Psycho-Pass – 12
Hmm, something tells me this miiiiight be bad.
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The shining beacon that keeps me going through this dull season is largely thanks to continuing series such as Psycho-Pass. Oh, how I missed watching and writing about Psycho-Pass. It’s back with a new OP, ED, and change of focus into the past instead of the present. |
We’ve all been itching to find out what happened to Akane after her earth-shattering encounter with Makishima. Instead of waiting just one week, we had to endure a hiatus period as well. I guess they figured “why not make them wait even more?” by suddenly doing a flashback episode in the middle of the series for a character we hardly even know. As much as I think a lot of the characters are woefully under-developed and in dire need of attention, I’d prefer them getting this huge cliffhanger resolved before suddenly breaking off in another direction. It doesn’t help much that Yayoi hardly plays a big role in the series. She doesn’t seem to be too different 3 years ago than she is now.
As much as I personally would prefer to find out about Akane right away to remedy my natural impatience, I will admit that this episode wasn’t just put there for no reason. The ending where Yayoi tries to shoot her friend but fails is a nice parallel scene to Akane failing to shoot Makishima. Unclouded as she is, she cannot stand to bear any burdens that will drag her down into latent criminal territory, so she balks at the idea of shooting someone just because they are doing something morally wrong.
We don’t actually know if Rina was a latent criminal or not, but Yayoi still makes the tough decision to shoot her idol because she was doing something that went against what she personally thought was right. This may be because Yayoi has a lot less to lose by killing someone since she has already been institutionalized due to her instability. What’s another few shades darker going to matter in the grand scheme of things? Compared to Enforcers, the cops of the police force are so desperate to remain sane that it is paralyzing them in important situations. These situations are very rare since Dominators work on almost all criminals, but it still shows the difference in willpower between the two.
Fabulous or not, she WILL shoot you.
If there’s one thing I gleaned from this episode about Yayoi, it’s that she’s a really strong person. She seems a lot more together than her other inmates that were doing a range of activities from high-fiving the wall with their forehead to drawing obsessively on the walls. She’s incredibly logical and usually very composed. Despite being locked up and treated like a ticking time bomb, she still doesn’t blindly listen to Rina and join her petty attempt to bring down Sibyl. Next to someone like Makishima, their anarchy movement seems pathetic. Their only plan seems to be “destroy stuff and play music.” Thank goodness Yayoi has a good head on her shoulders and knew that her friend was being ridiculous. After learning more about her, I can only hope they don’t shove her back into the shadows again for the rest of the series. That would be a huge waste.
Although this was largely a character-based episode (not just for Yayoi, but for Sasayama and pre-Enforcer Kougami) we still get a good dose of world-building and new facts about Sibyl. First of all, it seems that anyone with a criminal coefficient over 100 must be locked up and heavily monitored. Anyone under that number but close to 100 (from 80 upwards, if I had to guess) would probably just receive therapy. It’s funny that Kougami orders Sasayama to protect a girl with a criminal coefficient of 98, yet someone like Yayoi who is only a few points above that gets locked up. The most striking aspect of the numbering system is that a lot of the others with criminal coefficients around 110 or 120 seem to be severely disturbed compared to Yayoi, yet they are only a few points higher on the scale. If they’re this bad, how can this scale possibly shoot up to 400 for criminals like Rikako? Are they really that much more worse than a guy smashing his forehead until he bleeds? The more examples we see, the more confused I am about this scale. I know it’s just measuring the potential to commit a crime (and not actually insanity or anything like that), but I see little difference between the people in this place and the high security prison Kougami took Akane to. The latter was filled with criminals that had insanely high numbers.
Now, how did she get institutionalized in the first place? Was it from being a musician? I found it very hard to swallow that even artists were restricted by Sybil, and certain people were either authorized to create and share their art or not. It makes sense, since some artists get so passionate that they go a little insane in order to get a creative edge. Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear and actors who get too involved into their roles may end up channeling that character too much and have it leak into their normal personality. I recall reading about a study where actors would invoke feelings of depression as if they were playing the role of a sad character were put in a brain scan along with patients who had Major Depression. The results were nearly identical. Even just pretending to play the role of a depressed character will activate the same regions of the brain as someone who is genuinely sad or has Major Depression.
There’s also the issue of art affecting other people too deeply. The members of a screamo band who sing about wrist-cutting and suicide could be all perfectly clear, but anyone attending their concert may be at risk concerning their Hue cloudiness. Therefore if you aren’t authorized, you not only have to be a little shady about how you show your art to others, but not many people will be willing to support you if they’re afraid of becoming cloudy. Yayoi’s bandmate scoffs at Rina before even hearing her sing just because her band isn’t authorized. So it appears that not only psychology lectures are restricted, but art as well. It makes sense, but I really dislike the idea of having everything so restricted. While underground artists always exist if you want to find them, it takes a lot more effort to find them.
I guess this means they have a way of quantifying art in terms of exactly how it can make you feel. Actually, I wonder how exactly they go about deciding what is worth authorizing. I imagine they’d have to screen the artist and then run tests to see how some judges react to being exposed to the art. If their Hue gets cloudy, it is rejected. Or do they just look at the content itself and decide what MIGHT make affect people negatively? As we see the Sibyl System leak into even more areas in life, it seems like this obsession with mental health is becoming almost…unhealthy.
Bonus Screencaps:Show ▼
I’m still dying to know about Akane, but this was still a decent episode. Yayoi’s past was unexpected and interesting, especially since we got to see her interact with a younger Ginoza and Kougami. The biggest bonus is seeing Sasayama in action. Sure, we were told about how brash he was, but it’s a whole different story to witness it. He’s exactly like Kougami described, minus the yet-unseen ass-grabbing. While I’m mostly here for Sibyl, I wouldn’t mind this sort of attention being paid to characters like Akane, Kougami, Ginoza or even Masaoka. Yayoi is really an unexpected choice to focus on. Oh well, her story was pretty cool in the end, even if Rina made an absolutely abysmal villain. As if playing some j-rock will make everyone suddenly realize the Sibyl System is a bad thing and change the entire world. If it was that easy, this show would be 6 episodes instead of 22.
After Makishima, this guy should be cake…
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
As usual, I enjoyed this episode, and thought Yayoi’s story was pretty good. Her choice in strings, not as much, as I find Ernie Balls tend to break too much for my tastes, but that’s something different (I use d’Addario’s).
I really liked two things that were portrayed about the Sybil system here: That it gives recommendations on things like being an artist, and that there are people that still do things that Sybil says they shouldn’t do. It shows that Sybil is not as all-soul-crushing as people have inferred. But it also shows that those people run a risk when they go in defiance of the system. Like it or not, Rina was an actual criminal (yes, conspiracy to revolt is a crime, usually only prosecuted when offering an actual threat, because otherwise it wastes a lot of time, and vandalism is a crime). Did being a musician cause that? I dunno. Did the same things that made her not approved for being a performing artist contribute to her being a criminal? Likely.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Yes, the actual existence of both sides is great, because that proves that there are people with their own opinions left in that world. I bet the resistance group will be really big and strong, if it appears at all(which I’m pretty sure about).
I think it’s not only about the musicians, any people that love art in general and like to create paintings/music/novels etc. are more prone to the darkening of their psycho-passes, because those kind of people, lets say, like to go very far out of the box and look into pretty dark places of their minds. Artists are often very strange people, probably that’s the reason why.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It’s unfortunate that they have to authorize artists, but it’s better than completely abolishing all unauthorized artists (which is usually the case in dystopian societies). If you wanted to see someone like Rina perform, you could. It’s just…highly discouraged.
@Namika: Well, I wouldn’t say all artists will turn out a certain way just because they’re an artist. It’s really a combination of factors that cause people to become criminals, so it’s unfair to blame just one factor. Yes, some artists will have their hues darken…but then there are things like art therapy to calm people down, and the fact that classical music can relax people.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I’m not saying that ALL artists will have darker colors, I’m just saying that most of them are much more prone to that.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Mais enfin!! (I was dusting off some of my French). Finally the insatiable two week break is at end. The new OP was odd and Ghost in the Shell-esque but good. Still kind of liked [Abnormalize] a bit more. The OP song [Out Of Control] was sung by Nothing’s Carved In Stone who did the OP [Spirit Inspiration] for Zetsuen no Tempest.
This was just like Shiki when everyone wanted to know what happened to Natsuno after he got bit the first time but got denied until an episode later. Even though it went prequel and strayed from the main story, I’m grateful there was some insight on Yayoi and how she became an Enforcer (Shizuka Ito’s most interesting role since Koko Hekmatyar). After finding out how she ended up in rehab, I’d be in an unfathomable amount of despair if I ever lived in Sibyl. If you can enjoy something as common as art without the risk of being imprisoned, then you, my friend, are living in slavery. Kogami saying a person being released can never return to a normal makes it all the more depressing. The way latent criminals are gives the impression that the decisions are made by chance making the system even faultier and I can easily see why Sasayama got red flagged.
What kept Yayoi so strong was the hope of being free and listening to music while the other inmates had already given up. But at the same time, her hope would have been the source of her despair if she didn’t have the opportunity Kogami and
Reverse SeishinGinoza gave her. There’s no greater despair without hope being implied. She probably got institutionalized because she grew too passionate and her mind was affected. Side note: I wonder if Shion started coming on to her after that detailed explanation of the territory.While Rina and Makishima methods may be morally wrong, they raise good and compelling arguments about how the citizens are just blindly putting themselves in bondage of an otherwise oppressive and prejudiced system without a second. If your will is taken, you lose the very thing that makes you human.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’m going to guess that Yayoi and Shion kind of just gravitated together after she’s been working as an Enforcer. She seems to have lady-liking tendencies (with Rina) and being basically stuck in that building, she’s gonna find someone of a similar bent.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Well, their “friendship” must have progressed tremendously over the past three years. If you look back at episode 2, as Akane was about to go inside of Shion’s lab, out comes Yayoi in a rush to get herself dressed followed by Akane seeing Shion on her couch fixing her hair and trying to make herself decent like pulling back her stockings. A person with their mind in the gutter would assume a lot of perverted things.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I didn’t really think either one of them (Yayoi or Shion) were particularly embarrassed about that. If that’s what they want to do, more power to them. I would guess that’s another benefit of being an Enforcer, rather than in treatment in the institution.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I agree. More power to the yuri relationship. That’s the tolerant thing in my book. I just think they didn’t want to caught in the act and have to answer difficult and embarrasing questions because if it’s true, they’re hiding it from the rest of the team.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
That’s “hiding” like a cat in the middle of a linoleum floor… Plus, I don’t really know if anyone else would say anything, maybe Kagari would give them a hard time, but Masaoka wouldn’t say anything, and Ginoza would just roll his eyes.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Learning French is good! I have a certificate that says I’m officially bilingual but I forget almost all of my French. I can read it just fine, but don’t ask me to talk or write my own sentences…
I actually thought about Shiki too since the cliffhanger was so INSANELY SUSPENSEFUL before the hiatus. It’s kind of sad that art is limited in that world. I probably would never see bands like Rina because I’d be too afraid of getting cloudy. And once you get cloudy, it almost seems like going back is impossible based on how they treat you. Being a latent criminal becomes your identity, and you live that way until you die.
I’m going to agree with Highway and assume they just naturally became closer. Then somehow their friendship..um..escalated lol.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It’s a benefit to know another language. French is my second one but I mostly speak english. I see myself in the same situation as you where reading and writing sentences are concerned. The new OP was good but they caught me off guard with the ED showing all the characters naked. Why was that necessary?
Nothing’s worse than being denied satisfaction after such suspense but this episode won some leniency. What Psycho-Pass is trying to show that you can’t have thing without the other. Like if you want safety, you give up something in exchange. If you’ve seen Equilibrium, you’ll notice some similarities with the “order” of their society. For someone labeled a latent criminal, Yayoi is pretty reserved on emotions unless something really gets under her skin. Her expressions are calm, almost uncaring.
A lot of things probably happened over the three years that would bring those suggested things between them in episode 2 the moment Akane walked in on them.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You should learn Japanese with me! I had 3 years of French in HS, that was enough of that. But I can still usually understand French better than Japanese, even if it was that long ago.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
How are you learning Japanese? Just through anime or are you actively studying? I took a first year course on Japanese, but haven’t really been keeping up my studying. The more languages the better~
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
I was confused by the naked people in the ED as well. Not necessary, unless we find in the next part of the story that they’re all /stripped down/ to some sort of base human mental state of some kind.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It was probably done to give some viewers a very naughty look at their favorite characters. Since then, I’ve seen a number of comments, some fangirling over Kogami and Makishima and other drooling over Akane and Yayoi. If look back at the second ED of Shiki, you’ll see the same style was being used but in a setting that fits the show’s atmosphere.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
They got really lazy for the animation of the ED and OP, so it was probably easy to just draw everyone without clothes on. That’s what I thought of first, although if there’s something deeper here like what Gecko suggests, that would be nice. Hmm, but fanservice is always nice =w=
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
I actually tried to watch this show with French subs to keep up my French for the future. I dropped it after 10 minutes because it was awful for me.
And then I saw it was Urobuchi and watched with English subs… so much for keeping up that 2nd language.
But I managed very well in French class. You could say I found where I would get an “A” under Sibyl in job terms.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
You gain points in my opinion for trying and lasting at least 10 minutes. I don’t think I could have done that myself willingly because I’m so used to english subs/dubs and it would feel out of place to suddenly change. You’d probably earn a spot as a translator in Sibyl thanks to your qualifications.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Don’t French subs take more time to come out than english? I have no idea, I’m just guessing. I’ve never watched anything with French subs before, but I imagine it’s tough because you have to keep up with the subs as they disappear and if you don’t know Japanese then you don’t have the auditory info to draw from either. A nice challenge indeed, but..very hard to stick with lol.
An A in French is very impressive! Don’t be like me – keep practicing it so you can put it on a resume XD. Sibyl will make you a translator for sure!
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
They usually do but it’s been a long time since I watched an anime with French subs. Not that I’m missing it anyway. Watching it like that was like having your entire viewing routine broken down.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
One of these series, I’m actually going to commit to watching it at least the first time through without subs. With the idea of trying to further my Japanese learning by not relying on reading. When I’ve done that for shows that I’ve already watched with subs, I find I hear a LOT more of the words.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
This depression thought reminded me of how Heath Ledger died. Well, we still don’t know it was an overdose or not but it was all about getting too much into character (Dark Knight and I’m Not There being examples).
It’s interesting how Sibyl system is breaking apart in front of our eyes from perfection to something that can be played around with, just as Makishima did it. That in itself proves that the system is flawed and humans can’t really be judged on the basis of some selected factors.
I boo’d at the screen for this flashback story but still it was good enough. I really want to know what happened with our moe-officer and the consequence of her trauma. Will her hue darken after this or she’ll cope somehow?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Again, I’m in the position of defending a system that I’m not sure I would prefer to live under. I don’t think the system has ever been presented as perfect, or perhaps it’s just been my opinion that there’s no way it could have been perfect, so I never built it up to be such. It’s a tool, made by humans. And yet I still think it’s been portrayed as one of those things that, in nearly every case, is correct in how it evaluates people. The only person that we’ve been shown that it’s wrong about is Makishima, and his particular case is, as I described it before, basically a superpower.
We might not like some of the implications of such a system, but it’s really hard to dismiss it out of hand as broken, or even really ‘dehumanizing’. Perhaps compared to some ideal that does not exist anywhere (and likely cannot exist given the nature of random human beings), it is freedom-limiting and somewhat soul crushing. But I’m actually finding it hard to argue against the Sibyl system in comparison to what we have now. We definitely don’t have a full picture on what the world is like with it, but it doesn’t seem that humans are really that different in this future world than they are now in our world.
So it does seem that humans *can* be judged correctly on these factors. And people are judged on all sorts of individually weighted factors every day: how hard you work, what you’re wearing, where you are, what you look like, the people you hang out with, the way you react to things, the car you drive, the condition of your house, on and on and on. If Sibyl is really a way of doing a large-scale bioscan, and comes up with an accurate assessment on the quick (I’d imagine that for a lot of the stuff we hear about, it needs far more information, like for your profession. It can’t just figure that out by pointing a Dominator at you.) then I think that’s nearly universally better than the system we have now. It’s really hard to argue against it.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
What about Yayoi? She isn’t a criminal. Her color got darker because of the music she listened to, didn’t it? That’s not entirely correct, because even if you frequently peek into ‘the dark world’ it doesn’t mean that you’re a potential criminal and are dangerous to society.
The Sibyl system isn’t broken or defective. It’s just a machine, that’s the only problem there is. Human soul/mind, call it whatever you may, isn’t a piece of paper or a computer note to be examined so easily. It’s a very, very difficult structure that even we, humans, will never be able to fully understand and decipher. In my opinion, letting a machine do something like that is just inadequate. People need to have the freedom of choice. And I don’t mean a wide range of apartment designs or clothes. I mean choices that greatly affect your future life. Right now, I have a lot of doors in front of me. And while I may be a good, talented singer, I may also love making sweets, regardless of being bad at it.
If I had to choose between the world as it is today and world of Psycho-pass, where I would be able to climb a career latter rather easily, but would have to sacrifice a part of my mental freedom, I would definitely choose the first one. Yes, a system without flaws is nonexistent, but I think that the flaws of the Sibyl system, or better yet – the flaws in it’s execution are far too costly. In the end, everything depends on what you are ready to sacrifice.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Who knows why her color got darker? Perhaps it was tension between her bandmates and Yayoi wanting to hang out with Rina more. Perhaps it was the act of hanging out with Rina itself. We aren’t given that information. But for whatever reason, a person that Sibyl thought could handle being a musician was eventually deemed to be unsafe for society and incarcerated for treatment. She was obviously not as far gone as the other lost souls we saw in the treatment center, but we could still see that there were aspects to her attitude that were potentially violent and susceptible to frustration.
The thing about your hypothetical about choices is that if you are bad at something, if you try to make a career out of it, you *will* fail. Or you will be carried along by other people who don’t fail. Your choices in that context mean that in the best case, you fail and have to do something else, and in worse cases, you impose on other people who should have no obligation to cover for your mistakes. But if you like doing something as a hobby, we haven’t seen anywhere that Sibyl would prevent that. So how does that close down choices? It is preventing you from making easily preventable mistakes, and preventing you from increasing social costs through those mistakes.
It’s a difficult thing to separate, but if the choice you make is going to be somewhere between neutral and disastrous, and is going to impose on other people, should you really be able to make that choice? At that point, you are substituting your freedom for others.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
You learn by making mistakes, that’s how it is. If the system decides what is good for you and what isn’t, you do what it tells you you should. But when you do that you lose the ability to learn how to be truly independent. Your decisions don’t really feel like decisions, you don’t make any mistakes when it’s actually essential for you to make them. Mankind isn’t fit for perpetual peace or perfect order, where everyone has their place and doesn’t budge, because a computer says so. Life should not be easy, it shouldn’t feel like a script. It was always like that and it should be so, because it’s in human nature and nothing can change that.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I think, that’s the most remarkable part of this anime, to be honest. At first I was all like “Wow, this is amazing!” without giving it much thought. And now I realized what the Sibyl is actually like. Isn’t it amazing when anime gives you something to think about? Especially when it involves politics. I’ll need and use all those thoughts and learned lessons in the future *~*
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
To clarify my argument, my critic of Sibyl was quantification of human emotion as a totality rather than anything else. Even now we depend on career counseling/guidance, IQ & personality tests to determine our futures, which is fine but is not the only measure of it. Yes, there are a lot of people out there who depend on this system but there are some who are just passionate about something and they decide to do it, not because a test results said so rather because they feel like it. I have a live example of me switching from pre-med in high-school to business administration as a future career because I knew I could do it. People even raised their eyebrows and said if I could keep up with complete change of subjects without being familiar of basics but I did it.
Though, coming back to Sybil, my problem is too much dependence on it. What about Artists? Musicians? Novelists? Who have to put themselves in so many different situations just so they could produce something unique. Just thinking something terrible doesn’t make a person act upon it. There are many coefficients that lead to action. That is the main problem I have. For example, a girl just got raped, why would her mind be not in chaos? That doesn’t mean she’s gonna kill her assailant for sure?
Yes, it’s a great system for consultation and at many occasions might even produce spot-on prediction but all humans are not the same. Our will and soul can achieve impossible sometimes; at least, that’s what I believe.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
But it’s not that Sibyl says “You are only good at this thing, therefore you must do it.” Akane was said to have aptitude for everything. Other people have more limited aptitudes, maybe someone would be good in 3 completely different fields. And even with respect to the police bureau, lots of people were shown to have aptitude to work there in different jobs, but only Akane was deemed to be able to work as an Inspector. I think your critiques of the system are overstating the limitations it puts on people. It has never been shown to be a Big Brother sort of dictator, saying “You are a mere cog, you will do this single job that we tell you to do.”
But I can imagine that there are some people that it essentially does tell that to. And that’s because they are not able to do anything else. There are plenty of people in the world we have now, with the freedoms that you guys are talking about, who flounder and fail, who have no guidance and no direction. And they are miserable souls. It’s hard for me to argue that they are worse off with something telling them “You can do this, you have the aptitude for it and an attitude that will match it. And don’t try to do these other things, because you will fail at them.” Usually, people like that who try to do those other things *will* fail at them. The exception is frequently held up as an example, the ‘proof’ that “you can make it if you try!” But most people like that? They don’t understand what ‘try’ really means. They won’t do it. It’s not a very positive worldview, but it is reality.
Likewise with artists, musicians, and writers. The world of art is one that is very high profile, and extremely small. It attracts much attention, but in reality, for all intents and purposes, nobody succeeds in it. But even then, the Sibyl system seems to allow for some people to be artists, musicians, and whatever. But it’s not saying that ‘unless you are an approved musician, you can never touch a guitar.’ I can’t see that it would say anything about my band, where we have four guys who have all been working at their ‘day jobs’ for 20 years at minimum, and have been together in a band, a few times a month, playing gigs a few times a year mostly for friends, for almost 15 years. Just because we want to. If that didn’t make us have other mental problems, it likely wouldn’t cause any issues with Sibyl. But if I wanted to do that for a living? I’d fail, and hate music. I decided very early on that being a musician was not for me.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
But what’s generally wrong about this system is that it’s led by a machine. As I said before, human nature is an incredibly complexed system, that will never be fully researched. You can do almost anything that doesn’t defy the laws of physics if you want it bad enough and have determination. Only that is enough for a person to do great things, one of which, for example, is learning something their terrible at.
Having a hobby is one thing. You don’t always have time for hobbies if your working, right? But if you want to make a living out of it? For example, I know, I would be an amazing psychologist, but I don’t want to become one. If listening to insecure and egocentric people would be my daily job, I would probably go crazy myself. I don’t think the Sibyl measures your love and for the job, it measures your abilities to do it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The thing is, if you want to make a living out of something, it has to be of value to other people. That’s the plain fact. And if you want to make a living doing something like art, you’re going to fail. I’ll say that right now. The market is too small and unprofitable to support a large base of people. The great majority of people are boring, everyday, normal people who do a normal everyday job and generally like it and generally wish they could do something more fantastic, but really, they can’t because they don’t have the wherewithal to do it. You say that ‘you can do anything with determination and if you want it enough’, well, my answer is that almost nobody wants it enough. They don’t want it enough to put in 10,000 hours before they’re considered an expert.
I think the biggest hangup people have is ‘oooh, it’s a machine that’s telling people what to do.’ But it’s a machine that I hope is administered by humans, and that I hope still has regular recalibration (because it would be stupid if it didn’t). I’ve said the same thing before and it’s unlikely they’ll show us that kind of stuff, because that’s boring engineer stuff.
And isn’t it far better to be matched with a job that you can do, that you have the correct abilities for? A profession that you don’t know, that you *think* you’d love, but ultimately don’t have the ability to do to satisfaction, is a recipe for failure, heartbreak, and burnout. And I still say that steering the huge majority of people away from that is better than letting people founder on the shoals of reality trying to reach the island of dreams.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Letting a machine decide for you, even if the decision may be correct, is not right. We’re already arguing about something more than the political system such as Sibyl, but either way, my opinion on human nature is this – you should use your damn head to make decisions, especially such an important ones. There’s a reason you have a brain now, is it? Letting a computer decide for you is an easy way out for lazy people, or people that are just too afraid to decide for themselves and live life and in the end, people like that will, and I insist that they WILL become inert, unable to think for themselves and survive without computers, therefore, they will be morally weak. If that’s a world you prefer to live in that’s okay, everybody has a right to have an opinion. And my opinion is that Sibyl is a terrible, terrible system that will slowly wipe out human race as it is.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I agree you should use your head, but it’s also stupid to ignore the best information possible. There’s a difference between ‘letting a computer decide for you’ and ‘going along with the suggestion of a computer’. But no matter what, people come to rely on information from different sources, and when that information is taken away, they have to readjust. It’s rather hyperbolic to call that ‘morally weak’.
I will admit that I see a path from where they seem to be to what you hypothesize. But I see it as merely a path, not rails. It’s one of a million different ways things can go, and quite a remote one, in my opinion.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
At this point yes, that is merely a path but with time that path will become rails, that will be inevitable. It’s a slow process and at this point in the show you can’t point out a whole lot of those signs but it’s still going and ticking.
Okay, let’s say, what happens if the ‘remote control’ of the Sibyl system will fall into wrong hands? I’m sure the security of that machine will be amazing and bla bla, but someone hacking it is indeed a possibility. Now imagine that the Sibyl system is no more, what will the people do? Yes, readjust, but I doubt that that process will be easy, because people are already used to live with almost everything already done for them, except for the job that they do. Imagine that situation and you will see what future I am afraid of. Imagine if that happens in a couple of centuries, when mankind will not be able to remember, what was the world like when people had to think for themselves and weren’t secure from making mistakes on their own. That’s not natural for human beings, that’s why the Sibyl system is a generally bad idea.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
This is where my postivist beliefs about the human animal seem different from what yours appear to be. Mankind isn’t the most successful species in the history of the world – bending more things to our will, living in the most diverse of climates, dealing with the widest range of conditions – for no reason. I find it really hard to believe that that innate desire to do things could be conditioned out of us. Even in what we see in the world of Psycho-Pass, it’s not being conditioned out of people. They just deal with things, the way humans do.
If there was dependence on the Sibyl System, and it was suddenly taken away, then yes, some, maybe a lot, of the existing people would have trouble. But a lot of people would adapt. And their kids would adapt fine, not having any conditioning to accept a system that no longer exists.
So a temporary problem? Yes. But a complete change in the human spirit? I don’t see that as even possible, because that’s something innate.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I agree that Sibyl is bad. I’d hate living with Sibyl. If it suddenly disappeared and we’re looking at only what the effects are on individual people and how they think, I think they’d show deficits in very specific situations. So, they’d still be able to think for themselves (Akane still chooses her job, what she does on a daily basis, how to tackle a case, what to do on her off days etc.) but they’d falter in very specific conditions.
For example, if the police had real guns now, they would have a hell of a hard time convicting criminals without Dominators. No one wants that sort of responsibility from those decisions. I think it’s a very context-specific type of behaviour they’re learning with Sibyl. They can think about their own lives and make decisions in most general cases, but anything that was previously decided by Sibyl will be hard for people to decide themselves. Unless they lived in a society where EVERY CHOICE was made for them (more like Brave New World) then they’d still be perfectly capable of making their own choices.
It might take a few generations for them to get used to it though since the parents will pass down their way of thinking to their kids. After a while it should all phase out, but it won’t be a quick process, I would imagine.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
You’ve said well, our beliefs do differ quite a lot. I think that human race is the closest and at the same time furthest being to perfection ever created. There are a lot of reasons but the main one is that we can think, make decisions and affect the outside world. Breaking the inner motor of humans is an easy thing to do, actually. When you don’t have a goal, when you don’t have anything to figure out, decide and do, when you just do stuff because you know you have to but you don’t really understand, your motivation and your inner perpetual motor just stops.
Complete change of human nature is a possibility that I would call the end of the world.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
*bow*
Kyokai-san, you couldn’t have said it better.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Now THIS was unexpected. I loaded this episode while preparing to see Akane’s inner battle or more of Kogami comforting her but got this instead. This was a good episode, I generally like Yayoi. She’s pretty and strict at the same time, that’s really cool sometimes. And I wanted to know how she, Masaoka and Kagari became criminals too. But why now, WHY NOW~!! ><"
I don't know if the author is stupid, or he tried to make Rina look stupid, because saving the world solely with music sounds too naive and well……stupid. I was glad that they finally showed a small part of the resistance, now we at least know that there actually IS one. But I hope they will do better than that in the future. BREAK DOWN THAT SYSTEM BABY! 😀 I wonder, will they appear again??? Oh oh! I bet Makishima will team up with the resistance! Or he will just go off the stage like Izaya usually does. GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! I want the next episode, and please, please don't let it be another filler TT^TT
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Out of all of them, Yayoi is probably the one I care about the least…But they managed to give her a cool story, so eh, it turned out alright in the end. I’m excited to see the next episode now (which is probably already out…)
I think Rina’s attempts at changing the Sibyl system are generally supposed to be seen as wrong. Not that taking down Sibyl is such a bad thing since we’ve seen a lot of negative light cast on it, but because Rina is basically just throwing a tantrum and expecting things to turn out. Makishima makes a much larger impact because he knows exactly what he’s doing and why, but Rina is like an example that even laypeople hate the system and want to do something even if it’s just screaming into a microphone 2 days a week.
They could appear again since Rina just walked away. Yayoi still has to shoot her! But I can’t see them having a major role…especially with Makishima being the ringleader here.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Yeah, Makishima will play the main role of a badman but I would be glad if the resistance group wouldn’t just appear in that one filler. I think it would be an interesting direction for the plot, because of the way they slowly show the flaws of the Sibyl system.
Makishima may make Rina one of his toys, now that I think of it. She has quite ambitious goals so I think there’s a possibility.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I loved Sasayamaaa~ TT^TT He’s so freaking adorable! An impudent pervert, quite coldblooded, but a good person at heart. I love characters like that, they’re so realistic and attractive in multiple ways. Just like Maes Hughes weeeee~ Show ▼
Too bad we didn’t see any ass-grabbing, that would have been really funny 😀
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Judging by the two and their professions, I guess they died following the “Live by the sword, die by the sword” guideline. It’s the worst form of karma in my opinion. He killed someone violently and ended up getting killed violently but he got propped up as obscure “art” thanks to plastination.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Haha, wow, so you like cold-blooded perverts, Namika? All I can think of is how he looks like Leorio from HunterxHunter without glasses. I will admit that seeing more of him now that I know he dies is a little sad. Especially considering the way he dies as a piece of art.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Yes, it seems that I do 😀
Haven’t seen HunerxHunter, so I’m not really familiar with that character.
Yeah, seeing him now, when I know how he dies is kinda sad and unfair, because even though he did kill people(latent criminals are still people), I liked him when Kogami described him to Akane. I think those kind of people are really kind at heart, they just don’t show it to just about anyone.
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
(Man, you caught me slouching!)
OUAIS! FINALEMENT! It’s back!
As for the licensing artists, it only makes sense. Artists are usually pretty crazy. I can say that when I start working really intensely on a piece, I forget how much time passes and I start feeling kind of goofy. Calligraphy ink’s scent also gets me feeling weirder. Always doing art how one wishes is not mentally safe. I can voucher, and art isn’t even my career.
Artists are also the ones who get to criticize society in a multitude of ways. Look at 1984, The Crucible… Criticizing safely without worries. Sibyl System can’t really tolerate having those kinds of people around. So unless someone really has no problems with the society and that’s the truth, Sibyl can’t afford having them be an artist.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
So there’s another French speaker besides me and Overcooled. High five, friend. Now we’re not so alone. Now if only we could speak Japanese.
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
Well, I have a 365-kanji pad thing and a grammar book…
I’m in my second year of Mandarin too, so I’m getting a start with some of the kanji as well.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I envy your good fortune, sir. You’re much closer to learning Japanese than me. I wish you good luck in your language skills.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
So you know English, French and are working on your Japanese and Mandarin. Unless you are hiding more languages up your sleeves, you’ll be quadrilingual at some point if you keep it up!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Operation: Catching up with P-P is successful!
Finalllyyyyy!! And my God wht a ride it is O__O
My thoughts:
EP9: Tht cyborg guy is creeepppy. Also, not the best time to give out yaoi vibe, Makishima.
EP10-11: http://images.wikia.com/dragonage/images/2/2a/Anchorman-well-that-escalated-quickly.jpg
And I hope Akane doesn’t have “Now I lost it I know I can kill” moment….
EP12: Welp…tht was relatively calm episode compare to the previous one. At least we get to see Yayoi past…. And man, Yayoi get flagged just because she a bit too passionate on music…. Tht sucks.. And I want to know how Yayoi and Blondie relationship gegan 😉
And I shall leave the DEEP discussion to you guys ^.^;
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Will do! We’re already neck deep in epic discussions about Psycho-Pass. It’s amazing how almost every little thing could get you red flagged in Sibyl.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Tht system needs more fine-tuning lol.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Haha, welcome back to the heart of week-to-week Psycho-Pass action. It must be an intense show to marathon in chunks.
I dunno, I’m sure Yayoi and Shion have a DEEP relationship there.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
All we need is confirmation in one of the new episodes and we can finally put all this speculation to rest.