Minority Report

Philip K. Dick

Precrime Commissioner John A. Anderton is in charge of the murder section of the Precrime unit. There are three humans with powers of future premenotions. They are idiot savants, so are part of a secluded group away from the general population. They are connected to a bank of computers that reads their precog visions and processes the future crimes that will happen. Anderton is showing around his new Assistant Ed Witwer.

While they are there a new report comes up. Anderton reads it and immediately hides the results. The name presented is his own, John Anderton. He is going to kill someone with the week. And his intended victim is a stranger to him. Now he is on the run from his own unit. He has to find out what is going on and who is framing him.

This short speculative fiction story was originally published in the mid 1950's. Dick is part of that classic group of science fiction writers that help establish the genre and genius of the time. The only part of this story that shows its age is the fact that punch cards are used in the computer. Otherwise, this tale could easily be written now. (For that matter, it was rewritten for the Tom Cruise movie. Other than the precognition premise and the accusation of someone within the Precrime unit, the stories are very different.)

It can be read in under a half hour, and would be appreciated by both science fiction fans and mystery fans. It's well worth reading, as is most of Philip K. Dick's work. I advise you to stay away from the publication I read through Pantheon Books. The pages flip like a stenographer notebook or legal pad when read, which is mentally disturbing. We're used to our book pages going from left to right, not up and down.

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