"Humans who lose the capacity to think become creatures whose existence has no value. Think, you humans who are split into two worlds! Unless you want the gulf between humans to expand into oblivion, you must THINK!" - Sign Schwarzwald
Wise words, Schwarzwald. Most wise indeed.
Best quote in the series.
Kafka said to truly learn something from literature, the work needs to wound you in some way. Another essayist named Cixous says you need to die in a way (your complacency for instance). I don't know if Akahashi and Hasegawa drew on these two, but it's likely something you arrive at eventually with sideways thinking. Anyway, with Paradigm City being such a soap opera, one might say that dying/living is an analogue for the two worlds Schwarzwald refers to.
Cixous' essay, School of the Dead, is probably something very interesting to read to come up with new understands with Big O and probably more.