PSYCHO PASS 13 — You Are My Father

psycho_pass_13_4Well, I didn’t see that one coming.

The reveal was rather abrupt, but after thinking about it for a while, I kind of like how they did it. Usually this would be something you said up front. If you didn’t say it upfront, you’d have a dramatic reveal, Star Wars style.

Psycho Pass didn’t go with either of these options. It slipped it in a casual conversation, as if it were no big deal, halfway through the series. For a while after I heard this, I just assumed I’d forgotten something. But then halfway through the credits I realized I hadn’t. They just slipped a big twist in, and did it in such a way that I hadn’t even noticed!

A Human System

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This lady points out a subject we’ve been discussing since the beginning— the humans don’t make the decisions in this system. They pull the trigger if the gun tells them to, but that’s it. They don’t make the decisions themselves, and so avoid responsibility.

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But there is a reason to keep humans in the loop after all. There are rare cases where the system malfunctions, and humans need to go in and clean up the mess. The Sibyl system is not a flawless AI, after all. Despite relying on the Sibyl system so extensively, humans are in the end far more robust.

psycho_pass_13_3In fact, it seems that the system itself may have plenty of flaws. What’s important is that people trust the system, not that it be correct.

So I wonder how accurate these career assessments actually are? I’d be willing to be that many people could have succeeded at careers they weren’t assigned to. And we’ve already seen how poorly the psycho pass scores are calculated— a murderer is assigned  a low score while he’s in the middle of the act, and the victim of a crime is given a high score and slated for execution.

In a way, I’m disappointed that the Psycho Pass system is so flawed. The question of whether the system is actually a good idea would be much more ambiguous if the system actually worked.

8 thoughts on “PSYCHO PASS 13 — You Are My Father

  1. I am quite happy with this episode. It’s finally answered my questions (and everybody’s else) since early episode. The government is the one who ‘evil’ after all. They cleaned up all mess in the dark, and keep convincing people about Sybil’s greatness. And Ginoza, the faithful government’s dog, is more than willing to cooperate. Hooo.

    1. I think it was pretty obvious since the first episode that the government was the evil one. It’s pretty much impossible to justify the Sibyl system.

      I don’t think Ginoza is too far gone though. He’ll probably have a moment of redemption later on.

      1. He might do a good job of hiding it, but I think he knows just how wrong things are. He’s apprehensive about covering for the Dominator’s error, but at the same time he understands the consequences of making it public knowledge. Tearing the system down overnight would cause more problems than it could ever potentially solve.

        I’m actually kind of interested in how the Sibyl System works outside of law enforcement. We’ve only seen the absolute worst of it which of course makes it impossible to justify. Imagine trying to promote capitalism using only undeveloped countries as examples.

        1. That’s true, I wonder how normal people see the Sibyl system. If they were exposed to it in the same way that law enforcement is, I doubt it would stick around for long.

    1. Why are two of Ginoza’s enforcers personally related to him? That can’t be good for anybody’s mental health. It seems like just the thing that the Sybil System is supposed to prevent.

      Then again, it might just be a plot device to add some more drama to the mix.

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