AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - The Morality and Philosophy of the Sibyl System

Qilin · 2012-10-20, 05:26

The final semblance of personal freedom disintegrates once the government starts invading individual privacy.

On the surface, Sybil seems to be quite a pragmatic system geared towards crime prevention. It efficiently deals with any radical variables that can potentially induce disorder in society. But then, what concerns me is the means by which the system collects its data. In other words, what exactly is reflected by an individual's Psycho-Pass number?

I have two possibilities in mind with regards to this. First, it might simply indicate a person's current mental stability. Or second, it might go as far as being a measure for an individual's tendency to commit a crime.

The former possibility is much easier to grasp. The Psycho-Pass serves as a general indicator of an individual's mental health. That way, anyone at the verge of breaking down from mental stress becomes a target for psychiatric evaluation. But if such was the case, it wouldn't make sense to treat the individuals as criminals right there and then. Is the prevention of crime as simple as singling out the mentally unstable individuals?

The latter possibility on the other hand is much more ominous since it goes much deeper than just measuring mental stability. Rather, it would measure how likely an individual would deviate from the norms established by society. A "crime", after all, is an act the goes against the rules of society. If that truly is what the Psycho-Pass measures, then I wouldn't be surprised if it could even read as a far as each individual's intentions, thoughts, and emotions in addition to mental stress. Going so far as to think about committing a crime would be enough to show on one's Psych-Pass number. In short, it would essentially be detecting "thoughtcrime" in that case.

The ultimate question here is the extent of the mind reading that the Sybil system does. How much of a person's mind can it actually see into? Does the concept of privacy still even exist in this setting?

I hope the the coming episodes elaborate a bit more on the entire system and how it works.

2012-10-20, 05:26	Link #24
Qilin Romanticist Join Date: Aug 2009 Age: 33	The final semblance of personal freedom disintegrates once the government starts invading individual privacy. On the surface, Sybil seems to be quite a pragmatic system geared towards crime prevention. It efficiently deals with any radical variables that can potentially induce disorder in society. But then, what concerns me is the means by which the system collects its data. In other words, what exactly is reflected by an individual's Psycho-Pass number? I have two possibilities in mind with regards to this. First, it might simply indicate a person's current mental stability. Or second, it might go as far as being a measure for an individual's tendency to commit a crime. The former possibility is much easier to grasp. The Psycho-Pass serves as a general indicator of an individual's mental health. That way, anyone at the verge of breaking down from mental stress becomes a target for psychiatric evaluation. But if such was the case, it wouldn't make sense to treat the individuals as criminals right there and then. Is the prevention of crime as simple as singling out the mentally unstable individuals? The latter possibility on the other hand is much more ominous since it goes much deeper than just measuring mental stability. Rather, it would measure how likely an individual would deviate from the norms established by society. A "crime", after all, is an act the goes against the rules of society. If that truly is what the Psycho-Pass measures, then I wouldn't be surprised if it could even read as a far as each individual's intentions, thoughts, and emotions in addition to mental stress. Going so far as to think about committing a crime would be enough to show on one's Psych-Pass number. In short, it would essentially be detecting "thoughtcrime" in that case. The ultimate question here is the extent of the mind reading that the Sybil system does. How much of a person's mind can it actually see into? Does the concept of privacy still even exist in this setting? I hope the the coming episodes elaborate a bit more on the entire system and how it works. __________________ "There’s an up higher than up, but at the very top, down is all there is."