The Minority Report
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Cover of The Minority Report, the 4th volume of Philip K. Dick's collected stories
"The Minority Report" is a 1956 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in Fantastic
Universe. In a future society, three mutants foresee all crime before it occurs. Plugged into a great machine, these
"precogs" allow the Precrime division to arrest suspects prior to any infliction of public harm. When the head of
Precrime John A. Anderton is accused of murdering Leopold Kaplan, a man whom he has never met, Anderton is convinced a
great conspiracy is afoot. His new assistant, Ed Witwer, must have corrupted the system in an attempt to oust him from the
position. On the run and suspicious of even his wife, Anderton searches for the minority report to clear his name, as only two out
of the three precogs predicted his guilt. Through a series of betrayals and changing alliances, Anderton discovers that the three
predictions are rather a progression of alternate realities. In order to maintain the authority of Precrime, Anderton consciously
decides to kill Kaplan, thereby affirming the validity of the second majority report. Anderton is thus exiled with his wife to life
on a frontier colony and replaced by Witwer as head of Precrime. The story ends with Anderton's advice to his successor: “Better
keep your eyes open,” he informed young Witwer. “It might happen to you at any time.”
The story reflects many of Philip K. Dick's personal Cold War anxieties, particularly questioning the relationship between
authoritarianism and individual autonomy. Like many stories dealing with knowledge of future events, "The Minority Report"
questions the existence of free will. In 2002, the story was adapted into a film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom
Cruise, Colin Farrell and Max von Sydow. Spielberg's film was followed by a series of the same name which debuted on
the FOX Network on September 21, 2015.
Synopsis
John Anderton is the head of the Precrime Division. One day, he receives a report that he is going to murder a General Kaplan, a
man he never met. At first he goes on the run, but later turns to the offensive to figure out why the precogs identified him as a
killer. He finds out that Kaplan is pushing to abolish the Division, claiming that it's not accurate. Giving himself up, he meets
with Kaplan at a rally where he is used as an example of the ineffectiveness of Precrime and bolstering Kaplan's position. To
everyone's surprise, Anderton pulls out a gun and kills Kaplan. He and his wife are exiled to an off planet concentration camp.
On the way he explains his reasoning. After obtaining the precog reports he realized that one minority report said that he would
not kill Kaplan. He realizes that each report is based on him having knowledge of the other reports. In the first report he kills
Kaplan to prevent Precrime from being shut down. The second report has a narrative where, after reading the first report, he
decides not to shoot the general and spare his family imprisonment. The final report details how Kaplan was planning a military
coup to install martial law in place of Precrime thus leading Anderton to the decision that he has to assassinate Kaplan. Realizing
that it's the lesser of two evils, Anderton decides to follow the path described to him in the third report and kills Kaplan.
Precrime
Founded thirty years prior to when the story is set, Precrime is a predictive policing system dedicated to apprehending and
detaining people before they have the opportunity to commit a given crime. This method has replaced the traditional system of
discovering a crime and its perpetrator(s) after the crime has already been committed, then issuing punishment after the fact. As
Witwer says early on in the story, "punishment was never much of a deterrent and could scarcely have afforded comfort to a
victim already dead". Unlike the film adaptation, the story version of Precrime does not deal solely with cases of murder, but all
crimes. As Commissioner John A. Anderton (the founder of Precrime) states, "Precrime has cut down felonies by 99.8%." Three
mutants, known as "precogs", have precognitive abilities by which they can see up to two weeks into the future. The precogs are
strapped into machines, nonsensically babbling as a computer listens and converts this gibberish into predictions of the future.
This information is then transcribed onto conventional punch cards which are ejected into various coded slots: when cards are
produced, they appear simultaneously at Precrime and the army headquarters, in order to prevent systemic corruption. [1]
Precogs
Precogs are mutants, identified talents further developed in a government-operated training school — for example, one precog
was initially diagnosed as "a hydrocephalic idiot" but the precog talent was found under layers of damaged braintissue. The
precogs are kept in rigid position by metal bands, clamps and wiring, strapping them into special high-backed chairs. Their
physical needs are taken care of automatically and Anderton claims that they have no spiritual needs. Their physical appearance
is distorted from an ordinary human, with enlarged heads and wasted bodies. Precogs are "deformed" and "retarded" as "the talent
absorbs everything"; "the esp-lobe shrivels the balance of the frontal area". They do not understand their predictions; only
through technological and mechanical aid can their nonsense be unravelled. The data produced does not always pertain to crime
or murder, but this information is then passed on to other agencies.
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Majority and minority reports
Each of the three precogs generates its own report or prediction. The reports of all the precogs are analyzed by a computer and, if
these reports differ from one another, the computer identifies the two reports with the greatest overlap and produces a majority
report, taking this as the accurate prediction of the future. But the existence of majority reports implies the existence of
a minority report. In the story, Precrime Police Commissioner John A. Anderton believes that the prediction that he will commit
a murder has been generated as a majority report. He sets out to find the minority report, which would give him an alternate
future.
However, as Anderton finds out, sometimes all three reports differ quite significantly, and there may be no majority report, even
though two reports may have had enough in common for the computer to link them as such. In the storyline, all of the reports
about Anderton differ because they predict events occurring sequentially, and thus each is a minority report. Anderton's situation
is explained to be unique because he, as Police Commissioner, received notice of the precogs' predictions, allowing him to
change his mind and invalidate earlier precog predictions.
Multiple time paths
The existence of three apparent minority reports suggests the possibility of three future time paths, all existing simultaneously,
any of which an individual could choose to follow or be sent along following an enticement (as in Anderton's being told he was
going to murder an unknown man). In this way, the time-paths overlap, and the future of one is able to affect the past of another.
It is in this way that the story weaves a complicated web of crossing time paths and makes a linear journey for Anderton harder to
identify. It is the theory of multiple-futures which allows the precogs of Precrime to be of benefit, because if only one time-path
existed, the predictions of the precogs would be worthless, since no possibility would exist of altering the future. Precrime is
based on the notion that once one unpleasant future pathway is identified, an alternative, better one can be created with the arrest
of the intended perpetrator.
Police Commissioner John A. Anderton
John A. Anderton is the protagonist of The Minority Report. At first, he is highly insecure, suspicious of those closest to him - his
wife, his assistant Witwer. He has complete faith in the Precrime system and its authority over individuals and their freedom of
choice. The poor living condition of the precogs and the imprisonment of would-be criminals are necessary consequences for the
greater good of a safe society. When his own autonomy comes under attack, Anderton retains this faith and convinces himself
that the system has somehow been corrupted. At first, when his wife suggests, “Perhaps a lot of people in the camps are like you.’
‘No,’ Anderton insisted. But he was beginning to feel uneasy about it too. ‘I was in a position to see the card, to get a look at the
report. That’s what did it.’ ‘But – ’ Lisa gestured significantly. ‘Perhaps all of them would have acted that way. We could have
told them the truth.’ ‘It would have been far too great a risk,’ he answered stubbornly” (Ch.7). When later asked, “Which means
more to you – your own personal safety or the existence of the system?’ ‘My safety,’ Anderton answered, without hesitation. ‘If
the system can survive only by imprisoning innocent people, then it deserves to be destroyed. My personal safety is important
because I’m a human being” (Ch.7). Anderton struggles to find an appropriate balance between Precrime authority and individual
liberty. Ultimately, Anderton decides to kill Leopold Kaplan in order to affirm the majority report and thereby preserve the
validity of the Precrime system. In doing so, he is himself liberated from society in exile and recovers his self-confidence.
Anderton has arguably lost some of his humanity in becoming a murderer, yet he has regained a sense of superiority over both his
wife and Witwer.
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