The Movie Minority Report: Ways in which technology has caused the
residents of
By: Derick Ariyam
Minority Report, starring Tom
Cruise, and directed by Stephen Spielberg, is a movie that introduces a new
experimental tool to combat crime called “Pre-Crime”. Pre-Crime is the ability
to stop criminal activity before it happens, particularly by being able to see
the crime foretold by a group called the pre-cogs, and then being able to
quickly act on this information to apprehend the would-be criminal. Due to the
advanced technology needed to project what the Pre-Cogs see in their mind,
outwardly so that law enforcement may decipher it, the movie is set way in the
future, 2054.
In the future, according to this
movie, there are other bits of new technology seen speckled throughout the
movie. The one theme that seems surprisingly persistent with most of these
technologies, is that with every new innovation, a bit of personal privacy is
eaten up. There are the ubiquitous retinal scans littered throughout the city,
quickly being able to accurately identify each individual that stands near it.
There is another device, used to determine the number of “warm-bodies” present
in a building; in the movie this is used before dispatching what the movie
called “spiders”, robotic devices that slide under doors and can go anywhere,
bathrooms, dinner-tables, bedrooms, to find whoever they might be
looking—gathering more retinal data.
The development and proliferation of
retinal scans seems to catalyst the more invading technologies. At present day,
the most practical way of determining identity is usually limited to subjective
human face recognition (which can be wrong) through photo-ids from documents
(which can be forged). Retinal Scans on the other hand, provide a means to gather
identity reliably (granted they are your eyes) and as seen in the movie, can
all be automated with computers, so there is no human intervention. The main
drawback with this is, that in our society, with passports, driver’s license,
etc. these documents need to be surrendered in order for someone to learn your
identity; but with retinal scans, your eyes are always exposed, so your
identity is almost always determined without your consent—the days of anonymity
are over.
The spiders in the movie, the
robotic intruders that can enter your private residence to learn who you are, pose
an interesting question when it comes to privacy. We know it’s invasive if a
human enters your home without forewarning, but what about a robot? The movie
does an excellent job trying to illustrate this point during a scene where 8
robots are seen scouring the rooms of an apartment complex to determine if one
of the residents was the fugitive, John Anderton. The
robots, like little insects, travel under doors, through floor ducts, whatever
it takes, to enter your home, and whether you’re in the bathroom, in a
compromising position, whatever your doing, the spiders enter your home and
force you to stand still for identification.
Most of these innovations are
motivated by the effort to better combat crime, and when it comes to safety,
most people would surrender anything it takes. We can see nowadays, after the
tragedy of September 11th, passengers, for the most part, were
willing to accept the need for heightened security, especially at airports.
They are willing to have their email scanned for key terrorism words, as long
as this will help thwart terrorism and criminal activity. If it’s a question of
priorities, it’s understandable; if you’re not alive does it matters whether
your privacy is being invaded or not?
Minority Report is all about
questions, and not just the obvious one: Is pre-crime effective? Most questions
involve technology, and whether your privacy threshold has been crossed. These
spiders crawling towards you while having dinner, does this scare you? The
illuminated Guinness advertisement addressing you by name, do you approve? As
we move deeper and deeper into the future, and as long as crime terrorism
concerns still abound, we may see these questions again, only this time in
referenda.