FC: More on "Minority Report" photos and Philip K. Dick novella

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

*********

Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 11:56:21 +0100
To: declan () well com
From: "Charles Arthur, The Independent" <carthur () independent co uk>
Subject: Re: FC:  *next* Spielberg movie

Hi ...

At 10:26 pm -0700 on 12/7/2001, you wrote:

>Wayne Madsen, a Politech irregular and muckraking reporter, recently
>slipped into the set of the *next* Spielberg movie, which is being filmed
>in Washington, DC. It's called Minority Report and involves the U.S.
>Department of Precrime, which prosecutes suspects (in this case Tom
>Cruise's character) for crimes they plan to commit. Photos from the set:
>   http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/minority-report-filming-june01.html


Let me be the 4,009,008th Philip K Dick fan to get in touch and point out
that this is based on a PKD short story/novella, also called Minority
Report. It's confusing as hell but a very interesting analysis of what
might happen if indeed our criminal acts (particularly murders) could be
prevented by telepaths reading the future.

It's sort of like the question of "If you have a time machine and go back
and kill your father, will you exist?" - except turned the other way
around: if your father said he was going to come and kill you and he got
locked up because of it, are you alive or dead? (OK, it's all very
Schrodinger's Cat. Either the plot will have to be watered down for the
feeble brains of moviegoers, or they will have one of the best confusing
endings since The Usual Suspects.)

The reason it's called "Minority Report" is because there are three precogs
who make the prediction. If two say you're going to do it then (even if the
third says you won't) then you're guilty.

Probably rather timely, given the growing arrival of face-recognition
software and even CCTV software that can predict whether you're about to
break into a car in a car park. (It analyses your motion: car owners go
directly to their cars. Thieves are circuitous.)


Reports are at http://www.philipkdick.com/hollywood/minority/minority.htm
(mainly about the film). and a good, concise description of why his stuff
is like it is at http://www.stud.hum.ku.dk/rydahl/pkd/pkdindex.htm .


        best
        Charles

 -------------------------------------------------------------------
The Independent newspaper on the Web: http://www.independent.co.uk/
        It's even better on paper




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------