Predictive Programming: Do Screens Predict the Future or Teach Us to Accept It?
On June 21, 2002, Minority Report took viewers to Washington in 2054, where the Precrime unit arrested people before they killed anyone. Six years earlier, Enemy of the State had shown surveillance through satellites and communications data. Predictive Programming believers ask whether the films only guessed the technology, or also helped society get used to being watched.
Read in Vietnamese →On June 21, 2002, Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report took viewers to Washington in 2054. The Precrime unit arrested people before they killed anyone, using images seen by three “precogs.” Police did not investigate a crime that had happened. They acted because a system said a crime would happen.
Six years earlier, Enemy of the State showed a National Security Agency official using satellites, tracking devices, and communications data to hide the murder of a congressman. In 2013, Edward Snowden disclosed records about the NSA’s bulk telephone-data program. President Barack Obama then acknowledged that the public had to debate how to balance security and privacy. Predictive Programming believers place these dates beside one another and ask: did films merely guess the technology, or did they help society get used to being watched?
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