Friday, November 12, 2010

Blog 13: Minority Report Response

Murder can be an unquestionably terrible and hazardous type of crime witnessed in present day society. It’s probably the worst felony an individual can commit, as of course a precious innocent life is taken away in perhaps a glimpse or a blink of an eye. Definitely no one in the face of the earth deserves their life to be seized in such a horrible manner; but sadly it occurs. There’s probably no justifiable reason by which a person might have the desire to kill another connecting the idea of conscience or inner scruples an individual can possess. The sense of right and wrong plays a vital role in a drastic situation similar to this. Perhaps the most reliable solution for increased crime rates and of course felony itself might be “Precrime,” the elite law enforcing squad that prevents crime before it even occurs in distinctive Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report.

In Minority Report the “Precrime” squad utilizes three genetically engineered humans called Pre-cogs, with special powers to be able to see in the future and predict crimes in advance. John Anderton, one of the members of the squad, believes the system’s flawlessness persistently. However, one day the Pre-cogs predict that Anderton himself will commit a murder in which he doesn’t even know the victim. With an inner intrigue, he decides to get to the mystery’s core by discovering the “minority report” which is the prediction of the female Pre-Cog Agatha that “might” tell a diverse story and prove Anderton innocent. Anderton’s situation started gradually getting intense as his own unit began tracking down his every move plus the futuristic automated city, where every step taken is monitored, makes it a lot worse. It worsens to the point that privacy is not even an option. This is mostly seen when the spider robots, eye-scanning electronic spiders utilized in order to identify individuals, are thrown and dispersed by the officers to find Anderton. These spider robots scan the iris of every individual in that building despite whatever they’re doing including sex, having a discussion, using the bathroom, attending their children, etc.; but it seems that the people are accustomed to this procedure as they stop what they’re doing in order to get inspected so the spider robots can leave and then continue with their activities. In other words, the city has evolved into a world of avoiding crime but without privacy ethics.  

            I believe morals and respect should always be considered in daily activities and humanity itself. Despondently, the world has really become into a discourteous entity in which disappointedly we’re part of. In referential to Minority Report’s Precrime, the system has turned the community into an aware personnel due to the constant bombarding advertisements towards their consumers, as well as the continuous iris monitoring in order to identify every individual. Thus, due to the scrutinized city, it’s evident how crime has been lowered by the permanent invasion of privacy. In other words, society should unquestionably consider ethical solutions for its security issues because the more security without privacy, the more immoral the world becomes. However, corruption and crime are undeniably deceitful acts being the most acceptable reason by which security has become stricter. Therefore, austere protection is important to consider, but at the same time applying ethical concerns in hazardous crime diminishment systems.

Finally, “Precrime” would be an ideal solution in order to effectively avoid an intended crime before it’s even made. Nevertheless at the same time, free will and determinism is bound to be perceived as in the world of Minority Report, the system punishes people for something they haven’t even done yet. According to the article Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report by Michael Huemer, the idea of free will is discussed as he states: “if the alleged future criminals lack free will, then it is unjust to punish them since they are not morally responsible for what they would have done. If the alleged future criminals have free will, then it is unjust to punish them since we can not be sufficiently certain that they really would have committed the crime for which they are to be punished.” In other words, there’s a free will paradox occurring under this situation in which not even the Precrime system’s “infallibility” contains an answer.   


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