaphor extensively, up to the point that the nucleii of every cell in the body were represented by fully staffed command centers.

* '' Once Upon A Time... Life'' used this metaphor extensively, up to the point that the nucleii of every cell in the body were represented by fully staffed command centers.

* The ''[[Series/HermansHead Herman's Head]]'' notion: [[MentalWorld actual little people live inside your brain]], each representing some aspect of personality

* ''LizzieMcguire.''

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' does several gags based on this. In one instance, two accountants are seen working inside Peter's skull as he suffers a hangover. In another, we cut to the inside of his brain, as the last brain cell (in homage to a ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' episode) reflects on having time enough at last to read all his books... [[CruelTwistEnding only to suffer the same terrible fate as his Twilight Zone counterpart]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' does several gags based on this. In one instance, two accountants are seen working inside Peter's skull as he suffers a hangover. In another, we cut to the inside of his brain, as the last brain cell (in homage to a ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' episode) reflects on having time enough at last to read all his books...[[CruelTwistEnding only to suffer the same terrible fate as his Twilight Zone counterpart]].

* Early episodes of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' had Sakura have an alter ego inside her head, an "Inner Sakura" who was easy to anger. This concept was dispensed with somewhat early on, however.
** Inner Sakura helped her shake off Ino's mind control since she was more stubborn than expected.
** Inner Sakura is more of a personification of what Sakura is really thinking. The gag was that whenever Sakura said something, Inner Sakura would be there to let the audience know what she really thought. Once Sakura became more assertive and outgoing, there was really no need for Inner Sakura.

Not to be confused with ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'', the album of the same name by Music/ThePolice, the 1993 horror film named after the Police album (a.k.a. ''Deadly Terror''), an obscure 2003 graphic novel, or Ghost of the Robot, ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' alum JamesMarsters' band.

** Actually, after much debate, Christian philosophers have borrowed the aristotelian notion of body and soul being inextricably interconnected. So yes, we'll have bodies in Heaven, just maybe different. And you don't ''have'' a soul any more than you ''have'' legs - it's just a manner of speaking.

* MenageA3: Most of the cast seems to get ShoulderAngels, but Sandra has her id, ego and superego debating whether or not Didi is flirting with her.

* [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Depending on your interpretation]], this could at least partially be what drives the odd behavior of [[RobotGirl Cameron]] from ''TheSarahConnorChronicles''. The episode "Allison from Palmdale" implies that the "Allison" persona she adopted could be influencing her actions in many ways, especially considering that she ''becomes'' Allison at one point.
* In the ''TheMightyBoosh'' episode "Journey to the Center of the Punk," the ultimate destination of Howard's FantasticVoyage is Vince's brain: a lone cell who looks like Vince and spends all its time watching a television that only shows people who look like Vince.
* In ''{{Seinfeld}}'', Jerry is dating a girl who is gorgeous and sexy, but not very bright. His conflict over this manifests itself in a scene where his brain (Jerry in a brain-shaped hat) and his penis (Jerry in a military helmet) face each other off in a chess game until one folds.

Cartesian philosophy (flanderised by the pop culture - consult the Other wiki)includes a notion that there is, in effect, a little guy [[HappyPlace inside your head.]] He sits on your [[PinealWeirdness pineal gland]] and works the controls that make your robot-like body move around, much like the pilot of a MobileSuitHuman. The little guy is the "real you", and he's a much deeper and more interesting guy than the physical "you" everyone else gets to see, mostly because the human body has lousy User Interface design.

* ''Driver'', by Phish:

Cartesian philosophy includes a notion that there is, in effect, a little guy [[HappyPlace inside your head.]] He sits on your [[PinealWeirdness pineal gland]] and works the controls that make your robot-like body move around, much like the pilot of a MobileSuitHuman. The little guy is the "real you", and he's a much deeper and more interesting guy than the physical "you" everyone else gets to see, mostly because the human body has lousy User Interface design.

* The ''[[Series/HermansHead Herman's Head]]'' notion: actual little people live [[HappyPlace inside your brain]], each representing some aspect of personality

* An element of ''BGataHKei'' has everyone's sexual desires taking the form of small gods (or at least godlike) people that appear around their head.

* GhostInTheShell: anime, manga, and OVA. Takes both a personal look at this, in everything from the mind of Motoko and the arc antagonists to the Case Of The Week, and the more Meta idea of consciousness born of the interactions of millions of consciousness. Most of the anime is spent looking into the idea of mind, consciousness and the viability of a reality in which virtual immersion is so consistently present. If you want to see this trope played with, subverted, deconstructed and ''re''constructed, this would be your primary base of examples. There are literally hundreds of individual examples to choose from, and all 3 mediums present probably the most thorough hypothetical analysis of the idea of the individual mind this side of the 21st century.
** Oh yeah, and the title [[DontExplainTheJoke is...well...relevant]].

* In Leah Moore's ''Albion'' (which did to UK comics of the seventies what [[AlanMoore her father's]] ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' did to Victorian literature), Numskulls and Nervs are both called "Menorgs", relating them to the rather odd theories of Alfred William Lawson.

* In an early chapter of ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', Sena tries to remember how scoring extra points after a touch-down works, which is represented by an ImagineSpot of Sena running around a library before finally asking the Devil Bats' mascot about it. Sena even thinks to himself afterward "I've got quite a vivid imagination."

* An episode of ''Series/CornerGas'' had this, in Hank's head. Lacey almost shows him how to open a notoriously difficult carafe, but he stops her, saying he has a limited amount of room in his head. Cut to two a Hank sitting at a desk in front of some boxes. Another one comes up to him to place a box of Bananarama lyrics. A minute later, Hank tries to tell a joke, but he says "Bananarama" instead of the proper punchline. Cut to his head again, where the boxes have all fallen and mixed together.

* On ''BoboboboBobobo'', little people who reflected Bobobo's state of mind would be seen inside or around Bobobo's head. Examples include two talking squirrels going through a break-up, the graduating class of a Japanese high school, a mecha pilot, and a rock band. The thing is, they were not only visible to the audience, but to the ''other characters''.

* In an early chapter of the ''{{Eyeshield 21}}'' manga, Sena trying to remember how scoring extra points after a touch-down works is represented by an ImagineSpot of a mini-Sena running around a library before finally asking the Devil Bats' mascot about it. Sena even thinks to himself afterward "I've got quite a vivid imagination."

* ''[[http://www.comedity.com/ Comedity]]''. What video gamer doesn't have a Personality 47, aka "[[RedRightHand The Red Right Hand]]"?

* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' and its sequels are a computer game expression of this trope, in that the player serves to control the Sims' every move. TheSimsMedieval has the player play as [[{{God}} The Watcher]] and control the characters.

Not to be confused with ''GhostInTheShell'', the album of the same name by Music/ThePolice, the 1993 horror film named after the Police album,an obscure 2003 graphic novel, or Ghost in The Machine, ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' alum James Marsters' band.

* A major part of the premise of ''ShugoChara'', where the Guardian Charas within everybody are their Ghost in the Machine brought out into the real world. Most people have one, but heroine Amu has three [[spoiler: later four]]. That's one very busy machine.

** [[spoiler: The finale suggests that they're [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]], or maybe [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]]]]

* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', over the course of the series, John has had everything from retreating into his inner self to try to work ideas out, to literal multi-layered ''wars'' inside his mind. On a day to day basis, his inner self usually has prolonged conversations with [[spoiler: Harvey, Scorpius's mind clone who is [[EnigmaticMinion mostly almost not entirely]] [[ReliableTraitor trying to help John]]. ...[[MagnificentBastard Maybe]].]]