My final project is a video essay on the Japanese anime Psycho-Pass:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-rCfX8GAJN0r4nXgKsQFFe5s8eXrZH-f/view?usp=sharing

For my final project, I knew that I wanted to analyze a future imaginary in conversation with the themes from our class and what we’ve learned throughout the quarter.  Fictional depictions of the future give us insight into potentialities that may come to be, ideas of what to avoid and adopt, as well as a lens through which we can better reflect on our present day.  I greatly enjoyed presenting on Blade Runner 2049 the week I led discussion as well as my movie memo.  I also appreciated hearing what other people thought about the movies on the syllabus and learning their interpretations.  I knew that for my final project I wanted to do a deep dive on a sci-fi tv show and dissect its world in relation to our class.  The last lecture of the course on artistic depictions of the future cemented my motivation to choose a video essay as my format.  I wanted to select a medium that conveys visuals and audio, so that I could include my own speaking voice as well as the sounds from the tv show.  It’s a medium that allows me to place the viewer into the audience perspective, so they can see and judge the show with their own eyes and have an enhanced understanding of what I’m talking about.
My final project is particularly drawing from the weeks:  Revolt of the Machines, Inequality, and Cyber.   I discuss the impact of AI I’m Psycho-Pass and the prominent dangers, limitations, pros, and cons of it — AI is instrumental in their society’s order from the Sibyl System to AI holotech, Dominators and so forth.  I discuss the ways that their society has manifested inequalities amongst certain groups and people.  Furthermore I discuss the ways cyber hackers are depicted in Psycho-Pass as well as the concept of a Post-truth society.  Considering everything we’ve discussed about a Post-truth society I determined that Psycho-Pass exists in a post-stress and a post-doubt society.  I extrapolate the ramifications of this and the potential doom of a populace that no longer has to doubt existing structures or recognize problems.

My video contains minor although not major spoilers.  I did this by avoiding conversation about the main antagonist.  This series can be found on Hulu currently, and it’s a fascinating meditation on AI, Cyber, Inequality, mental health, and more.

If you have any issues viewing feel free to reach out to me at isabelw@uchicago.edu!  I just updated the permissions, so it should be viewable now by anyone with a UChicago account.

Thank you!