| “ | That which needs to be done is carried out by those capable. Such is the grace bestowed upon mankind by Sibyl. | ” |
—Sibyl's self-proclaimed mission | ||
| Sibyl System | |
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| Sibyl's Symbol | |
| The Ministry of Welfare's NONA Tower | |
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The Sibyl System is the name given to a law enforcement enterprise run in cooperation with the government to manage crime in 22nd century Japan. It is the sole operator and manager of proprietary hardware and software used to analyze the criminal tendencies of the entire country's populace. The Sibyl System establishes the Public Safety Bureau and rules over its personnel, along with all Psycho-Pass technology and weaponry with an iron fist.
The Sibyl System (aka Sibyl)
The Sibyl System is a hive mind made up of "people" who, like Makishima, are criminally asymptomatic so that their Psycho-Passes cannot be determined. There are 247 currently known members in total, with 200 of these members working around the clock to scan and determine the Psycho-Pass of everyone in the country.
Membership
The most important qualifications needed to become a member:
- You must possess a personality that doesn't fit in with humanity's conventional standards.
- You must be able to oversee human actions from an objective viewpoint, without empathy or sympathy clouding your judgment.
- You must be criminally asymptomatic; that is, unreadable by the Sibyl System.
Membership is determined by existing members who will use any means necessary to persuade you to join them. Once approved, your brain is surgically excised from your body, then housed in a unique container and integrated into the hive mind where your personality co-exists with other members. Members may participate in real-world activities by utilizing cybernetic bodies, such as that of Joshu Kasei. These bodies are constructed to be easily replicated and integrated with whichever mind it houses. The identities of the the Sibyl System members, with the exception of Kozaburo Toma and Misako Togane, remain unknown to date.
Etymology
The system is named Sibyl after the "Cumaean Sibyl" of ancient Greek mythology. Known as a prophet with oracular powers, she was once mortal but wished to be immortal. She is granted her wish by the god Apollo, but her boon becomes her bane when she forgets to also ask for eternal youth. Sibyl eventually withers away to be tiny enough to fit in a jar, then hung from a tree where children below taunt her saying, "Sibyl, Sibyl, what do you wish for?" to which she replies, "I wish to die."[1]
This version of Sibyl is reinforced in two instances: the first during Tsunemori's first mission when Masaoka calls Sibyl's judgment an "oracle" and the second when Joshu Kasei declares to Makishima, "I feel like a prophet right out of a myth" during one of their conversations.[2][3]
Sibyl's Core
The core is located in the deepest sub-basement of the NONA Tower. Sibyl does not rely on computers entirely, as was originally thought for, as Tsunemori learns, Sibyl is comprised of glass chambers, each housing a member's brain. The members have to discard their original bodies, so that their brains can work in the chambers day in and day out to scan and measure every person's Psycho-Pass in Japan.
Job Assignment
In addition to just managing crime, Sibyl controls who can do what job after graduation. Everyone takes a Sibyl exam that determines what jobs they are eligible for and decides everything such as what industry you can work for and what professions you can or can't have. In this way they tighten their control. As has been stated by Rina Takizaki, there's not really a democracy anymore because Sibyl decides who the bureaucrats are. The officials elected by the citizens are just figureheads.[4]
Foreign Policy
Upon taking control, Sibyl closes the borders of Japan for both entry and exit by any and all individuals. This is done for several reasons:
- Monitoring the Psycho-Pass of everyone coming and going is too much for the system to handle.
- It jeopardizes international diplomatic relations should a foreigner be designated a latent criminal.
- Foreigners deemed to be active criminals are subject to the same consequences as natives.
In fact, when Sibyl was activated, many people were exiled: social critics, political groups, students, university teachers, and some farmers; basically, anyone deemed useless in the new order.
Trivia
- The use of the Sibyl System to determine latent criminals with the help of Crime Coefficients is introduced at some point between 2090 and 2100.[5]
- The first version of the Sibyl System was introduced between 2030 and 2049. At this point it is solely a supercomputer which was able to make precise and extensive cymatic scans, so the Employment Aptitude Exam of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare would become more efficient and valid. Along with the cymatic scans, the Psycho-Pass measurement is introduced.[5]
- A replacement for the Sibyl System was proposed by the Ministry of Economy called the Panopticon, monitoring the economic and traffic activities of its citizens. As Jeremy Bentham designed Panopticon to be a prison to monitor criminals without them knowing that they're in fact being monitored, inmates would always be behave as if being monitored. Its employment as a trial system to monitor traffic was both met with controversy and failure, thus Sibyl System remained.
- Based upon visual inspection, it appears that the physical structure of the Sibyl System contains 2,601 slots in total, despite having only 247 members.
- The Sibyl System's Crime Coefficient is revealed to be over 300, even though it consists of only criminally asymptomatic brains. The brains contributing to this Coefficient are destroyed, lowering the number to zero.[6]
- In case of emergency and/or if the System thinks that it is in danger, it can falsify the judgement of the Dominator, in order to suppress the threat.[7][8][6]
Gallery
