The Wired

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Background

The Wired is a communication system used by most characters in Serial Experiments Lain, allowing users to connect, share information, and interact with each other in a digital space.

"There is the world around us, a world of people, tactile sensation, and culture. There is the wired world, inside a computer, of images, personalities, virtual experiences, and a culture all of its own."

The Wired is described as "an advanced form of communication." It serves as a virtual space where people from around the world can communicate, exchange ideas, play games, and interact socially. As the series progresses, the Wired becomes essential to modern society, with many people relying on it for daily activities. Its influence is so great that some view it almost as a vital resource, prioritizing their time in the virtual world over the physical one. For some, the Wired has taken on a role similar to a belief system, offering a sense of connection and belonging.

However, this reliance on the Wired raises concerns for certain individuals, particularly older generations, who worry about the impact of spending too much time in a virtual world. While the Wired offers many benefits, its overuse could lead to neglect of the physical world. For these critics, it is important to remember that the real world remains the foundation of human existence and should not be overlooked.

Protocols
The Wired runs on the IPv6 protocol, which enables communication between users. This protocol allows people to project themselves into the Wired and interact through digital avatars. The Psyche chip, an accessory for NAVI computers, plays a crucial role in allowing users to engage with the Wired fully, providing a more interactive experience.

Tachibana General Laboratories is credited with creating the technical framework for the Wired. However, as the series progresses, a new protocol, IPv7, is introduced. Initially intended to improve the connectivity of the Wired, this protocol is altered by Masami Eiri, who secretly adds a feature that allows human minds to be uploaded directly into the Wired. This change shifts the Wired from a communication tool to a potential vessel for human consciousness.

Virtual Reality
With the aid of the Psyche chip or similar technology, users can project themselves into the Wired, communicating through their digital avatars. This enables them to engage in social interactions within a virtual world, bypassing the limitations of the physical world.

The Wired is often depicted as a vast, empty space, sometimes portrayed as a black void. In this space, users cannot fully present their physical forms and instead use avatars that reflect their choices or the limitations of the technology. While most interactions take place in this abstract environment, there are rare moments when the Wired mirrors real-world locations, providing a more tangible connection to the physical world.

Navigating the Wired is a deeply immersive experience, allowing users to interact with its many features, from socializing to exploring virtual spaces. However, it also raises questions about the nature of reality and the impact of spending too much time in a digital world. For some characters, the Wired serves as a refuge from the struggles of the real world, while for others, it becomes a source of anxiety and isolation.

The Wired in Serial Experiments Lain is more than just a communication system. It represents a shift in how humans connect with each other and the world around them. As technology continues to advance, the line between the virtual and the real becomes increasingly difficult to define, posing questions about how these changes will affect society and personal identity.

General Information

Name: The Wired

Origin: Serial Experiments Lain

First Appearance: Serial Experiments Lain

Company: Triangle Staff

Creator

• Created By: Yasuyuki Ueda
• Written By: Chiaki J. Konaka
• Directed By: Ryūtarō Nakamura

Sex: None

Sexuality: None

Pronouns: It

Age: Unknown (The Wired was created back when Eiri Masami was still alive and worked on Protocol Seven, though the show never gives a timeframe for how long ago this was)

Story Role: Mysterious Alternate World

Legacy: Worldwide Legacy (The Wired is Eiri Masami's wireless worldwide neural network where all humans are plugged in at the unconscious level without the need for any device, encoding the Schumann Resonance Factor and inserting it into the 7th-gen Wired Protocol)

Classification: The Internet, Alternate World

Object: Wireless Worldwide Neural Network

State of Being: Regular

Physiology: Digital Space Physiology

In-Universe Creator: Eiri Masami

Wielder Eiri Masami (As an "acting God"), Lain Iwakura (Lain completely destroyed the boundary between the Wired and the real world, allowing her to completely control reality)

Size: Universal (The Wired is referred to as being essentially "another world")

Weight: Unknown

Environment: Digital Space

Resources: Practically Infinite

Status: Active (Even after Lain reset the world and caused herself to never exist through Eiri Masami never creating the Wired or Protocol Seven, she still existed within the Wired and could later manifest into the real world despite never existing)

Alignment: Unaligned

Codex Statistics

Cardinality: Unknown

Dimensionality: 3+1-D

Range: Universal (The Wired is referred to as being essentially "another world")

Intelligence: Mindless Intelligence

Knowledge: Mindless level

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Existential State

Acausality (Causality Immunity) & Personal Nonexistence (Even after Lain reset the world and caused herself to never exist through Eiri Masami never creating the Wired or Protocol Seven, she still existed within the Wired and could later manifest into the real world despite never existing)

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Effects

Data Manipulation & Information Manipulation (What flows through the Wired isn't merely electrical information and through its development its essentially the creation of another world)

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Notable Features

• Inhabitants: Lain Iwakura, Eiri Masami
• Areas: PHANTOMa (A popular MMORPG within the Wired that is popular with children)

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Other

Issues: The Wired is initially just a way to connect with others as an internet platform, however as time goes on Lain breaks the border between the Wired and the real world, having it essentially overlap with the real world.

Trivia

• In .flow, Sabitsuki entering the alternate world from a computer rather then a bed was noted by the author to probably be drawn from Serial Experiments Lain.

Themes

Serial Experiments Lain follows many different themes throughout the series, all of these themes associate and relate with Lain Iwakura herself as everything and everyone is connected with her and through Protocol Seven.

Identity

A central theme throughout the Serial Experiments Lain franchise is the exploration of Lain Iwakura's identity. Throughout the anime, Lain demonstrates multiple personalities and often appears in two places at once, implying the existence of more than one version of herself.

• To Herself:

Lain repeatedly questions her own existence with phrases like "Who am I?" and tries to reassure herself with "I am myself!" as a way to assert her identity. However, given that she is a creation of the human collective unconscious, born from the Wired, it is only natural for her to take on different forms and identities as perceived by each individual who interacts with her. A particularly striking scene in Layer 08 depicts a multitude of chattering Lain mannequins, symbolizing all the versions of Lain as seen through the eyes of other people.

• Others:

Lain will usually hear other voices asking about her. An example is in Layer 03: Psyche, where she hears voices repeatedly saying "Who is Lain?".

Death

Death is another theme throughout the Serial Experiments Lain series, a lot of the series plot kickstarts from Layer 01: "Weird" where Yomoda Chisa committing suicide and sending emails to people despite being dead. Posing the question what exactly happens when one dies with Lain asking Chisa through speaking to her NAVI why did she die. Chisa communicating through Lain's Navi notes that she never died, she just abandoned her flesh.

Lain also sees a person jump in front of a train and kill themself, with them making both a happy and horrified face.

In Layer 02: Girls Lain goes to a night club where a boy shoots two of the patrons, and after seeing Lain starts having a mental breakdown with Lain simply saying "No matter where you are, everyone is always connected." setting him off enough to kill himself.

In Layer 03: Psyche, Lain hears an old women talk about how it didn't matter if she was there or not in the real world, and when she realized that she was no longer afraid of losing her body.

Memory

Memory plays a central role in Serial Experiments Lain. Lain Iwakura demonstrates the ability to alter reality by modifying people's memories, particularly in Layer 08 and most prominently during the reset.

A well-known quote from Lain that reflects this theme is:

A memory is only a record. You just have to rewrite that record.

This concept is further emphasized in the Visual Experiments Lain entry for Layer 07: Society. Presented as a journal entry by Lain, the passage highlights the fragmented and unreliable nature of her recollections. The text, preserved with its original grammatical mistakes, reads:

Last Sunday, I went out with my family.
We went to our relative's house in Fujisawa by train. All of us together.
We left at the time I usually leave for school.
On our way to the station, my mother noticed that she forgot something,
so we went back to the house.
It was the first time we went to their house in Fujisawa--No. I was mistaken.
We've been there several times. I just forget things sometime.
Meeting my uncle and aunt. I greeted them saying "Nice to meet you" by mistake,
and they laughed at me.
I don't remember what happened while I was in the train.
But I think I was hearing my father and mother talk quietly about the medicine
all the way.
I was hearing it absent-mindedly.
Then I began to feel as if I was at school and I felt sick.
I endured it all the way through. Meeting my uncle and aunt,
I said "Hello." No, I said "Nice to meet you." Was my father and mother there?
Last Sunday, I went out alone.
I went to relative's house in Fujisawa alone.

What begins as a straightforward recollection of a family trip becomes increasingly uncertain. Lain first questions whether she had visited the house before, then feels disoriented as if she were at school rather than on a train. She misremembers how she greeted her relatives and ultimately concludes that she went alone, casting doubt on the entire account.

The ambiguity of the event illustrates how unreliable memory can distort reality and challenge the perception of truth.

In the final episode, Yasuo Iwakura alludes to Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time by suggesting that he and Lain should enjoy tea with madeleines. This reference draws a connection to the novel’s exploration of voluntary and involuntary memory.

Digital World

The digital world and its impact on the adolescents is another factor to the series. Lain starts off having little knowledge about computers and the NAVI but as the series goes on she stays completely hooked to her computer.

Lain's personality becomes more open when she's within the digital world, likely in reference to how one's personality is more open and outgoing when they are speaking to others on the internet.

Communication

Communication serves as a major theme in Serial Experiments Lain, particularly within the anime. The Wired functions as a central medium of communication, leading many characters to believe that it renders in-person interaction obsolete.

At the start of the anime, game, and manga, Lain Iwakura is portrayed as deeply isolated. However, over the course of the anime, she begins to form connections—most notably with Alice Mizuki—and gradually opens up to others through the Wired. Despite Masami Eiri’s efforts to convince her that physical reality holds no value, Lain comes to understand—through Alice and her father Yasuo Iwakura—that having a physical presence and the ability to speak face-to-face remains essential.

This understanding gives deeper meaning to the series’ conclusion. The reset becomes Lain’s ultimate sacrifice, made by someone who only briefly understood what it meant to live with a body, yet chose to give that up for the sake of others.

Crosstalk

Crosstalk is the term Chiaki J. Konaka uses to describe the phenomenon where several voices overlap in conversation. It features prominently in the Serial Experiments Lain anime, first appearing in Layer 03. These scenes typically signify Lain’s presence within the Wired, reflecting moments when she conducts research or listens in on conversations.

A subtle instance of crosstalk may appear earlier in Layer 01. While riding the train, Lain hears garbled voices, even though no one nearby seems to be speaking. This suggests that Lain has an innate sensitivity to the Wired’s signals—an ability that becomes fully realized after she installs the Psyche chip in Layer 03. In the scenario notes for Layer 01, Konaka likens this moment to the early experiences of the protagonist in the 1981 film *Scanners*, who hears intrusive voices before learning to control his telepathy.

Crosstalk scenes in the anime are often paired with stylized typography.

In the game, this ability is more overt. Lain can hear voices transmitted through phone lines and electromagnetic signals, with the first clear instance occurring in Cou020. When left idle, the game sometimes shifts to audio clips of crosstalk layered over imagery of telephone poles and power lines.

Family

Family holds significant thematic weight in Serial Experiments Lain, particularly in the anime.

Lain Iwakura's interactions with her family are noticeably strained. She speaks with them in a detached, uneasy manner, and even their conversations with each other feel stilted and unnatural. This discomfort signals that her family may not be what they seem—a truth confirmed in Layer 10, when it is revealed that Lain’s family is artificial. Despite this, her "father" Yasuo Iwakura shows genuine care for her before leaving, providing one of the few moments of warmth.

The anime also briefly explores another family, the Masatsugu household, made up of Shoko Masatsugu and her son Shou. Unlike Lain’s family, they appear close, bonding over a shared interest in video games. Their story ends tragically in Layer 10, after the collapse of the Knights of the Eastern Calculus leads to Shoko's death.

Throughout the series, the idea of family is presented not as a safe haven but as another uncertain construct. This subversion reinforces the anime’s broader themes of instability in reality and the fragility of human connections.

God

In Serial Experiments Lain, the concept of God is explored through varying definitions—ranging from a being who is simply omnipresent and acknowledged by at least one believer, to a fully omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent entity. These perspectives are embodied by characters like Masami Eiri, who claims to be the God of the Wired, and Lain Iwakura, who eventually attains a godlike state herself.

A key moment regarding the idea of God is found in Visual Experiments Lain, on the Layer 04 Religion page. In an interview with Lain, she hesitantly acknowledges the existence of a God in the Wired:

[...God.] --What god? [The God of Wired.] --There's a God of Wired? You believe that? [(silence)] --Answer me. [...There is if I believe there is...] --That answer isn't good enough. [...There is...a God...] --All right, fine. The God of Wired is the god of the top level of the real world hierarchy--in other words, a being that controls the entire world. Is that right? [...Who are you?]

The interviewer is implied to be Eiri in disguise, mirroring the method he uses in Layer 05 to manipulate Lain via the likenesses of her parents and other figures.

Lain’s statement—"There is if I believe there is"—is not just avoidance, but a deeper commentary on the nature of belief within the Wired. This becomes especially significant in Layer 10, when Eiri claims he is no longer God because all his followers have died. Lain counters this, saying there is still one believer left: herself. This implies that Eiri’s divinity is entirely dependent on her belief, highlighting the subjective and constructed nature of divinity in the world of the Wired.

Explanations

The following is an explanation of some of the terms in Serial Experiments Lain

ExpandTerms

Name Description Schumann Resonances The Schumann resonances are referenced in Layer 09 of Serial Experiments Lain. These are natural peaks in the Earth's electromagnetic spectrum. In the series, it's suggested that these frequencies can influence the human brain directly, enabling a connection to the Wired without the need for external hardware. This concept is tied to the operation of the Psyche chip. Masami Eiri altered Protocol 7 to enable human access to the Wired via the Schumann resonances. His actions led to his dismissal from Tachibana General Laboratories. It’s implied that Eiri, possibly through the Knights of the Eastern Calculus, helped spread the Psyche chip as part of his goal to link humanity together into a single, earthbound neural network.. Protocol Seven An Internet Protocol created by Masami Eiri. He modified it to enable direct access to the Wired through the Schumann resonances, removing the need for a NAVI device. This is achieved through the use of the Psyche chip. The Wired The Wired is a global communication network resembling the internet, widely used by the cast of Serial Experiments Lain. It exists alongside the physical world as a parallel space for digital interaction, where users can exchange thoughts, communicate, and participate in virtual experiences. "There is the world around us, a world of people, tactile sensation, and culture. There is the wired world, inside a computer, of images, personalities, virtual experiences, and a culture all of its own." Described as an advanced form of communication, the Wired has become essential to modern society. Many people treat it with extreme reverence, often prioritizing it over the real world, while some older individuals express concern over its influence and the risk of people losing their grasp on reality. The Wired primarily runs on IPv6, a protocol that allows users to manifest personalized avatars and interact more fully with the network. The Psyche chip is a NAVI accessory that unlocks these capabilities. Tachibana General Laboratories is responsible for the development of these protocols. A new version, IPv7, is introduced during the series. It was secretly altered by Masami Eiri to allow human consciousness to be uploaded into the Wired. With devices like the Psyche chip, users are able to visually project themselves into the Wired and communicate through digital personas. The Wired is usually depicted as a surreal black void, with users appearing in distorted or symbolic forms. On rare occasions, it presents as a near-exact digital replica of real-world locations. KIDS The KID System, also known as KIDS, is a psychotronic device designed to channel and amplify dormant psychic abilities in children. Developed by Professor Hodgeson for the Kensington Experiment roughly 15 years before the main events of Serial Experiments Lain, the system was dismantled after the experiment ended in failure. Hodgeson destroyed the machine and erased its blueprints, but the Knights of the Eastern Calculus later managed to recover the data. Unlike the original version, which relied on external components called Outer Receptors to gather psi energy, the Knights’ version of the system operates without them. The system plays a central role in Layer 06, where the collective psychic output of children conjures a massive projection of Lain in the sky. This event is framed by a discussion between Lain and Hodgeson, symbolizing her research into the KIDS system. According to a footnote in Scenario Experiments Lain, the Kensington Experiment was inspired by the Philadelphia Experiment. Psyche The Psyche is an enhancement chip designed to boost the capabilities of standard NAVI computers, particularly newer models. It is not commercially distributed and is thought to have originated in Taiwan, possibly through the Knights of the Eastern Calculus. With the Psyche chip installed, users can access the Wired without traditional input devices like keyboards, mice, or voice commands, enabling complete motion and range of interaction.