The SYBIL system deciding things such as what career people would be best suited for seems to damage some people so much that they become catatonic, for no apparent reason except to make sure we know it’s bad, like Yvain described in the post about dystopias on his old blog. And that’s before we find out gur flfgrz vf cbjrerq ol gur oenvaf bs frevny xvyyref.
One minor villain is a standard “wanting to be immortal makes you evil” type of character, who notably in a tv interview that shows the public face he hides his evil side with uses a pro-transhumanism argument I’ve heard from actual transhumanist speakers. Probably the “transhumanists are secretly evil” implication was accidental, but I didn’t like it.
The main affect I had from watching the show, was that a villain was the viewpoint character during their death scene, I emphasized with them as they were made to feel helpless and then killed, and I then felt annoyed about that feeling.
For those who are tolerant of deathist and dystopian memes, and don’t share my personal weirdness, I second the recommendation.
The SYBIL system deciding things such as what career people would be best suited for seems to damage some people so much that they become catatonic, for no apparent reason except to make sure we know it’s bad
I don’t recall something like this happening. Most of the time—as far as I remember—it’s other people reacting to psycho-pass information that causes psychological damage. E.g., one character is extensively bullied because of their psycho-pass, one or two characters’ psycho-pass degrades the more they obsesses over it, etc.
One minor villain is a standard “wanting to be immortal makes you evil” type of character
I’d say he was more “evil and coincidentally also wanting to be immortal.” The only character that really disagrees with living forever is Kougami, whose expected future quality of life is relatively low.
This. My biggest issue with Psycho Pass was precisely the frevny xvyyre oenva thing. The writers created an interesting world, posed a variety of interesting questions (fubhyq lbh qrsre gb na ragvgl gung pynvzf gb xabj orggre guna lbh jung jbhyq znkvzvfr lbhe hgvyvgl, jura lbhe orfg rfgvzngr bs gur pbeerpg pbhefr jvyqyl qvfnterrf jvgu vgf bja naq vg qbrf abg rkcynva vgf ernfbavat?), made clear their opinions on the subjects (flovy vf rivy! serrqbz vf n fnperq inyhr!), but justified them with trivial accidents of the setup (frevny xvyyre oenvaf, crbcyr sbeprq vagb boivbhfyl njshy yvsr pubvprf) - those things are not a necessary aspect of the system and it is imagine to consider a less convenient world in which the writers would have had to actually engage with the issues they raise. A pity, because the series is otherwise so good.
Issues I had with Psycho-Pass:
The SYBIL system deciding things such as what career people would be best suited for seems to damage some people so much that they become catatonic, for no apparent reason except to make sure we know it’s bad, like Yvain described in the post about dystopias on his old blog. And that’s before we find out gur flfgrz vf cbjrerq ol gur oenvaf bs frevny xvyyref.
One minor villain is a standard “wanting to be immortal makes you evil” type of character, who notably in a tv interview that shows the public face he hides his evil side with uses a pro-transhumanism argument I’ve heard from actual transhumanist speakers. Probably the “transhumanists are secretly evil” implication was accidental, but I didn’t like it.
The main affect I had from watching the show, was that a villain was the viewpoint character during their death scene, I emphasized with them as they were made to feel helpless and then killed, and I then felt annoyed about that feeling.
For those who are tolerant of deathist and dystopian memes, and don’t share my personal weirdness, I second the recommendation.
I vaguely object to calling it deathist.
I don’t recall something like this happening. Most of the time—as far as I remember—it’s other people reacting to psycho-pass information that causes psychological damage. E.g., one character is extensively bullied because of their psycho-pass, one or two characters’ psycho-pass degrades the more they obsesses over it, etc.
I’d say he was more “evil and coincidentally also wanting to be immortal.” The only character that really disagrees with living forever is Kougami, whose expected future quality of life is relatively low.
I agree, it’s not deathist. It isn’t particularly pro-immortalist either, but that doesn’t bother me.
This. My biggest issue with Psycho Pass was precisely the frevny xvyyre oenva thing. The writers created an interesting world, posed a variety of interesting questions (fubhyq lbh qrsre gb na ragvgl gung pynvzf gb xabj orggre guna lbh jung jbhyq znkvzvfr lbhe hgvyvgl, jura lbhe orfg rfgvzngr bs gur pbeerpg pbhefr jvyqyl qvfnterrf jvgu vgf bja naq vg qbrf abg rkcynva vgf ernfbavat?), made clear their opinions on the subjects (flovy vf rivy! serrqbz vf n fnperq inyhr!), but justified them with trivial accidents of the setup (frevny xvyyre oenvaf, crbcyr sbeprq vagb boivbhfyl njshy yvsr pubvprf) - those things are not a necessary aspect of the system and it is imagine to consider a less convenient world in which the writers would have had to actually engage with the issues they raise. A pity, because the series is otherwise so good.