Philip Dick–The Minority Report–Group 3

The slides for today talk about the loss of self, memories, dreams, the ability to control one’s life that appears so often in Philip Dick’s work. On the first page of “The Minority Report,” Ed Anderton asserts his free will to Ed Witwer, the young man who intends to replace him:  “I’m under no compulsion to retire. I founded pre-crime and I can stay here as long as I want. It’s purely my decision.”

 The rest of the story thrusts Anderton into a wild conspiracy (or is it one?) that raises questions about the existence and value of free will. At the end, do you think “The Minority Report” sees Anderton as acting freely, as absolutely constrained, or as having a real but limited capacity for self-determination?  Why? Point to one or two specific moments or images that drive your thinking. 

6 thoughts on “Philip Dick–The Minority Report–Group 3

  1. Adam Guo

    I think the “Minority Report” sees Anderson as acting both freely and absolutely constrained. From the beginning of the short story, Anderson is seen to be acting constrained since he is being accused of a murder that he believes so deeply that he will not actually do in a system that he believed so much in. It seems like Anderson does not know what to do from there since he most definitely believes that he is being framed for this future act, and starts to become paranoid by accusing those around him, such as Witwer and his wife that they could be a part of this plot. This makes me wonder if the precogs had already determined the future actions that Anderson was going to take knowing that he would have been deeply disturbed by the accusations that were brought onto him through the accusation of him committing murder. Also, what if actions from others outside of Anderson’s mind and control took place? What if Anderson was shot by his wife in the ship? Would the precog’s have been able to obtain that information from the future? It also makes me wonder if things would have been different if Anderson did not encounter Fleming, if Anderson did not make the decision to go back to the station to gather the “minority report”, and if Anderson did not realize that Fleming was actually working for Kaplan. Could the precog’s have sensed every little change? Or are they constantly adapting to their conclusion based on what is happening? So, in the sense of all of this, Anderson seems to be constrained by what is happening to him since an act that was outside of his control took over and in a way “led” him to the decisions that he ended up doing.

    This leads me to the idea that Anderson was perhaps able to act “freely.” Anderson in the end of the story had the conscious decision of whether or not he wanted to kill Kaplan in order to keep the system that he was in charge of in place, yet that decision to kill Kaplan was decided in the moment. Could the precogs have determined that Anderson was going to make the decision in the end to kill Kaplan in order for Anderson to save the system? Perhaps, the new “time-paths” were constantly being created so the answer would be no. In this way, it is really hard to be certain that Anderson was truly able to act “freely”, yet he was the one who in the end, was able to decide that he wanted to kill Kaplan. This is all super mind-consuming to think about!

  2. Erick Felix

    At the end of “The Minority Report,” I am convinced of two things. The first is that Anderton constantly acts with a real but limited capacity for self-determination. This is because in the scene where Anderton is with Jerry and is reviewing the printed report of what was to occur he realizes that the machines are not deterministic. This is further suggested when his wife, Lisa, argues with him that he should not fight the system he created, instead he should just be sent away because it was predicted that he would eventually kill someone. This is interesting because both Anderton and Lisa seem to understand that their system is flawed, in that the reports they are given are subject to change because they are not deterministic. Thus, when we read that Anderton goes through with killing Kaplan to preserve his own system we realize that the characters in this world live with limited free will. However, this assumes that they have the ability to do so. This leads me to my second point. Anderton’s world is a reflection of our world. I find it strange to not see the world of “The Minority Report” as a deeply Neoliberal world. After reading all three minority reports and judging on how to take down the military coup, Anderton is forced to make a choice. In fact, throughout the whole story, Anderton is always forced to make choices. When Anderton is going to be replaced, he argues that it is his choice. However, I think that the idea of the choices presented in this story serve the same purpose as they do in a neoliberal one. There is an assumption that choice is predicated on free will, but if that was the case then why is there a system that determines who gets exiled out of society. It then seems like the idea of choice is a fallacy because choice relies on the system and just like in a neoliberal one, in a system that is unregulated. I think that is what is most interesting about this short story. We are sold on the idea that like Anderton we have a choice. However, when we come to scrutinize the system we start seeing the flaws, ones that we struggle to take down because we know that we will be oppressed by a similar system, I mean, that is why Anderton kills Kaplan, because he prefers his system and the limited choices of his system, but not that of the Army’s.

    Another thing that I can’t get over is how the system works. We have three mutants who decide the fate of an individual based on probabilities and outcomes. That sounds quantum mechanical as heck. In quantum mechanics we posit that particles that have certain behaviors don’t adhere to the way large objects behave. Instead, we imagine particles to be in a combination of all allowable positions. The result is that we cannot say for certain how particles we behave. After reading this short story, I am leaning more toward the Many-Worlds Interpretation which tells us that the choices we are confronted with results in alternate dimension being created. Interestingly, it seems like Anderton’s world behaves in the same way, in this same quantum mechanical paradigm because we can imagine a world in which Anderton chooses himself over his system and his story would go on. Thus, the idea of choice seems to bring the question physicists have been wrestling with since QM became accepted: What is a measurement?

  3. Eli Biletch

    My impression is that Anderton operates through the story under the illusion of free will. Though admittedly I am a bit confused and have read this over several times, I will try to explain at least my train of thought. As Austin covers very effectively, the final passage in which, satisfied, Anderton reveals the truth of the events of the story, it is established by Dick that the reports seem to change with Anderton’s decisions. The quote is long so I won’t include it, but essentially Anderton states that each consecutive report factored in new data and invalidated the one preceding it. This would suggest that the free will of Anderton opposed each report, ending in all three being incorrect. However, I was under the impression that in order to establish a majority and a minority report and conclude what Anderton was predicted to do in the first place (kill Kaplan), all three reports would have to be fully drawn out preceding the events of the story. Thus, I think Anderton only operates with the illusion of free will.

    This would mean that the three “mutants” factor in their predictions of what would happen – which are always true – before anything even happens. Therefore, the existence of multiple time paths is confirmed, but following them is no option for Anderton as the one he is to go down is predetermined by the sequence of predictions from the precogs.

    I did sit down and change my mind back and forth for too many times to count before writing this, so I am still unsure and want to hear what other people have to say on Friday!

  4. Jasmine Chau

    I’m stuck between Anderton having a limited capacity for self-determination and him being absolutely constrained. I think Anderton’s faith in the pre-crime system and the need for it to work is what truly limits him rather than the predictions themselves. In the end, Anderton’s desire to not let the military take over and destroy the police force is based on the fact that the pre-crime system works. The reason I am stuck between limited capacity and absolute constraint is the last line of the story. “‘It can happen only in one circumstance,’ Anderton said. ‘My case was unique since I had access to the data. It could happen again — but only to the next Police Commissioner.'”(Dick) This implies that there are the pre-crime system is infallible or at least Anderton believes it to be. He is also right that the events happen due to his unique position of being able to see the reports. If that had never happened he wouldn’t have the knowledge that he was going to kill Kaplan, thus giving him no reason to suspect the military of trying to overthrow the system and he would not have killed Kaplan. There is the possibility of Anderton never trying to find the minority report in the first place, but if that were true and a possibility the pre-cogs would have produced a report on it. Since Anderton knows the future and what is going to happen, he forces himself to carry out what the pre-cogs determine. I just can’t determine if this a choice or not. The story makes the future seem linear and this is all based on Anderton being able to see the report. Did Anderton have a choice is seeing the report or how he reacted to Witwer possibly taking his job. The only choice I believe Anderton truely had was to believe in the pre-crime system or to not believe in it.

  5. Austin Cashwell

    I see Anderton as a character acting freely and with a full will. The whole system of Pre-crime is just extremely accurate prediction based on the probability of an event happening with inputs fed to the Donna, Jerry, and Mike. When the inputs change, their predictions change as well as seen in the following: “‘Mike was the last of three, yes. Faced with the knowledge of the first report, I had decided not to kill Kaplan. That produced report two. But faced with that report, I changed my mind back. Report two, situation two, was the situation Kaplan wanted to create. It was to the advantage of the police to recreate position one. And by that time I was thinking of the police. I had figured out what Kaplan was doing. The report invalidated the second one in the same way the second one invalidated the first.” The key concept is how these inputs are not constant and how humans can change the future by knowing it. Just as the Pre-crime police prevent murder by knowing the future, any individual can change their future actions implying the existence of free will with the ability to do so.

    The theory of multiple-futures presented in the story also implies how the future is not set and how human actions are hard to predict. “If only one time-path existed, precognitive information would be of no importance, since no possibility would would, in possessing this information, of altering the future.” So by assuming that one time-path does not exist, the existence of multiple and by extension infinite futures is assumed with man possessing the ability to change them aka free will.

  6. Benton Barry

    I think that Anderton has a real but limited capacity for self-determination based on the decisions he makes in the story. He founded pre-crime and has no intentions to retire anytime soon so it is his decision to stay. Had he retired, then he most likely would not have killed Kaplan. When the report comes out that he will kill Kaplan, he believes it as a conspiracy to take his job. Therefore, his only free will choice would have been to retire. Next, at this point in the story he escapes in the traffic accident which turned out to be staged and eventually sees the minority report which show discrepancies. He has the choice to turn himself in or to expose the reports but he chooses to turn himself in. If he exposed the reports, then many innocents would have been freed. Finally, Anderton chose to kill Kaplan as nobody forced him to do so. He decided that it was the best way based on the three scenarios Kaplan read. He decided killing Kaplan was the lesser of evils and ultimately made the choice to kill him. While Anderson has unfortunate circumstances, he does have limited free will in the story and has the ability to make some decisions. Finally, he does not have total control and is not completely powerless, so thus Anderton has very little free will.

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