The story (and movie) posits that sometime in the future, the US will discover that certain people have pre-cognitive abilities; that they will be able to view the various possible futures ahead of us. The US then creates the Pre-Crime Department and uses these "pre-cogs" to discover and prevent serious crimes. This department then arrests and imprisons people based on what they "will" do in the future.
The short story, unlike the movie, throws somewhat of a paradox at the reader and allows that if a person knows that they will commit a crime, they may be able to change that particular future thread and open up a new future.
But of course, that then means that some innocent people have been accused of and imprisoned for crimes they have not committed or will not commit.
The US today has created the Department of Homeland Security. It's mission is to prevent, pre-empt and deter against aggression targeting the US territory, sovereignty, domestic population, and infrastructure.
Some of the methods used to prevent aggression seem to infringe upon basic constitutional rights entrenched in the minds of US citizens if not the laws of the country. Fingerprinting arriving travellers from certain countries, secret search warrants that do not have to be disclosed for some time after the search has been executed, the mining of seemingly innocuous data such as library records, and seizing and holding people for an indeterminate amount of time based on something they have not done yet but may...
I love Phil Dick's work but I really don't think I'd like to live in one of his schizophrenic, time-slipping, unreal worlds.
I don't seem to have a choice.
Today's listening: The Smiths
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