Computers, Privacy & the Constitution

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NicoleKimSecondPaper 3 - 14 Jan 2015 - Main.IanSullivan
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 Our class discussion about how accumulation of personal data can predict our behavior led me to think of Minority Report. Minority Report, of course, is famously about three mutated humans with precognitive abilities, whose visions of the future allow the police to prevent crimes before they occur. Reflecting on Minority Report from perspectives of this class, what I found notable was the thread of unbelievability running through it and similar films. Many technologies from futuristic dystopian movies, which depict totalitarian government surveillance, exist and are used today: optical recognition systems, individualized and targeted public advertising and messages, retinal scanners, facial recognition software, small robot drones, and, transformed into human “precogs” in Minority Report, crime prediction software.

Hollywood displaces dystopias involving government surveillance in the future (never too far away, but never too close, either), or emphasizes that actions that government actors take are those of a rogue agency or agent. See, for an example, Total Recall, Eagle Eye, Enemy of the State, and even The Hunger Games. The ensuing drama, such as in Minority Report (a murderous plot, an innocent man being framed, the system grossly abused by the director of the program) leading to the inevitable Hollywood feel-good ending (the precogs being unhooked from the system to live in peace), like explosions and romance, are necessary for Hollywood thrillers; however, all of the action also serves to displace the anxieties of such “dystopian” actions occurring right now. If the setting and the storyline seem larger and more histrionic than life, it may be easier for the viewing public to engage in the thrill of conspiracy without fearing it spilling over into their own lives.


Revision 3r3 - 14 Jan 2015 - 22:44:50 - IanSullivan
Revision 2r2 - 12 May 2013 - 18:02:23 - EbenMoglen
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