reportDestruction of Home through Technology

In this section I will argue that home in Minority Report (51) fails to be established due to the invasion of technology. I will achieve this by looking at three aspects of the film that depict the loss of home. I have chosen this film as it clearly depicts a technologically advanced world, where privacy has been lost. Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg in 2002, is partially based on the novel Minority Report (ref), written by Philip K. Dick in 1956. The film depicts Washington D.C. in the year 1954. It focuses on John Anderton, who uses precognitive images in order to stop crimes before they happen.

The city is an extension of home that leads to the loss of autonomy.

This is achieved through eye recognition scanners that are placed throughout the built environment. They are used constantly to identify individuals and are seen in department stores, offices and within people’s ‘homes’. Therefore, constant interaction between technology and the individual takes place. The significance of being recognised regularly in a public space is used to make the individual feel comfortable and familiar, notions of home. The city can therefore be seen as an extension of domesticity.
However, this creates blurred lines between the city and home in the sense of a single building.

However, this creates a digital invasion of home evidently shown by the pursuing of Anderton through the city (‘home’) by the authorities. In this scene the retinal scanners become an additional hunter, announcing his location to the authorities and by doing so creating invisible obstacles. As Hanson confirms, “Minority Reports utopian environment suddenly becomes another pursuer.” (55) Adding that there is no “escape from an expansive network of non boundaries”. (55)
Therefore, due to the positioning of technology within the city and its interaction with individuals, domestic privacy has been destroyed and home has failed to be established.

As previously mentioned, precognitive images are collected and arranged by Precrime officers to form clues in establishing crimes before they happen. In an opening scene, we see these clues offering detailed insights of a home. They describe the owners, their possessions, the inside of the house and their feelings. The spy technology, which has produced these images, shows a clear invasion of privacy. Allowing the situation to be entered digitally by the government and the law. Because of this, it has created an area that fails to establish home. As

Technology can be used to intrude into our homes, destroying privacy. Throughout the film, technology is repeatedly used to see into people’s homes. One example of this is the invasion of miniature spider-like robots released by the police into a residential complex. The spiders can be seen physically intruding into each home identifying every occupant. We see the inhabitants displayed in their most private everyday activities. One pair are having sex, another having an argument, whilst one man is seen sat on the toilet. In all cases, the occupants just allow this invasion to happen, only pausing to be identified by the spiders. This shows that invasion of home is common. This is also backed up by similar intrusions within the film. As seen from the very start of the film where authorities break into a residential home, arresting its occupants. In this case, technology was used to see into the home and aid in the arresting of the inhabitants. Therefore, through the use of technology, private spaces can be entered into, as Matrix concurs “this powerful cyberpanoptic is all seeing: there is nowhere to hide in the architectures of transparency” (54).
In my opinion, Minority Report shows that home is not private due to technology.

Therefore, Minority Report fails to establish home due to the invasion of technology, as Spielberg proclaims “the little privacy we have now will be completely evaporated in twenty or thirty years because technology will be able to see through our walls” (57), going on to say “these violations, I think, will be a detriment to society”. Therefore, Minority Report shows us that the disbanding of boundaries is a cautionary tale. From it we can deduce that when designing the future home, it must protect itself from the infiltration of technology.