Homework Eight

Minority Report is a science fiction movie that takes place in the future. The movie is essentially a look into a world where homicide is prevented. In this society, police use Pre-crime to arrest individuals who are predicted to perform a murder. Murders are predicted by 3 Pre-coginitive humans. One of the underlying themes of this story is the paradox of fate versus pre-determinism. In this story we see a man (John Anderton) stuck in the middle of his fate, and his struggle to change it. We cannot tell why he is about to commit murder, but that doesn't matter. In this world you will be held liable for your actions. As we see with the progression of the film, he is in fact innocent and part of an elaborate scheme to hide the inconsistencies of Pre-Crime.

We watched this movie to get incite about the future. The future is a place where we cannot know, only predict. A lot of new technology is shown in this movie. How feasible it is, is very debatable. I was extremely interested in the virtual reality rooms in the movie. In one scene, a man pays to "virtually" kill his boss. We also see a large emphasis on retinal scans. It was interesting to see advertisements that were directed to customers using the retinal scan technology. I like the automated cars, but some of the safely features did not seem realistic. For example, how easily Anderton exited the car in a chase scene. The weapons and transportation the Pre-crime police used was very interesting. The eye transplant "healing" scene was exciting. We see what kind of screening processes the future may hold. However, I believe in the future law enforcement will be able to see through walls, because this technology is already in development. The movie did have more weak points, like every other science fiction movies. For example, Anderton's knack for escaping was impeccable. We see even now, that it is very hard for anyone to be discrete. One could only assume that the advancement in technology would make it impossible for someone to hide in the future.

All in all, this is an interesting movie that combines philosophical implications of the future with high tech gadgetry.


I will see Dr. Berleant this week about the presentation of semester topic.