Free Will And Determinism In The Minority Report By Philip K. Dick

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“The Minority Report”, by Philip K. Dick, is set in the year 2054 where three mutants called “Precogs” have cognitive abilities to see into the future and predict crimes before they happen. These Precogs have been plugged into machines that decode their visions to serve the pre-crime division, which arrests individuals before they commit any crime. Founded and Headed by John Anderton, the pre-crime division has gone five years without failure and has cut down felonies by up to 99.9%. In order for this to happen, all three precogs have the same vision of an even. In some cases, the precogs have different visions, and then a computer analyses the visions and produces a majority report (where two precogs have similar visions) and a minority report …show more content…

Overall, the story raises questions: is the future set and unchangeable, or can free will create an alternate future/reality? Can free will still exist, if the future is known in advance? The fact that there are three precog reports suggests three alternate futures, therefore the existence of several time paths all existing concurrently. Dick suggests that all the time paths are intertwined at some point, and that the existence of a countless number of time paths entails that something can be done to create a better future from the predictions of the precogs. This is shown by the fact that the pre-crime division is able to stop crimes before they even happen. This main theme is also drawn from the paradox that Witwer raises: the pre-crime division arrests individuals who have broken no law. Anderton defends pre-crime by stating that these individuals will eventually commit the crime and their arrest does not change the fact that they would have committed a crime. This then, presents the idea that the future is rigid and whichever path someone takes will lead exactly to one specific moment that cannot be avoided. Therefore, Dick raises a theme of Determination, cancelling the existence of free

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