Mathey, Minority Report

In Minority Report, "criminals" are treated really badly. Even though they did not commit the crime, they are considered criminals because the Pre Cogs have seen their intentions and are always right. However, there is a glitch in the system of pre-crime. When the three pre cogs do not agree on a crime, it creates a minority report which is never going to be revealed otherwise, it would mean that pre-crime cannot be trusted and therefore would have to be shut down. This glitch is used by the bad guy in the movie by trying to make the pre cogs see one crime instead of two. However, Agatha, the more gifted of the pre cogs do not fall for it and warns John Anderton (Tom Cruise) of what is going on. In Terri Murray's essay, "Our Post Moral Future", she argues with the fact that if someone has not committed a crime, he/she cannot be convicted before it happens. She gives an example by citing the opposite. Should we reward people for good intentions before a virtuous deed is done? No we shouldn't so why should we arrest people and treat them as outcast based on their intentions and not their actual actions. So if I went to my friend and said joking " I'm going to kill you" will I be considered a criminal? This would be absurd. I understand that safety should be a priority in this world but at what price. The sacrifice to lose all privacy and control over our life. Becoming puppets of our own world and being scared just to think. The way the criminals are treated in the movie is just horrible. A halo is placed on their head where they would watch their crime over and over again for the rest of their life while being in tube like cells underground. This is even worst than what we do to prisoners in society, at least they have rights and have the chance to prove themselves innocent. In the movie, they just get arrested and are put straight into hibernation state. When were their rights cited? " You have the right to remain silent until you speak to a lawyer, if you do not have one, one will be assigned to you..." Where would the world be without rights ? Indepence is based on them. I do not think that potential criminals like the ones in the movie should be tortured that much. Of course we would live in a crime free place, but I would be scared of the government more than criminals in this case. The power that they acquired based on three genetically modified humans (pre cogs) is just scary.

Falanga, Blade Runner

Blade Runner deals with the outcast in its relation with the humans and their relation to the androids, set in the dystopian universe run by the Tyrell corporation. The androids being created by humans for humans contains an interesting paradox as the androids contain many of the qualities that make humans unique, such as physicality, emotions, and mannerisms. The question then arises, what makes humans more human-like than the very androids we created, since we made them in our image. Since reality and perception of reality are such big motifs in our way of thinking, as exhibited by Freud in his note on the unconscious, the idea of an android being less real than a human is a tough question to answer. Considering humans perhaps don’t have the right to distinguish themselves as a higher power in a god like position to give certain things, such as androids, a place and name within reality. In Terri Murray’s “Our Post-Moral Future?” he claims “Over-emphasizing biological and genetic influences on human behavior implies a deterministic model of human nature that paves the way for conservative changes to society, especially forms of technological social control.” This perfectly describes how we innately look to our biological roots to enforce how we are superior to those around us; even to those we biologically make who are identical to us. The film does a good job at raising this issue in the openness and redundancy in how we enforce what makes a human and how possibly indistinguishable androids are to humans, as evident in the last scene with Roy giving the monologue which exerts powerful meaning and emotion, whilst Harrison Ford is continually neutral and only changes emotions to that of love with ironically, an android. Murray also mentions institutionalizing policies to things beyond people’s comprehension, such as what is real and what makes a human.