The central theme of Lain is the evolution of the collection of interconnected networks referred to as the "Wired". The Wired can be accessed using a computer hardware/software combination known as "Navi," ostensibly short for navigator. While seemingly no different from the traditional concept of the Internet, the software layer which the Wired uses is the cryptically named "Protocol 6". It may be of interest to note that the internet uses "IPv4", that is, Internet Protocol version 4, and plans are already underway to implement IPv6 (yes, Protocol 6) as the need for new internet addresses becomes more common. The Wired Protocol 6 functions like TCP/IP does for the traditional Internet, allowing computers of any architecture to connect to each other using a common data packet exchange framework. The point to note, however, is that these exchanges occur below the visible level. People are not aware of how their information is exchanged.
The anomaly with Protocol 6, however, is that during its development a software engineer experimentally coded in a structure to utilize the resonant frequency of the Earth and its subtle effect on humans. (The Earth does have a fundamental frequency, incidentally.) The manner in which this is actually achieved is not made clear — though references are made to experiments on the latent psionic power dormant in children, a sort of Mass Cathexis where the negligible "psi" energy present in each subject was collected en masse with the result being a high concentration of power. Except others discovered the presumably-destroyed data from these abandoned experiments, and now the Wired is beginning to use this refined application of the data.
Golden Age science fiction author Henry Kuttner once used the same concept of compelling connectedness in his bizarre and quite believable short story "Nothing But Gingerbread Left". As far back as the Middle Ages, there have been historical notes on how every now and then groups of people felt compelled to dance and move in rhythmic ways until they literally fainted from exhaustion. Kuttner devised a sort of word-thought formula that once learned, pricked at the unconscious enough to distract the conscious mind and invite a kind of mass compulsion to recite the formula to the exclusion of all else. Kuttner's characters, living in the World War II era, decide to end the war in their own way -- they write a compulsive word formula in German, and somehow the German troops learn a new marching song.
A particularly disturbing moment in Lain occurs when the Wired protocol is indeed changed, and viewers see Lain's sister miming the actions of dialing a telephone number and subsequently making the sounds of a failed data connection. It took some time to comprehend what had happened: she missed the protocol change, and her "mental modem" can no longer connect. One can only fervently wish that this is not ultimately in store for the users of the Internet -- that if one misses the next step that means missing everything thereafter and the resulting inability to understand what has gone before. Of course, the internet is a rather irascible child when compared to the Wired. Even with the most modern microwave and fiber-optic connections, information still gets delayed, lost or misrouted due to everything from downed phone lines to failing computer hardware to buggy software or even non-technological events like sunspots or one's pet cat knocking a phone off the hook and causing a modem connection to drop. The Wired has evolved past this primitive state, to the point where bandwidth is sufficient to support consciousness.
Lain goes far beyond the technological concept of being connected. The core philosophy of the show is the connectedness of all things. "History," says Lain, "is just a connected series of events. No, they were forced to connect." Contrast this with the now-classic Connections science documentary series hosted by James Burke, wherein Burke painstakingly describes how, by connecting important events, people, and inventions the end product of a particular facet of human genius can be traced to the most inauspicious of roots. Indeed the technology aspect of Lain is a little daunting, bringing to mind mathematician and author Vernor Vinge's masterwork Marooned in Realtime, in which Vinge describes the rate of evolution of technology progressing at such a fantastic pace that by the early 21st century, the curve becomes asymptotic and humanity disappears. What happens to them is never known. It is only speculated that they opened the door to a new world and everyone was compelled to step through and close the door on the old world. "With radio and television," said Lain's father to her in a vision, "the door to the new world was first opened."
The presentation of Serial Experiments Lain is quite psychedelic, a sort of "ultimate trip" in the same essence as 2001: A Space Odyssey was billed during its original release. At times the show has the sharp, acerbic, and outrageously bizarre aspect of such films as Liquid Sky. At other times, the show seems so similar to the Hollywood blockbuster film The Matrix that one has to pause and remember that Lain predates Matrix by almost a year. Even so, both stories expound on the reality of existence, albeit from opposite angles. Or perhaps they are the same angles. It depends upon one's point of view.
Serial Experiments Lain was originally broadcast on TV Tokyo during the Summer of 1998 and was re-broadcast in the fall of 1998. The show comprises thirteen episodes, each titled with a theme "layer," as in a software layer. (As software layers accumulate, they become more abstract, and one might argue the same is true with Lain). The first episode, for instance is Layer 01: Weird, an anagram of Wired. Director Nakamura Ryutaro expertly visualizes each episode, and the intense visual styling does much to cover for the admittedly simplistic art. The series is available on VHS, LD and DVD in Japan and VHS and DVD in North America from Pioneer. The first DVD or tape contains the first four episodes, and the next three DVD or tapes each contain three episodes. 
