Psycho-Pass - The "Brave New World" of Anime

foreign for science fiction stories to have dystopian Futures as a setting and more often than not these fictional Futures are presented as the envisioned result of non-fictional problems we have in the present take a classic example like Aldous huxley's Brave New World released in 1932. Huxley wrote that book as a response to Humanity's increasing technological Ingenuity he believed that while it would produce a more productive peaceful and increasingly painless Society the preservation of that Harmony would come with great expense that Prosperity would make newer Generations more sensitive to stress for example in Brave New worlds true artistic expression is not allowed because it could upset the mental stability of others this is why Shakespearean plays like Othello are banned in this Brave New World even though the world controller Mustafa Monde recognizes that Othello is greater than any art produced in the present censoring Othello is the price we have to pay for stability we've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call High art is such a society desirable in that circumstance well I think most people watching this video would say no however depending on the difficulty of the problem the number of people saying yes will increase how about the issue of online misinformation one piece of modern dystopian fiction that tackles this issue is a video game called Metal Gear Solid 2 released in 2001 the villain in that game says that the problem of online misinformation is impossible for humans to fix and that the only thing that can be done to fix it is to create an AI one that regulates What in information human beings see or don't see all for the purpose of creating what the AI refers to as societal sanity stability happiness while I and many others find such an idea appalling because it limits human Freedom you would be surprised to see how many people find the idea appealing which I think is mainly because the issue of misinformation at present is so threatening if you don't believe me look at the comment section for my most popular video on Metal Gear Solid 2. we rely on works of fiction like metal gear or Brave New World to warn us with these hypothetical dystopias and Utopias so that we can stop those who would will them into existence in the present however whether it is due to the time they are released in or the focus of their stories they do not always provide a complete picture of the struggle we are facing sing it in the present moment if I were to pick a work of fiction that paints the most compelling and most likely form of a negative Utopia at present it would have to be Psychopaths this anime depicts a future that combines the most realistic elements from all the classic fictional Utopias like Brave New World the future in Psychopaths is one where technology has allowed the majority to live a relatively painless existence like metal gear it is one where information is controlled by AI beyond that it incorporates the relevant elements from other classic works of dystopian fiction like Deus Ex Minority Report Ready Player one and Ghost in the Shell but what elevates Psychopaths Beyond these and other works of utopian fiction is the governing force behind the dystopia that being the Civil system compared to other technological overlords the simple system has a greater sophistication to it that makes it borderline infallible not only that there's a certain pseudo-realism to it one that makes the idea of its replication in our reality terrifying today I want to discuss the Brilliance of the Civil system the circumstances that permitted its invention and how those circumstances mirror our society today before I do I will note that there are spoilers ahead if you have not watched Psychopaths I highly recommend you do aside from Monster it might be my favorite anime of all time I'm also inclined to say that episode 20 of season 1 might contain the most profound moment in the history of anime though I refuse to officially make that declaration due to my relative lack of knowledge of the medium if you want to figure out how to watch Psychopaths I will leave directions in the description box below first let us review what led to the creation of Sybil in the year 2020 there was a global economic collapse food and water shortages were ubiquitous demonstrations and riots were constantly being fostered by online forums and the influx of refugees to developed countries provoked various Civil Wars the Japanese had a unique response to this Global Strife in 2031 they introduced National vocational aptitude exams carried out by the recently introduced cymatic scan technology this would allow the Japanese government to achieve borderline zero unemployment simply by scanning a human being and determining their employment potential after 20 years of this program relative stability was achieved by the Japanese but relative stability wasn't enough the dream of full stability and full self-reliance was achieved in 2061 when the Civil AI was born for all intents and purposes Sybil is God it was responsible for ensuring continued full employment by making sure every Japanese citizen had a job that they were suited for it helped ensure that they were 100 self-sufficient when it came to food with no shortages and no starvation most importantly though it brought about psychopath technology this allowed Sybil to determine a person's mental stability via simatic scan this not only helped them prevent most crime before it happened a la Minority Report but also helped the mentally unstable seek Mental Health Care like in Deus Ex humankind had birthed a God that would realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment a God that would look after all of their needs allowing them to live a happy and mostly stress-free life on the surface the symbol system sounds like a success the secularist dream of Heaven on Earth seemed to be achieved however as with all dystopian or quote-unquote utopian societies they Harbor a dark secret the question that almost nobody seems to ask in the Psychopaths universe is how Sybil functions how do the cymatic scans determine a person's ideal job or their mental instability how do we know that it never gets anything wrong the answer comes in season one episode 17. the simple system is a hive mind of 200 plus human brains a collective Consciousness if you will but these brains are not just any average human brain they are the brains of those Who provided the biggest threat to civil hegemony in Psychopaths there are individuals who are ungovernable by civil systems no matter how sophisticated civil gets at determining a person's potential for employment or criminality there will always be anomalies a good way of thinking about these types of people is to compare them to Neo from The Matrix Neo was the sum of all anomalies in The Matrix dream world it was because he was an anomaly that he posed the greatest threat to the machines the anomalies and psychopaths are basically the same thing albeit without the superpowers it is in the interest of the Sybil system to co-opt these people's brains but not simply to eliminate the threat rather by having those brains interact with each other within the Sybil system it can become more efficient with its totalitarian rule it can anticipate hypothetical anomalies that pose a threat to their rule even though anomalies will always exist that will threaten Sybil Sybil can always get better her at preventing them now let's put aside for a second the likelihood that these brains were taken without the consent of their previous owners let's say a system like Sybil could be created by consenting people is that something desirable we have already outlined the solutions Sybil provides for issues like employment crime prevention mental health support and the availability of food but there are many others it provides solutions for issues that we are currently struggling with in the real world there's the increased sensitivity to stress and anxiety in young people compared to previous generations there is the Deluge of fake news and misinformation via the Internet there's the loss of faith and religion which for some people leads to existential depression Sybil addresses all of these things so what is the issue here when people people say they perform good actions to create a better world is this not what we aim for is it not civil to some particularly the type of people who agree with the AI from Metal Gear Solid 2 this is the ultimate ideal but for people like myself including the creators of psychopaths we recognize that no AI system can fully accommodate the chaotic irrational side of human nature recall what I said before about Brave New World and the creation of transgressive art the very same philosophical debate takes place in episodes 6 and 7 of season one an artist named royichi Oreo once produced famous works of art that depict dismembered bodies he did this to symbolize the contradictory nature of the self which I can only imagine refers to the rational and irrational sides of every human soul his art was banned under Sybil because it elevated people's stress when his life's purpose was taken away from him he did everything he could to numb the pain which was perfectly easy to do in Sybil's Society what he did not anticipate however is that these numbing methods would put him into an immobile somewhat comatose state this is the result of what the anime refers to as eustress deficiency eustress also known as good stress is the type of stress that motivates healthy productive action if we don't have a constant supply of eustress we risk becoming like roichi who was unable to cope with any form of stress therefore he eliminated it from his life entirely but by doing this there was nothing to motivate any action so he would just sit it or lie in place though this stage could accurately be described as Serene and painless it would also be accurate to call it lifeless human beings need expressions of chaos and irrationality within and without in order to balance the order after all chaos is the birthplace of creativity otherwise there is nothing to motivate action and thus no reason to live unless we voluntarily take on stress be it the characters in Psychopaths or the new generations in reality our prosperity will continue to turn more people away from Life choosing a Serene but lifeless State now the person who realizes this most in the Psychopaths anime oddly enough is the villain shogo makushima he wishes to destroy Sybil so that the creative chaotic and irrational side of humanity can find full expression once again unlike most other criminals who are noticed early on Via psychopath scans makashima's brain is immune to these scans making him one of the anomalies the Civil system wishes to co-ops having said all this it might seem weird to refer to makashima as the villain I must admit I to an extent agree with makashima's militancy against Sybil and it has to do with one core reason as makashima outlines in episode 11 of season 1 human decisions can only be classified as moral if they are carried out by one's unadulterated will by One's Choice living under the Civil system makes this almost impossible because almost every human is living in unconscious existence fostered by their Puppet Master this unconsciousness renders designations like good and evil meaningless because Human Action is only truly moral if it's done via their conscious Choice until Sybil is destroyed Human Action can never be free and thus moral so of course I sympathize with makashima in this regard however just because his goal is Noble does not mean that his methods of attaining it are as well to makashima the ends justify the means he will instigate riots murder people and threaten the food supply all to bring Sybil down some might say that Sybil's grip is too strong and that this is the only way to succeed and makashima might be the last person that can overcome Sybil I understand that for Chaos's right to exist is sound the amount of chaos he wishes to perpetuate is equal in size to the amount of order that Sybil bestows on society while both Chaos and Order have their benefits too much of either is ultimately detrimental while Sybil's order guarantees happiness it limits human freedom and healthy stress while makashima's chaos guarantees human freedom and healthy stress it doesn't promote any stability so the question is what is the solution the anime hints at this in a very subtle way I picked up on this during episode 16. when makashima confronts the character kogami who fights on behalf of Sybil note how makashima has white hair and wears a white shirt and kogami has black hair and wears a black blazer this is sort of an ironic representation of the Chinese yin yang symbol white or Yang represents order which is symbolized by the chaotic makushima black or Yin represents chaos which is symbolized by kogame fighting on behalf of Sybil's tyrannical order in this moment I realized what the anime was trying to say both these men represent the positives and negatives of both Chaos and Order neither alone will bring about the most desirable world that will only be brought about with balance this is something that I think the main character akane realizes in the last three episodes she comes to hate the Sybil system that she kogami and the other policemen and women had been fighting on behalf of however she realizes that the order Sybil provides does have its benefits and it is too entrenched into society for it to be ripped out in the way that makashima would like even though she might feel emotionally driven to destroy the Civil system when she finds out its true nature she realizes she can't instead she needs to straddle the line between Chaos and Order the Civil system will need to be removed but carefully the chaotic side of human nature will need to be fostered but carefully only then will Humanity truly be saved this is a message that is quite timely if we are not careful careful problems like misinformation increasing levels of mental illness and others could lead to a totalitarian solution like Sybil these problems might seem like they are impossible to solve but dealing with them morally in the here and now will prevent an even deeper problem from manifesting in the future and I believe we do that by aiming at the same prescription that Psychopaths provides the balance between Chaos and Order there are other aspects of psychopaths that I would be interested in talking about the anime invokes the names of many philosophers like Rousseau Bentham and Pascal as well as classic texts like 1984 and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep if you guys want to see a video delving into those sources and how they reflect the reality of psychopaths please let me know in the comment section below if you liked this video please give it a like also if you want to help ensure the continued production of these types of analysis videos please consider supporting me on patreon or joining my YouTube members section I will leave a link to both of those as well as other options in the description box below thanks guys and until next time I want to remind you as always and as per usual spooky spooky Boogie spooky Boogie the spooky Boogie spooky Boogie spooky boony spooky Boogie spooky Boogie spooky boogies spooky Boogie spooky Boogie spooky Boogie spooky

Channel: Max Derrat

Views: 41,032

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Id: IWqbt8ioJK0

Length: 19min 33sec (1173 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023