The Minority Report

(The) Minority Report is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick first published in 1956. It is about a future society where murders are prevented before they happen through the efforts of "precogs," three mutants who can see the future. Image File history File links PKD-The-Minority-Report. ... Image File history File links PKD-The-Minority-Report. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American science fiction writer. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Precognition is a form of extra-sensory perception which allows a percipient to perceive information about future places or events before they happen (as opposed to merely predicting them based on deductive reasoning and current knowledge). ... This article is concerns biological mutants; for fictional aspects see Mutant (fictional) A mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a sudden structural change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the...

Overview

The story looks at the paradoxes and alternate realities that are created by their precognition when the chief of police intercepts a prediction that he is about to murder a man he has never heard of. It also touches on the danger of a powerful post-war military during peacetime, the main theme not revisited by the movie (see below). Robert Boyles self-flowing flask fills itself in this diagram, but perpetual motion machines cannot exist (according to our present understanding of physics). ...

Like many stories dealing with knowledge of future events, "Minority Report" raises the question of the existence of free will. Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. ...

Precrime

Founded thirty years prior to the story, Precrime is a system that has replaced the previous system of discovering a crime and its perpetrator after it had been committed (with punishment given as a penalty for such action), with imprisonment before the crime takes place to prevent it ever happening. As one character says in the introduction to the story, "punishment was never much of a deterrent, and could scarcely have afforded comfort to a victim already dead". It is specified that Precrime deals solely with cases of murder.

How the system works

The system of predicting the future in reports is carried out by three mutants, called 'precogs', all of whom have the capacity to see up to two weeks into the future. Precogs are created by identifying the talent within a subject, and cultivating it in a government-operated training school - for example, one precog was initially diagnosed as "a hydrocephalic idiot", but the precog talent was found under layers of damaged brain tissue. The precogs sit in a room which is perpetually in half-darkness, constantly talking nonsense to themselves that is incoherent until it is analysed by a computer into valid predictions of the future. This information is assembled by the computer into the form of various symbols, before being transcribed onto conventional punchcards which are ejected into various coded slots; when cards are produced, they appear simultaneously at both Precrime, and the Army GHQ, in order to prevent corruption. The precogs themselves are kept in rigid position by metal bands, clamps, and wiring, which keep them attached to special high-backed chairs. Their physical needs are taken care of automatically, and it is said that they have no spiritual needs whatsoever. Their physical appearance is somewhat different from that of ordinary humans, with enlarged heads and wasted bodies. Precogs are deformed and retarded... the talent absorbs everything; the esp-lobe shrivels the balance of the frontal area. They themselves don't understand any of their predictions. Most of the data produced is useless in preventing murders, and is then passed on to other agencies. Hydrocephalus (water-head, term derived from Greek) is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain, usually due to blockage of CSF outflow in the ventricles or in the subarachoid space at the base of the brain. ... Definition: Idiot is a word derived from the Greek ιδιωτης, idiōtēs (layman, person lacking professional skill, a private citizen, individual), from ιδιος, idios (private, ones own). [[1]] In Latin the word idiota (ordinary person, layman) preceded the Late Latin meaning uneducated or ignorant person. Its modern meaning and form... Comparative brain sizes In animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the control center of the central nervous system. ... The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States armed forces and has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... The frontal lobe is an area in the brain of vertebrates. ...

A minority report

The system of three precogs finds its genesis in the computers of the middle decades of the 21st Century. The results of a computer are checked by feeding the data to a second computer of identical design. But two computers are not sufficient. If each computer arrived at a different answer it is impossible to tell a priori which is correct. The solution, based on a careful study of statistical method, is to utilize a third computer to check the results of the first two. In this manner, a so-called majority report is obtained. It can be assumed with fair probability that the agreement of two out of three computers indicates which of the alternative results is accurate - it would not be likely that two computers would arrive at identically incorrect solutions. It is much more common to obtain a collaborative majority report of two precogs, plus a minority report of some slight variation, usually with reference to time and place, from the third mutant. This is explained by the theory of multiple-futures. If only one time-path existed, precognitive information would be of no importance, since no possibility would exist, in possessing this information, of altering the future. The 21st century is the present century of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Lego RCX Computer is an example of an embedded computer used to control mechanical devices. ... A priori is a Latin phrase meaning from the former or less literally before experience. In much of the modern Western tradition, the term a priori is considered to mean propositional knowledge that can be had without, or prior to, experience. ... A mutant (also known to early geneticists as a monster) is an individual, organism, or new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a sudden structural change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new...

Other media

A movie, Minority Report (2002), starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg, was very loosely adapted from the initial storyline of this short story. Although considering the sparse nature of short stories, the expansion of the story is unavoidable, the film remains faithful to several themes of the short story, and was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2002. Critic Roger Ebert hailed it as "a masterpiece", and the best film of the year. Many other leading critics included it on their lists of 2002's best films. Spielberg assembled a "think tank" of science and technology experts to create as realistic as possible a look at the future, and emulated the tone of the classic John Huston film noir thrillers of the 50s and 60s, down to the rogues gallery of morally ambiguous supporting characters, portrayed by the likes of Colin Farrell, Max Von Sydow, and others. "Minority Report" is frequently identified as Spielberg's most dark and adult "popcorn" film. Minority Report is Steven Spielbergs 20th film. ... This is a list of film-related events in 2002. ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an A-list, Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer. ... Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (born December 18, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American film director. ...

A video game, Minority Report: Everybody Runs, published in 2002 by Activision, was based on the movie. Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a cultural phenomenon. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Activision, Inc. ...

Text of Minority Report

• Philip K. Dick: Minority Report (Gollancz: London, 2002) (ISBN 1-85798-738-1 or ISBN 0-575-07478-7) (contains nine short stories by Dick, including most of those that were adapted into movies.) (Also released in audio book form ISBN 0-06-009526-1 containing only five stories, read by Keir Dullea.)

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American science fiction writer. ... Keir Dullea (born May 30, 1936) is an actor best remembered for his role as astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and in 1984s 2010: The Year We Make Contact. ...