Japan 2029, in a dystopian and hyper-technological future the coexistence between "flesh and blood" men, humanoid robots and cyborgs is a consolidated reality.This premise introduces the themes of The Ghost in the Shell, a cyberpunk manga written by Masamune Shirow between 1989 and 1991.In the complex texture hatched by the Japanese author a large part of the world population is connected to neuro-digital networks, the levels of reality (physical, augmented and virtual) thus tend to intersect and merge with each other.In the narrative universe represented, the technological development influences the “semiotically shaped matter"(Hiemslev 1961): any diseased, “outdated” or “unfit” organ can be replaced; the natural aging process is thus altered and the "expiry date" of these (post)human beings is artificially delayed.Cyborgs, humans and robots are pratically indistinguishable, what continues to exclusively characterize "born humans" is the "Ghost", the soul, the spiritual essence of every sentient being.The high technological development represented is not accompanied by widespread well-being and social justice, violence pervades the entire manga.More than thirty years after its creation and six years before its setting, the possible world (Eco 1975) imagined by Shirow has not materialized but many of the (pre)visions contained in the manga are tragically current.This disturbing “ghost of the years to come” raises a series of ethical questions; concepts such as identity, otherness, belonging, responsibility, are mixed up and require specific interpretative lenses to be read, indispensable tools to focus and recompose the fragments of a changeling reality.