Quinneapolis
time travel chat got me thinking about Minority Report so let's muse about that
Quinneapolis
for those unfamiliar
Quinneapolis
Minority Report is a story about a system where the government of... Washington DC? I forget which city, but in the future they have an experimental system
Quinneapolis
where three Precogs use psychic powers to predict murders before they occur
Quinneapolis
and the police then arrest the future murderers before the crimes happen
Quinneapolis
the issue with the system as pointed out in at least the movie version (I haven't read the original) is that they are arresting people who have committed no crime
Quinneapolis
just who were going to commit a crime
Quinneapolis
thinking back to it now, my beef with the precog system is different
Quinneapolis
it's that nobody but the precogs can verify what they predict
Quinneapolis
meaning that the police can grab literally anyone and arrest them for a future murder
Quinneapolis
"You're under arrest for the future murder of the president, mr. opposing politician"
Quinneapolis
"The precogs saw it. Into jail you go"
kamikasei
They can do that, but they'd have to fake the record of the precogs seeing it, no?
Echo
I do remember them having some kind of weird technology that read their brain activity and showed the visions on a screen for the staff maintaining their system, but admittedly that does open up the issues of 1. how do we even know that's showing the actual vision and not some bullshit footage made up in a film studio's basement, and 2. no one sees it?
Echo
Like, they don't seem to be showing the vision footage at trials or anything...
EsperBot
It also generates an unforgable wood ball with their name on it through Dumb Technology
Echo
To be honest, my main issue is them making "future murder" a whole big thing when attempted murder is already a crime that exists.
Quinneapolis
presumably the guys who built the unforgably wood ball machine could make that original machine output whatever they want
Quinneapolis
precog footage is admittedly more work to fake
kamikasei
Like there are a couple of layers at work
kamikasei
One, the precogs themselves could have false visions, which is a thing they could test (if you don't act on a vision, does it always play out as expected)
EsperBot
I think the idea is the unforgable wooden ball machine only takes precog brainwaves as input
kamikasei
Two, the visions could be manipulated, which is the actual plot
kamikasei
Three, the data of what the visions showed could be faked or altered to provide a pretext
Quinneapolis
are the precog visions on public record? I forget
Echo
Like. If you burst in on a dude holding a sharp object and standing above the marital bed in which his wife and the dude she was cheating on him with were, prior to his entry, fucking in... that's not something that needs your super special "future murder" thing to be dealt with by the legal system.
kamikasei
Four, the police could just lie and say there was a vision when there wasn't
Quinneapolis
yeah four is the one I'm thinking of
Echo
Just treat it the same way you would if you got an anonymous tip from a neighbor that "hey I think something really bad is happening with my neighbors" and walked in on that.
kamikasei
I know the plot of the movie has them looking up records of previous visions, I can't remember whether they're submitted as evidence
kamikasei
But also yes, the concept of precrime is weird in that it criminalizes the intent to commit a crime without the act itself
EsperBot
They clearly have an archive, it's less clear whether that archive can be subpeona'd or FOIA'd
Echo
EXACTLY.
kamikasei
And since it's described as a highly effective deterrent against premeditated murder the people they actually catch with it are those acting in the heat of the moment
Echo
If you're about to cut someone's throat and someone yanks the knife out of your hand, you get charged with attempted murder even though they definitely would have died if this person hasn't intervened.
Echo
The source of the information that prompts the intervention shouldn't change the nature of the crime itself.
kamikasei
Hey Quinn, have you seen Wanted?
Quinneapolis
I don't think so
kamikasei
It might interest you
Quinneapolis
2008?
kamikasei
The one with Morgan Freeman
Quinneapolis
hmm... it's free on hulu
Quinneapolis
let's fire it up
kamikasei
This is not precisely a recommendation, I don't remember much of the details so there could be nasty stuff or it might just be bad, but it's relevant
Quinneapolis
I've been watching a lot of bad/nasty movies since I got my Shudder sub so fuck it