They Inch Towards Total Technological Control

This news highlights one of the values of science fiction: anticipating what may, and often does, transpire in real social space, as is the case here. Anyone familiar with Steven Spielberg’s noir science fiction film of 2002, Minority Report, would recognise here the real-world counterpart of the film’s narrative, which revolves precisely around the ability to detect ‘criminal’ thoughts and intentions in the minds of individuals before these crimes – notably murders – are committed. The difference is that in Spielberg’s film the ability to sense, and anticipate, future crimes belongs, not to technical devices, but to three clairvoyant humans (called ‘precogs’), on whose psychic anticipatory capacities the members of the ‘Precrime’ police unit depend.Evidently the control freaks of today want nothing as potentially fallible as humans, no matter how psychically gifted, to monitor and control fickle, potentially rebellious people – in Minority Report some divergent ‘reports’ on the prognosticated crimes occur among the ‘precogs,’ precluding absolute certainty of control; hence the film’s title. As if total surveillance via ‘flying microchips’ is not enough, it is reported (see link for ‘flying microchip,’ above) that Bill Gates has patented his ‘exclusive right’ to ‘computerise the human body,’ so that its capacity to act ‘as a computer network’ can be fully utilised. Not only that, but the patent envisages utilising human bodies as power sources for devices coupled to them. As stated in the patent application,