The Minority Report

I enjoyed this collection of science fiction short stories from Philip K. Dick under the title of Minority Report, no doubt to cash in on the Spielberg movie of the same name. I had read two of the stories already, the title story and "Second Variety" in another collection of stories - The Variable Man. Quite a few of Dick's stories, apart from "Minority Report," have been filmed. "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale" became Total Recall, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" became Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, "Paycheck" became John Woo's Paycheck, and "Second Variety," which after reading I thought would make a good short film, became Screamers written by Dan O'Bannon (he of Alien and Dark Star fame) - beaten to the punch again. These are pretty engrossing stories. Some, like "Oh, to Be a Blobel," about a human who involuntarily tranforms into a blob-like creature, after having fought a battle with this species on the other side of the galaxy, seem like the prose equivalent of a Silver Age Marvel comic (not that there's anything wrong with that). Others like "The Electric Ant" are chilling meditations on the nature of identity - does a cyborg with programmed memories fear extinction if his memory tapes are arranged? If it does fear extinction it must have consciousness. Is it therefore a "person" with a "soul"? Science fiction writers are often credited with anticipating future technology. What strikes me about these stories however is how they fail on that point. These stories, written between 1953 and 1969, do not seem to have anticipated digital technology at all - everything is on tapes and computers are still huge devices housed in separate buildings!

I was lucky to get this one on a bargain price. I don't mind it only focuses on 1 short story. The book design is peculiar and unique which I appreciate as a source of idea. The story itself is lesser in action than the movie but obviously the movie managed to bring the main frame of it, Precrime System, with its 3 precogs. Aside from the action, the differences lay in the event which started the whole thing and the origin understanding of what a minority report is. Food for the mind.

Reading this book is like watching a short film. It takes about two hours to finish and each minute is filled with heart-thumping situations. There are so many suspects in the story that the mind works overtime in such a short span. It is very interesting and a good detection exercise. Philip K. Dick was a marvelous science fiction author and this particular tale of his is captivating. A police commissioner finds himself in trouble on the day his new assistant arrives at the office. He starts suspecting everybody due to his age and politics but eventually answers his own questions. At the end, with a little bit of twists and turns here and there, he gets what he wants. The book layout is different from a normal design. At times it is difficult to hold it and turn the pages. But, that doesn't change the beauty of the narration.

There is an incredible amount of insight that went into this short story. Everyone likes the idea of fighting crime: politicians get re-elected fighting it; police receive praise for attacking it at every nook and corner; citizens feel safer when, as a society, we are defeating it. Given this context, what would happen if a politician were to endorse the idea of locking up criminals before they engange in their criminal acts? It sounds good: after all, aren't they likely to engange in the act if they are locked up? Forget the issue as to whether such acts are constitutional (they clearly they are not), the question is, is it good policy? Dick points to the idea that it clearly isn't, and that while it may seem like a good idea to completely eradicate crime, the practice of doing so would clearly create far more harm than good. For instance, if we label someone as extremely likely to engange in the act and arrest them before they committ it, we are saying that people essentially have no free-will and we eliminate the possibility that they may change their thinking before they engange in the behavior. What we would be doing is, in a sense, locking people up for poor thoughts--no--dangerous thoughts. This is an important lesson for all those closet utopians who believe that an intellectual can come up with an idea and cure all of society's ills. This book clearly errs in being skeptical of those in power who would sacrifice our freedom in the name of temporary security. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for temporal safety deserve neither to be safe or free."Michael Gordon

I just read The Minority Report and thought it was a fairly good story. I liked the way the whole system was set up and thought he covered details really well without going into excessive detail. It is a short story and events happen rather fast but I don't think it takes away from the story any. Plus, I rather think the design and layout of the pages were great (easy to read while laying down! huzzah!) and made the feel of the book and story interesting.