The Currency of Social Media

With the episode of Black Mirror, I think it’s interesting that this is a current hot topic for The New York Times.

Anna Sorokin came to the United States from Germany under the pseudonym Anna Delvey and was recently found guilty for swindling New York’s elite socialites convincing them she was a European heiress. Friends paid for vacations, rent, and food (on one vacation she stuck a Vanity Fairwriter with a $62,000 check). This was all supported on credibility through her heavily curated Instagram alone, where Delvey started with little to no resources and resorted to falsifying checks and over drafting bank accounts before she was almost charged with second-degree grand larceny for trying to obtain a 22-million-dollar loan in an attempt to open a SoHo art gallery/night club. Even more strange, in my course of reading the story, I found that Sorokin is still supported by anonymous benefactors who lend her high fashion runway looks for her court dates and send a personal stylist to her cell in Rikers Island before her court appearances. These looks have evolved into an even more interesting Instagram account (@annadelveycourtlooks) where her fashions have been documented. The case has even started a brand of t-shirts emblazoned with phrases like, “Free Anna” and “My other shirt will wire you $30,000”; these nearly sold out on their first run throughs. Sorokin was found guilty for lifting $200k from many businesses, but has somehow concocted enough traction in her status to become a finessing icon. Yeah, I said it.

With something so current happening in the news I think it’s hard to forget that credibility on social media will take you very far in life if you play your cards right, just like the circumstances of “Nosedive”.

PS Shout out to the Uber rating system, where I won’t get in a driver’s car unless they’re over a 4.25 rating if they have more than 500 rides. Stay safe!

(Sorokin in Morocco as "Anna Delvey", from the article written by the Vanity Fair writer she swindled)

(from: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with-the-magician-of-manhattan))

(from @annadelveycourtlooks)

Here is the NYT article if you're interested: (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/nyregion/anna-delvey-sorokin-verdict.html)

Still Relevant?

So I really liked this episode of Black Mirror, despite the fact that it looks like actual Hell to me - or maybe because it looks like Hell, and that makes it even more satisfying when Lacie actually realizes that the best way to win in her world is to not play the game. That being said, I have a question: do you all think this episode is still relevant? Since I got to college, I’ve made a lot of friends, and all the ones I’ve been closest with are the type of people who genuinely care for each other enough to accept each other’s flaws instead of either ignoring them or beating each other up about them. Since these are the people I surround myself with, I don’t really end up interacting a lot with “fake” people who have the kind of toxic friendships that are being addressed in Nosedive. Do people actually still behave like this, or do you think we’re finally starting to move past the point where it’s a problem?

Susan's Exit from the Credit System

"You don't know me so you're not really sorry. You're just mainly awkward cos I have sprung some cancer talk at you. Anyway, I five-starred every doctor, every nurse, every high-four consultant that we had. Ding. Ding. Ding. Thank you so much. The cancer didn't give a shit. It just kept growing. A couple of months in, we heard about this experimental treatment. It was very expensive. It was very exclusive. I did everything I could to get him a spot there. Tom was a 4. 3. They gave his bed to a 4. 4. So when he died I thought, fuck it. I started saying what I wanted, when I wanted. Just drop it out there. People don't always like that. It is incredible how fast you slip off the ladder when you start doing that. It turned out a lot of my friends didn't care for honesty. Treated me like I had taken a shit at their breakfast table. But, Jesus Christ, it felt good. Shedding those fuckers. It was like taking off tight shoes. Maybe you should try it?" - Susan, "Nosedive."

As awful as the consequences appear to be for foregoing the system of social credit in "Nosedive," I can't help but to feel relief to the knowledge that there are people who exist comfortably outside of that circle of society. When Susan suggest to Lacie to try being herself, she does so with the experience of both being at the tops and bottoms of the social ladder. The greater wisdom to Susan's advice is the option to opt-out of this system, something which seems feasible at only the cost of social isolation, which isn't nearly as bad as the opt-out cost of other utopias that we've looked at.

A Parody of PUP's "DVP"

NSDV

My Brother thinks that I'm a freak

He's been rating me 1 star, left him on his own for a wedding

NayNay will get me my rating

Yeah, nothing's working and the future's looking bleak and I say

I took the escape hatch fast, get drunk and I can't shut up

she says i'm good for rising

I fucked up and now I'm in jail

Susan says she was like me once

I'm talking fast to get away

doing 180 to NayNay's wedding

Yeah, I'd be better off dead

I don't give a shit, I just don't wanna rate and I don't want to suck-up

I took the escape hatch fast, get drunk and I can't shut up
she says i'm good for rising
I fucked up and now I'm in jail
Susan says she was like me once

I'll drink 'til I'm riding a 4-wheeler
I'll be just fine I'm numb and loose feeling
I can't tell lies anymore

I took the escape hatch fast, get drunk and I can't shut up
she says i'm good for rising
fucked up and i'm clinked up

I just don't know what to do, guess I'll cuss with my cell neighbor
he says "I don't like your aura"
face-to-face venting
our faces become one, fuck.

Sibyl

Discovering that the Sibyl System is merely a collection of 247 (I think) brains is extremely shocking, but the fact that it actually works and does result in peace for society might even be more shocking.
It's very interesting, though, and the fact that they take the characteristics from the brains of criminals in order to root out or search for other similar qualities in people in society almost sort of makes sense.
I understand Akane's conflict, as it reminds me of the issue in "Those who walk away from Omelas" and even in Minority Report. Although, in this case, no one is really suffering, but what is going on is still a question of morality.
I also wonder who implemented this system in the first place? Who watches over it now? And what if it didn't work, but forced the world into a state of destruction and allowed criminals to do whatever they pleased? It seems like no one would really be able to stop something like that if it ended up happening.

Ghost in the Machine

The big reveal of our second set of episodes, that the Sybil system determines Crime Coefficients by analyzing a scanned person's brain and comparing it to a vast catalogue of "deviant" brains collected over the years and which comprise the intelligence of Sybil itself, continues a running theme I've noticed in recent years. I think I could make an argument for having dystopia as a recognizable sub-genre.

The theme is this; a Dystopia either is the polar a bad utopia (in the sense that the writer intends for reader to not want to live there) or has a lie or a series of  lies which support the supposed Utopian society. We've seen a few examples of the latter this semester, namely Psycho Pass and Minority Report, but many others support this definition, including classics like Make Room (aka Soylent Green).

Utopias Overall

I've been a fan of Psycho-Pass for a few years now and initially I thought this would be a terrible world to live in but now I am not so sure. From all of the texts we have viewed/read in this class I realized there will always be something imperfect about society (violence, boring, everyone's a drug addict, etc). I think for many of these societies to be successful, it requires some level of unawareness and ignorance about the system from the masses. Kogami and Akane's increasing self-awareness seems to be a route of many of their problems as it isolates them from their blissfully unaware peers. As a result, it lands them in situations that causes them to pit their values against the ideas that have been ingrained in them by society and the Sybil system. Awareness seems to be a route of conflict for many of the characters we've studied (ex. if John hadn't been so painfully aware of the downfalls of the World State he would have assimilated into their society, been hopped up on soma, and living his best life). I guess what Im trying to say is sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.

Consequences in Psycho-Pass

As we come to an end of our divulge into Psych-Pass, I actually enjoyed the series MUCH better with subtitles rather than the dub (RIP Kagami). I have question that I was pondering while I was watching the last episode where Kogami (Kagomi?) is being chased and is viable for lethal execution via the Dominator. Would the society change if there was a way to really reduce your crime-coefficient and nothave a certain person be forced into the life of an Enforcer after it dips below or becomes ‘hazy’? Would the world in Psycho-Pass be better if it was less permanent in its consequences for those who become latent criminals or psycho-hazards? I could also see how this makes the concept of the already muddy morals of Psycho-Pass even more messy.

I have food poisoning so enjoy this unrelated pic of true Utopian leader, Sailor Moon!

(giphy.gif)

The Law in Utopia

So I’m a bit surprised that Professor MB had us skip the episode that has this scene in it, since I feel like it directly conveys a lot of key concepts about society and the nature of Utopia. I think that in this scene Akane touches on something that is very important to note: the law is ultimately created by people, and it is depends on people who uphold it. While this may be challenged by societies where the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, I think this is a concept that often gets lost in democratic societies like our own where it is most important. She also touches on how people are constantly working to create a better world - a utopia - and the law is a reflection of that.

Still Alive?

We've discussed this issue previously with Unwind, but I was curious as to the class' general idea on the Sibyl system, and particularly whether or not the individual minds that constitute it can be said to be still alive. They appear to retain memories of their previous lives, although whether or not they are able to express any individual action or are completely subsumed by the greater consciousness are left somewhat open ended.

One Law, victim or villain.

One of the most striking moments in the first five episodes of Psycho Pass comes at the end of the first episode, when we learn that the psychological instability caused by trauma or high-stress situations is not differentiated from actual criminal behavior. The reason for this becomes evident later, but it is an apt parallel to the real world stigmatization of trauma victims. Japan has this issue as much as we in the US do, but for different reasons. The extreme societal pressure to excel at your work, to do it stoically and without complaint, regardless of suffering or negative physical and mental health consequences, created a similar sense that someone who suffers a breakdown due to stress or other factors is to blame for it.

On the Accuracy of the Threat Level Detection

I'm sure that you all were absolutely horrified at first when the hostage in the first episode was given a lethal threat rating by Dominator, as was I. But as she doused the floor in gasoline and was about to kill everyone around her with a lighter, I was afraid to admit that the Dominator was accurate. The enforcer who was about to kill her would have been right to do so. Sure, she was managed to be talked out of it, but in a life-or-death scenario, it's not always feasible to take those kinds of chances. I begrudgingly found myself at least partially trustworthy of the Dominator's rating. At first, I thought that Akane would be punished a lot more harshly than she was for how she handled the situation with the female hostage. But even though Shinya was the enforcer who was about to pull the trigger, her recognized and agreed with Akane's humanity.  Ginzo has this whole business of learning through history rather than experience. Is a part of him right? Are Dominators usually correct and are Enforcers always quick to pull the trigger out of their own safety? Personally, I think it speaks to a larger theme of police bruality in Psycho-Pass and how it's brushed over because it's the system that takes responsibility for the actions of law enforcement. Akane doesn't seem to have to do much of anything other than watch the Enforcers, and the Enforcers only have to do what the system tells them to do.

There are a lot of factors that I think the threat detection system doesn't consider. This isn't a utopia that tries to be perfect (see the drone murders in the factory). The admitted holes see to rely on logic not being equatable to illogical human behavior and the ability of a threat level to change with reasoning.