Cascioppo - Minority Report

Steven Spielberg's Minority Report revolves around the question of whether humans have a conscious control over their actions. Speilberg asks the audience whether such a thing as "free will" exists. Furthermore he asks whether an individuals concept of the "OTHER" is what motivates their actions. The idea of the "other" that I want to describe is the idea that human beings are forced to make decisions, consciously and subconsciously, according to how they feel they are going to be perceived by a separate entity.

In Minority Report the "other" is displayed in many different ways. One could argue that in the film the "other" is represented by the government and specifically the pre-crime detectives. In the film the government is at once distant and also always surrounding the citizens. Most importantly the presence of the government is always felt. The way the government is always around but is actually seen very little is an interesting idea. Interesting in that it is still able to hold so much power yet may actually consist of very few individuals. A good example of the kind of powerful effect the "other" can have can be seen in a specific kind of prison design.

The Panopticon, to briefly summarize it, is a prison layout designed by the english philosopher Jeremy Bentham. It consists of a circular, colliseum like layout of cells. All the cells face into the middle of the circle. In the middle of the circle stands a vertical tower. The tower has windows on all sides and at all levels, so the prisoner is theoretically never out of site. Furthermore the lights never go completely out in the Panopticon. The guards are never seen inside the tower, the windows cannot be seen in from the outside. Bentham's design, he argued, would need very few guards - or maybe (eventually?) none. It's design is successful because of the psychological power of the perceived other.

This is similar to Minority Report where the most frightening aspect of the pre-crime team is not their sheer maliciousness but in there ability to know everything you could possibly due.