Module 11

For this week’s assignment we were asked to watch a computer related movie and discuss how computers and networks are used in the film. The movie I chose to watch was minority report. There are many advanced computer themes in this movie. There are computers that read the minds of three mutated humans (called pre-cogs) who can see future crimes before they happen. In the movie there are also scanners that scan people’s eyes for everything from entering buildings to providing personalized advertisements as they walk down the street.

The computers that read the minds of the pre-cogs has many incredible features. The first feature of this computer is the transferring of the visions seen by the pre-cogs from their minds to the screen. If this were possible it would be a huge advancement in science and psychology. If a psychologist could directly see your dreams they would be able to better diagnose patients. Another function of this computer is the control given to the viewer. The person viewing the vision can change the viewpoint, the angle and rotate the view to better see the crime scene.

            The scanners in the movie are less futuristic because eye scanners are available to anybody now for the right price. The eye scanners in the movie are more advanced than real eye scanners because they can detect who a person is from a farther distance away.

            The last computer theme I want to discuss is the network that all the computers in the movie are connected to. When the main character is accused of a crime by the pre-cog he has to have eye surgery to change his eyes so that none of the scanners know that it is him. That implies that every scanner in the city (Washington D.C.) is connected and while they are all doing individual tasks they are also searching for criminals. It is incredible to consider how many people at any given time are walking on the streets and each scanner is picking out each individual to advertise to. That would take a massive network to control all the information going through it.