In the book How We Became Posthuman, author Katherine Hayles devotes some of chapter two to analyzing William Gibson's Neuromancer, particularly where protagonist Case claims busy Ninsei Street resembles "a field of data... the dance of biz, information interacting, data made flesh in the mazes of the black market." From this paragraph, Hayles draws several conclusions about Neuromancer and cyborg literature in general:
"Pattern tends to overwhelm presence, leading to a construction of immateriality that depends not on spirituality or even consciousness but only on information... Information is the putative origin, physicality the derivative manifestation... If flesh is data incarnate, why not go back to the source and leave the perils of physicality behind?" (Pgs 35, 37).
PSYCHO-PASS. © Production I.G.
The world of PSYCHO-PASS has taken these conclusions and made them concrete rules that society must abide by. The software program known as the Sybil System governs almost all of one's activities, relying on calculated assessments and aptitude tests to maintain order, dictating matters ranging from what career one would be suited to, to determining if a latent criminal should be paralyzed and apprehended or blown to pieces. In the case of PSYCHO-PASS, the "pattern that overwhelms presence" is found within the Psycho-Pass chip inside one's body, which relays stress levels and other biological readings via cymatic scan to Sybil.
