Leor Miller // Blog

Blog Post #1

The movie Minority Report uses science in a somewhat unrealistic way. The pre-cogs are used to prevent crimes from happening, because they can see the future in their dreams. This is the result of their parents having been addicted to Neroin, a futuristic drug that passes down the genes that causes the pre-cogs' ability to see the future.  The pre-cogs, who are actually just people who have been taken in order to use their bodies to predict crimes that will happen. They live on floating rafts inside of a closely monitored pool of water. Their minds are connected to machines via wires that have been attached to their heads. The pre-cogs don't really live, however. Their lives only serve one purpose, which is crime prevention, which has confined them to the pool that they exist in. These pre-cogs are unable to use the bathroom, eat food, drink water, or interact with anyone. The only time they are awake is while a crime is occurring in their dreams. They're kept in a constant state of dreaming through the use of mind-altering drugs, which they haven't consented to. These practices are unethical, they treat humans as machines. They treat the pre-cogs as if they have no purpose other than to use as catalysts in crime prevention. The pre-cogs are dehumanized, enslaved, and disrespected. These practices are unethical in all ways.

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Blog Post #2

An infallible police state is a governmental system in which the government controls the choices and lives of those they govern by seemingly faultless police surveillance and action. Pre-Crime shows that police and law enforcement are ominpotent and all knowing. It teaches people to fear what the government knows about them and how it can be used against them. An infallible police state creates a culture of fear in that state in order to keep its citizens in line. No, an infallible police state should not be a part of our world. Despite the crimes that would be avoided, there would be significant freedoms that would have to be restricted or totally given up. Had Pre-Crime existed today, many violent crimes could have been prevented. However, this level of power held by the government and police could (and probably would) end up in a disastrous situation. This is power that could and would be easily abused, no matter how much crime it could prevent.

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Blog Post #3

My favorite part of the film was when Danny makes the discovery that Lamar Burgess murdered Ann Lively. It’s dramatic, shocking, and suspenseful. Danny’s discovery prompts other realizations that Pre-Crime has flaws in its system and is not infallible. The way he discovers this is that he realizes that murders could go undetected under certain circumstances. Since the case surrounding Ann Lively is one with confusing elements of it, Danny decided to look further into it. He figures out that if Pre-Crime stopped a murder, someone dressed in the same clothes could murder the person, after the officers leave, in the same way that the murder was predicted to happen. The person who monitors cameras would see this occurring and delete it because that crime was thought to have already been stopped, and this would be a duplicate. Danny considers possible perpetrators for the murder of Ann Lively, and he draws the conclusion that Lamar Burgess is the one who murdered her. Burgess is the creator of Pre-Crime, and he would be the first one to know how to manipulate the system. The possibility of this Pre-Crime monitoring technology being used in our society in the future is pretty plausible, considering the level of technology that we have today. Even though it may be introduced into our lives, that doesn’t mean it should happen. Believing that this Pre-Crime system is infallible would be a very harmful belief to hold. The possibility of someone else committing a murder after the person who was supposed to have committed it having already been punished creates a system that can be very easily manipulated.