Minority report is movie which depicts lifestyle and technology present in year 2054.

Definitely one of the movies which gets people’s eyes glues to the screen. It is a brilliant display of future predictions about people’s lifestyle, criminology and, for sure, technology which seems out of this world. With cars traveling both horizontally and vertically, everything else seems possible.

Some of the predictions that came up from Minority Report

1) Iris Recognition – as defined by Wikipedia, is a method of biometric authentication that uses pattern-recognition techniques based on high-resolution images of the irides of an individual’s eyes.

2) Sixth Sense (device) – extract from website. ‘SixthSense’ is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

3) Interactive Advertisements – with iris recognition technology, advertisers would make use of such means to direct advertisements to individuals. as can be seen in the movies, advertisements speak directly to the person.

Issue I am concerned is linked with our privacy. Especially with the rampant development of Google and extraction of personal information in exponential rate. What would the world become when technology exposes our identity to the public so much so that we do not have any private lives.

Alrighty, with banana cereal in my tummy and Kings on Convenience on repeat, i am ready to blog. Yes, finally, after a month.

Watched Minority Report yesterday to refresh my memory, and of course, as expected from Steven Spielberg – it was an awesome movie. But besides it being a great movie, the story was frightening. Don’t we all feel afraid that our future will turn out like Minority Report?

Set in Washington DC in the year 2054, the movie focuses on Precrime chief, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) who found himself turned into one of his company’s wanted people, after the precogs showed a vision of him killing. Thus to prove his innocence, he struggles to find his own minority report.

Looking at  Minority Report, people might think the technology shown is still far in the future. For example, getting identified through an eye iris. Today sees us identified through our fingerprints, and it seems, nothing more than this. However, Ms Kwa shown the students this video, which i think can challenge that altogether.

This video is a demo of a device from MIT. At one part of the video, a person is identified by the device by his face, and projects all information it can gather of this person. With technology like this being around the corner, eye iris identification seems nearer than 2054.

Also, didn’t you find the finger gesturing on the demo video similar to Minority Report?

If we can actually have a little of Minority Report in the year of 2009, i have a feeling it wouldn’t take longer than 2054 for life to be similar to Minority Report.

Le planning 2010 blu ray de Fox est déjà bien chargé.

En janvier

Mash

Tora ! Tora ! Tora !

Le peuple migrateur

Mai-juin

Les sentiers de la perdition

Minority report

Décembre

Abyss

Roméo et Juliette & Moulin rouge (versions Luhrmann)

Quadrilogie Alien (remasterisé en 4k)

La mélodie du bonheur (remasterisé en 4k)

Keanu Reeves: Photo Courtesy of keanu.org

In this week’s premiere of New Communication Technologies (NCT) class, our great lecturer, Ping, showed us Minority Report. I was beginning to think whether it was a coincidence (Ping could have been intending to recruit Keanu Reeves fans like herself) or that there was a more significant agenda – to let the ignorant children trapped in the protective environment of this classroom open their eyes to what could be the future of the universe!

We have the usual adventure story – good guy, righteous and all, wronged by the bad guys hence set out to clear his name… by kidnapping a bald-shaven and pale woman – who can barely communicate well with her stutters, which is good because it prolongs the storyline and the air time.

Alright, who am I kidding?

The crux is this – the technology used and displayed in the show is beyond the present. However, many revolutions have passed through the centuries and the sci-fi in Minority Report could just be the next in line.

And current technology seems to be edging towards the Minority Report reality. Compare the following:

Today’s technology – a man interacting with a projected surface using his fingers:

(click on image for video)

Minority Report – Keanu Reeves interacting with holograms using his fingers:

Keanu Reeves: Photo Courtesy of flixster.com

Aren’t those two most alike? Not forgetting location-based services are personified as the Precogs (ones who are capable of telling the future) in the movie as well. It is indeed amazing to see the human race mingle with science to create possibilities and bring about what seems to be convenience to the society.

However, things appear too perfect. And too-perfect things can be flawed in some way or another.

Think about this – one of some other problems that may surface: what will happen to the privacy of each individual if tracking whereabouts of individuals were as simple as a click on a system – especially with the impending proliferation of location-based services?

Do privacy and convenience with technology possess an inverse relationship? Think about it while you tweet, facebook, plurk, stumbleupon or use that android application.

]]> http://stanzedicinema.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/i-migliori-del-decennio-2002-2003/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:15:41 +0000 Marco Albanese http://stanzedicinema.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/i-migliori-del-decennio-2002-2003/

Terza puntata del sondaggio sui migliori film dell’ultimo decennio.

Questa settimana si può votare per l’annata 2002-2003.

In testa, per noi, ci sono Monty Brogan/Edward Norton, spacciatore al tramonto per Spike Lee, in attesa di un’impossibile 25°ora (…e come dimenticare la Naturelle di Rosario Dawson?), il melò di Haynes con Julianne Moore, il goodfellas brasiliano di Meirelles nelle favelas di Rio, il thriller di Nolan nella luce perenne dell’Alaska, con Pacino, Williams, Swank ed infine Minority Report: Philip Dick, Spielberg, Cruise, Farrell, un concentrato di talenti.

Seguono il documentario di Moore sulla strage di Columbine, il miglior De Palma dai tempi di Carlito’s way, sexy e spericolato, il secondo Spielberg natalizio con Di Caprio e Tom Hanks, summa della sua poetica sulle famiglie senza padri.

Completano i primi dieci il meraviglioso Miyazaki de La città incantata e L’imbalsamatore di Matteo Garrone: camera a spalla, provincia desolata, ambiguità morale e sentimentale, personaggi memorabili.

E ora VOTATE voi!!!

Gare aux criminels ! Une équipe internationale de scientifiques a mis sur pied un « ordinateur psychique » qu’on dit capable de lire dans les pensées des gens. En effet, en analysant leur activité cérébrale au scanner, l’ordinateur serait en mesure d’illustrer leurs pensées et même leurs souvenirs.

D’après le Sunday Times, les scientifiques ont pu « décoder » et convertir des signaux du cerveau ou l’activité cérébrale en images se déplaçant sur un écran d’ordinateur, ce qui constitue une innovation dans le domaine scientifique.

Au cours de leur étude, les scientifiques ont utilisé la technologie de l’imagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle (IRM) afin de scanner les cerveaux de deux volontaires pendant qu’ils regardaient des vidéos.

Ensuite, l’ordinateur, conçu spécialement pour les besoins de cette recherche, a cherché des liens entre la configuration des formes, couleurs et mouvements contenus dans les vidéos et analysé les structures d’activités s’opérant dans le cortex visuel des patients. 

D’après les scientifiques, il était facile pour l’ordinateur d’interpréter les structures cérébrales lorsque le sujet regardait une image, une personne ou un visage statique. En revanche, il était très confus de « décoder » les structures cérébrales lorsque le patient regardait un objet se déplaçant rapidement.
Les scientifiques affirment qu’un jour cet ordinateur pourra servir à étudier les rêves, pensées ou comportements et pourra même être utilisé pour élucider des affaires criminelles en scannant les cerveaux des témoins.

« Pour l’instant, pour décrire ce que l’on voit, l’on doit soit utiliser des mots, soit faire un dessin, ce qui n’est pas toujours efficace », affirme le Professeur Jack Gallant, de l’Université de Californie, Berkeley.

« Cette technologie pourrait servir à transmettre nos images mentales à d’autres personnes. Elle serait d’une utilité certaine aux artistes ou encore permettre de recouvrer les souvenir d’un crime vécu par un témoin », ajoute-t-il. 

Pourtant, une telle technologie pourrait aussi introduire une ère de déséquilibre telle décrite dans le film Minoriy Report, dans lequel joue Tom Cruise, où des policiers du futur lisent dans les pensées et procèdent aux arrestations sur la base des « pensées criminelles ». 

Il ne faut donc pas s’étonner, a prévenu Gallant, si leur percée scientifique a « de graves implications éthiques relatives à la vie privée ».

Et le Pr Gallant d’ajouter : « Nous pensons que personne ne doit se laisser lire ses pensées de manière involontaire, secrète ou sans un consentement formel ».
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C’est pas fou, il ne manquait plus que ça, lire dans les pensées des gens, même si ils n’en sont qu’au début(officiellement), le danger est la.
L’ultra fascisme technologique est à nos portes….

Talvez não fosse à toa que em Minority Report, lançado em 2002, fazia o uso de telas transparentes.

A tecnologia que parecia mesmo fazer somente parte da ficção, agora está começando a fazer parte do nosso mundo real.

Isso porque a Samsung acaba de lançar um protótipo de display OLED transparente, para atender a uma outra novidade: a realidade aumentada.

Veja aqui como as novas telas que logo poderão chegar às nossas casas:

Nu mă uit aproape niciodată la televizor. Și bine fac. Era o vreme cînd mă uitam. Acum televizorul mi se pare tembelizor și atîta tot. Însă mai devreme televizorul era aprins, din inițiativa altcuiva, și am văzut știrile. Printre altele, am auzit că au fost găsite două prostituate moarte, în casa unui client, zicea televizorul. Mă gîndesc acum, nu atunci cînd am auzit știrile, pentru că atunci nu gîndeam- în general cînd te uiți la televizor, gîndirea e suspendată, și tocmai d-aia televizorul se mai numește și tembelizor- că în momentul în care prostituatele erau omorîte de clientul lor turbat, din cine știe ce motiv, eu citeam din Weber fără să am habar. Nimic din învelișul metafizic care unește toate ființele nu m-a avertizat de comiterea unei duble crime, ca în Minority report, interesantul film cu Tom Cruise. Durerea, nebunia, delirul criminal, animalitatea însăși dezlănțuite, n-au ajuns în niciun fel la mine, nu mi-au tulburat liniștea. Și e bine că e așa, altfel cum aș mai putea trăi dacă aș fi afectat de toate dramele care se petrec fie și numai pe o rază de cîțiva kilometri în jurul meu? Îmi continui netulburat existența, indiferent la sirenele pe care le aud trecînd din cînd în cînd pe Calea 13 Septembrie,  surd la țipetele disperate ale poveștilor care le pun în mișcare.

PS : Tocmai am aflat că era vorba de o singură prostituată, nu de două și că a fost omorîtă pentru că nu s-a-nțeles la preț cu clientul. Criza asta! Mă întreb de ce prima dată am auzit că e vorba de două, nu de una. Nu vreau să dau vina pe alții, dar era ceva în vocea omului de la știri care făcea totul să sune atît de senzațional, încît prin alte mijloace decît limbajul spunea că sînt două moarte, nu una. Mai există și posibilitatea ca în promo-ul știrilor, căci acolo am auzit prima dată, să se fi spus că sînt două victime, pentru că două prostituate moarte atrag de două ori mai multă audiență decît una singură.

It was bound to happen at some point ! And I guess Microsoft was a pretty likely candidate. They are currently touring American colleges showing off a minority report-esque next-gen interface. With a clear glass display, motion sensing technology and eye tracking as part of the users tools this is trully an amazing set up !

click link for videos

[from TechEBlog]

I’ve been stateside for the last week, and after spending hours in various airports listening to “Homeland Security Advisories”, dealing with airport security and watching American newscasts, I’m now more convinced than ever that the Fear Industry is very real.

For reasons that I can only speculate on, there seems to be a concerted global effort to create a culture of fear throughout the developed world.  In countries like Australia and Canada, this industry is more subtle, but in the UK and the USA, there seems to be little or no attempt to hide it. 

As I type this, I’m actually sitting in the airport and listening to the “Security Advisories” being announced.  Has anyone else noticed that since they started doing these threat level announcements 8 years ago, the level has never dropped below “Orange”?  Be vigilant, they say.  Watch for suspicious activity.  Inform the police or Transport Security officers of any perceived threats.  Oh and while you’re at it, why don’t you subject yourself to our overzealous and ineffective security screening process?  You don’t mind do you?  Sure it violates a couple of your rights, but it’s in the name of public safety in the “War on Terror”, so you really shouldn’t complain.

What really disturbs me though is the number of people who truly believe that by carrying 100mL bottles of shampoo, the world, or at least the airport, is a safer place.  They truly believe that by taking off their shoes, they are thwarting the next 9/11. 

“Most people want security in this world, not liberty” ~H.L. Mencken, Minority Report, 1956

Especially here in the United States, the people are constantly inundated with messages of violence and fear and possible terrorist attacks.  All of the major news networks flood their viewers with information.  There’s the news anchor with pictures and videos of some tragic story that they repeat ad nauseum for days on end.  There are the scrolling panels that are impossible to follow and leave the viewer feeling overwhelmed and anxious.  And my personal favourite, has been the gradual shift from reporting facts to intentionally eliciting a specific emotional response in the viewer.  “There was a motor vehicle accident on the highway this afternoon involving multiple vehicles that left one person dead and several others in hospital with minor injuries” has been replaced with “There was a horrific crash on the highway that took the life of an innocent young mother, left several others clinging to life in hospital, and left witnesses traumatized”.

The news writers carefully word the stories to guide the viewer to a precise emotional response, be it fear or grief or worry, etc. Whatever that emotion may be, it will very rarely be positive.  CNN hasn’t been dubbed “Constantly Negative News” for no reason.  This phenomenon is by no means limited to the US – it’s just far more blatant here than in other countries.

As I mentioned earlier, I could speculate endlessly on the reasons for this constant fear factor, but I think that would serve little purpose.  What’s more important, in my opinion, is being aware of what has been, and could be, done while people are in this state.  You see, when people are feeling afraid, or hopeless, or anxious, or overwhelmed, or stressed, they have a tendency to give up rational thought.  They’ll listen to anyone who claims to be able to make those uncomfortable feelings go away, and damn the consequences.

The consequences, however, are huge!  What I see happening on almost a daily basis is a gradual erosion of our rights and freedoms.  Every day we trade a little bit of freedom for the illusion of safety.  I’ll repeat that last bit: the illusion of safety.  All of the endless new laws and security screening procedures simply make us think we’re safer, while doing nothing to actually address the underlying issues. 

What many people fail to grasp, is that we live in a world of duality.  Light and dark, hot and cold, up and down, love and hate, good and evil.  You can’t have one without the other.  All the rules, regulations, laws and security procedures in the world will never, ever change that.  If someone is determined enough, they will always find a way. 

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t try to make the world a better place.  I’m saying that we need to carefully consider the wisdom of our current path.  Do we really want to live in a world where everyone is presumed guilty?  Do we really want to live in a world where people are punished because of what they might do?  Is legislating safety really making us safer, or just making us feel like we are?

Lastly and most importantly: what’s the point of fighting for freedom, if you’re going to use that freedom to create laws that take it away?

Ms Kwa screened snippets of the movie, Minority Report during NCT tutorial in week 1. It was interesting, yet it made me fearful of how scary technology can be in the future.

The show revolves around the year 2054, where John Anderton (acted by Tom Cruise) is the chief of the Precrime, a police department that uses future vision to prevent murders.

Anderton is predicted to be involved in a murder. To avoid iris recognition, he has his eyes surgically replaced in order not to be caught.

I was amazed at the scene where Tom Cruise walked into the building, and there were advertisements ‘talking’ to him. Yes, the advertisements knew who exactly its target audience was through iris recognition, thus the advertisements naturally filtered out those people whom weren’t targeting. It’s a brilliant thing i would say, for both consumers and advertisers. Consumers get what they are interested in without the clutter, advertisers target the specific crowd, saving both time and money.

However, i think technology can also be a very scary thing! Imagine walking on a street, and a stranger knows everything about you. Privacy will be something that is foreign; everything you do will be known by anyone and everyone. Sure, i don’t deny that technology is one of the biggest blessings in our lives today. What would we do without the computer, the telephone, the world wide web? Seeing or talking to someone across the globe can be now easily done in just one click. What can be done by humans can now be done by machines faster and more economically. I appreciate technology for that, but if one day technology were to predict the future, to know so much (and too much) that nobody would have any privacy, would technology still be something that people seek, or something they avoid?

Some food for thought.

AP/Reuters: Los Angeles, 5 November 2009:

Recently Nicolas Cage, star of such amazing movies as Knowing, Ghost Rider and Bangkok Dangerous has fallen on some hard times financially. I know it’s a tragedy.  The economy is hitting everyone extremely hard these days.  The extremely versatile actor best known for ability to turn even the most interesting movie lame, has had to auction off some of his possessions.  It’s been said he sold his pair of African King Cobras to a zoo to complete their reptile cage.  He’s put his two haunted mansions in New Orleans on the auction block hoping to cash in on the Paranormal Activity bandwagon.  He sold his 500K Lamborghini back to the Shah of Iran, and even worse he’s been told he can no longer afford to keep his pet Octopus as Octopus food is getting more and more expensive each year.  I’m not sure if anyone remembers, but he did find the world’s most expansive treasure collection in National Treasure.  Where the F did all that money go?  Nic, my good man, I know you’ll bounce back, just stop buying 300K dinosaur skulls and shrunken heads, they are creepy and won’t get you laid more often… What you should do is get a movie role that doesn’t involve the world somehow ending at the hands of an Asian Gang with nuclear capability.  Come on… Matchstick Men, Leaving Las Vegas even Gone in 60 Seconds had some substance.  Don’t let people tell you just cause you’re bald you have to do movies that blow.  You’re better than this man.  Until then, I know a guy who’s in the market for $2,000,000 worth of comic books.

Yesterday, at 8PM EST, the reimagining of 1983 miniseries ‘V‘ piloted on ABC, pulling in just over 13.9 million viewers,  beating new favourite and dubbed ‘Lost replacement‘, ‘Flashfoward‘ by 1.5 million viewers. Unfortunately for most UK viewers, ‘V‘ will not be released until 2010.

The cast of V may seem ever recognisable with stars from such programs as Lost, Smallville, Firefly and 24. These stars include; Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost, E.R, Time Of Your Life), Lourdes Benedicto (24, The Nine, NYPD Blue), Laura Vandervoort (Smallville, Instant Star, Into The Blue 2), Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Serenity, Stargate SG-1) and Alan Tudyk (Serenity, Firefly, Dollhouse), with newcomers; Morris Chestnut (The Game Plan, The Perfect Holiday, Anacondas), Joel Gretsch (The 4400, National Treasure: Book Of Secrets, Minority Report) , Logan Huffman (America, Circledrawers, Lymelife) and Scott Wolf (The Nine, Party Of Five, Everwood). Goodness, I apologize for all the reading you have to do.

Anyway, the pilot for V was very unique, and definitely one of the better pilots I’ve seen in a while, possibly matched by my love for Supernatural or Lost in terms of favourites and the quality throughout the episode never ceased to amaze, with special effects equal to that of a Hollywood blockbuster, and enough content to cause indescribable thinking for a period of several weeks, it certainly has enough to keep you hooked. Even in the first five minutes. However, the have been claims by President Barack Obama’s supporters that the program acts as an allegory to the Obama Administration, purely based on the mention of words and phrases throughout the pilot such as ‘Hope‘, ‘Change‘ and ‘Universal Health Care.‘ Quite a large accusation there, don’t you think? Whilst producer Jeffrey Bell states ‘it’s simply a show about spaceships‘. Despite recent and belittling allegations, I highly recommend this show, which features the coming of an extra-terrestrial race to earth with 29 spaceships hovering over the world’s major cities, at which point the ‘Visitors‘, as they’re referred to, claim to make peace. At the same time, not all the humans seem to think so and think that their ‘arrival’  is an attempt upon humanity, thus forming a rebellion. Should play out pretty well it seems.

In the 2002 film Minority Report, with Tom Cruise, We see the most amazing example of a totally intuitive interactive user interface. Here’s a clip for you to remind yourself of what a clever film it was and how quickly ideas that are being posed, are now being delivered.

I remember watching it at the time, thinking how incredible it would be if we all started relating to our embedded computer systems like this. It’s as though the boundary between reality and computer is being continually blurred.

But now this new TED lecture from Pattie Maes at MIT Media Lab, Fluid Interfaces Group (what a cool title that is!), shows that this virtual or even augmented reality is almost achievable now.

It starts off a bit slowly, but then you can hear the crowd gasping at what is possible. From something as simple as your own hand becoming a keypad, to your own shopping preferences being overlaid onto available shopping products.

She even references Minority Report and then goes on to prove that they can deliver it today, for about the same price as a conventional mobile phone!

I am looking at the brands we work with and thinking what endless possibilities this delivers and what endless problems we now have to overcome to allow them to speak with a common voice on yet another platform in which they operate.

Ask anybody this question: ” What do you expect to happen in the future? Say, 2050?” 90% of the respondents will tell you that technology will take over world. Well, at least something along that line.

Technology has in fact changed our lives some how or rather. For the better or worse? I’ll take my stand on the former. How about 50 years down the road? Are humans at the mercy of technology? Will we be controlled by robots? Slaves of the future?

In the 2002 movie Minority Report, it shows us somewhat a possibility that might happen in the future. Cars moving in all directions, brain measured in gb, holographic 3D video images.. All sorts.

When theres an advancement, there bound to be people who opposes and abuses it. A lapse in technology has made this world a less secured place to live in.

What I loved about Minority report (besides the fact that it was produced my Steven S. and acted by Tom C.) is that it managed to bring up the creatives of technology. How I wish I had something like that. A world that is controlled within our own hands. Literally.

Looking forward to the next Nct class. It’s cool that we can LEARN about tech and stuffs.

Sometimes movies have deep themes and ideas, but are just plain boring. Sometimes movies have incredible action but the story is so empty or phony or simply absent that I can’t sit through them. The Number 9 entry on my countdown of the best movies from 2000-2009 is the perfect blend of action, ideas and solid storytelling:

Minority Report

2002 was a big year for Steven Spielberg. Along with the outstanding Catch Me If You Can, Spielberg released the visually rich Minority Report. It uses every visual effect in the book in seamless integration with the story. There’s no “wow, look at that effect” that takes you out of the moment. Instead, all the visuals perfectly complement the action, setting and plot.

Set in 2054, the movie is about a society where murders are prevented before they happen because of information provided by “Pre-Cogs” who can sense the oncoming violence. Tom Cruise plays a Pre-Crime department chief who finds himself on the run after the Pre-Cogs predict he’s about to commit a murder. Is he? Or has there been a glitch with the Pre-Cogs?

The plot is incredibly layered and complex. Those of you who know me know about my fascination with screenwriting, and every time I see this film I’m amazed at the depth the writers (Scott Frank & Jon Cohen, probably with a few rounds through Spielberg’s typewriter) put into this script without clarity ever being an issue. Spielberg brings the story to life in inventive, dazzling visual fashion, and Tom Cruise has never been better. Visual effects are becoming more astonishing every year, but all filmmakers should refer to this film for guidance on how to use them to support the story rather than replace the story. As Roger Ebert wrote about the film, “Minority Report reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.”

From an early conversation where John Anderton (Tom Cruise), not yet accused, is trying to convince a skeptical Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) that the Pre-Crime system works:

John Anderton: There hasn’t been a murder in 6 years. There’s nothing wrong with the system. It is perfect.

Danny Witwer: [simultaneously] – perfect. I agree. But if there’s a flaw, it’s human. It always is.

Also starring Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton and Max von Sydow. Watch for a wonderfully comic appearance by Peter Stormare as the creepy surgeon who works on Cruise’s eyes. Use the comments section to give your thoughts about this film or others that you like.

Side Note: Minority Report is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. For a writer who died in 1982 at the age of 53, Philip K. Dick has been the source for a considerable amount of recent movies, including Blade Runner, Screamers, Total Recall, Imposter, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly and Next. Also, for reasons we may or may not find out, characters on Lost are often seen reading his books. I’ve never read anything of his, but I think perhaps it’s time to start.

I know I’m a bit slow(both watching the movie and blogging about it after nct) but better late than never! hahaha.

It’s cool but scary? I don’t know but will that really be the world in 40 years, I’m not quite prepared for it. It’s like information about us is so readily available and we’re so scrutinized. Can you imagine being arrested even before you do it?

Yes, it makes life easier and we’re just moving with time but do we lose our humanity to technology? How different are we from robots, being controlled and so dependable on technology we lose our “human traits”? I may sound a little old fashion and not moving forward with time but living in a world like that is really scary, where’s the privacy and will people know where to draw the line?

I don’t know but I’m skeptical. :|

After a solid two weeks of almost non-stop work on one production after another, with another 2-3 weeks left to go, I think this video accurately sums up myself and my classmates’ mental situations.  It is glorious work and I love it dearly, but sleep is the currency of this trade, and becoming accustomed to an average five hours per night has its consequences.

All of which doesn’t distract from the fact that this post is a dressed up placeholder.  Yes, CINEMA TRUTH is still kicking around out there, and I really truly can’t wait to share my currently gestating Decade series – focusing on my favourites, of course, and the major trends that I find interesting enough to write about.  And I’ve listened at least 12-15 times through the new Switchfoot album, HELLO HURRICANE, and have thoughts on this new, very very worthwhile addition to their discography.  There are other good things being planned, slowly, but I want to do right by them, so it will take a while to pop them out, fully formed and readable.

Until then, let’s spend some time answering the following question: What is one of your favourite little scenes of the decade?  What’s that one scene that no one else cares about or remembers, but makes the film for you?

I ask because tonight I was thinking about MINORITY REPORT (2002), and a wonderful scene between Tom Cruise and Lois Smith.  It’s the bit where Cruise finds out about the minority report, which should help him prove his innocence – you can hear the plot wheels grinding into a higher gear – but it’s also a great showcase for Cruise and Smith as actors, and for the dialogue by Scott Frank and Jon Cohen.  Their words have sharpness and poetry, and enchant somewhat while getting lots and lots of exposition done.  By the end of the scene, you don’t really care that it was all talk about “this history,” and “go there, do that.”  Smith is a treat, not so much chewing her dialogue as holding it on her tongue, sucking the juice out at certain intervals.  It’s one my favourite little moments in film from this decade.

I couldn’t find a video of the clip, but here’s a shot of Lois Smith as Dr. Iris Hineman, the Mother of Precrime.

The future (i.e. December) looks promising.  See you on the other side.

Video H/T: My good bud Aaron May, who doesn’t have anything I can link to, as far as I’m aware.  His regular site is down for the time being.

Comme l’excellent site ruminations.com, une idée de l’humoriste américain Aaron Karo, voici ma rumination du soir :

Je me souviens que lorsque nous étions avant les années 2000, tout le monde rêvait de voitures volantes comme dans le 5e élément ou de technologies innovantes comme dans Minority Report. Nous sommes en 2009 : c’est quoi ce bordel ?

Hola, I know my virtual life has been stagnating at the vertex of a parabola, but electronics have been failing me in general sobs. Think 3 laptops passing on around the same time. Tragic, really.

Anyhow, I’m convinced that I would surely have died if I lived in a world like in the movie Minority Report and technology or luck chose not to show me favour for even a split second D:

For those of you whom i’ve lost, this is it.

Smashing show, scary prospect.

In gist, Tom Cruise, our scientology It guy plays a law enforcer in the year 2054, where cars fly (as do annoying singing cereal boxes), touch screens are replaced by touch erm…space, and people are identified by their iris, leaving me to wonder what happens with the blind. My primitive, narrow mind also fails to understand the lack of warmth in interior designs, as well as the outlook of that world in general.

The movie is set in Washington D.C., which is experimenting the Precrime technology, where 3 psychic mutant humans ( no, this isn’t X-men Evolution Infinity) have visions of murders yet to happen, thus allowing Tom Cruise and gang to pre-empt these murders and put these premature murderers  into some state of deep sleep.

Somewhere along the way, Tom Cruise is predicted to be a future murderer. Given that he’s divorced in the show, his chances of getting a magical kiss are mighty bleak, so of course we see him on the run to escape the fate of becoming Sleeping Beauty.

Allow me to highlight that in 2054, it is only normal to expect fugitives to replace their eyeballs to avoid being eye-dented, so to speak. It is also perfectly normal for metal spider-bots to climb all over you and pry open your eyelid to eye-dentify you. D:

D: D: D: D: D:

Well forgive me if I’m a country mouse fearing technological advances and loving my eyeballs but I think I could do without some psycho psychic damning me to Slumberland. ( Not that they’re psycho in the show they’re actually really pitiful my heart goes out to them sigh ;/). I mean, just imagine. One day you’re down on your luck and some microsecond technical glitch causes a spider-bot eye-dentifying you to spear you in the eyeball. O.O Not a nice thought. Seriously, that has to stay in Happy Tree Friends, period.

Oh yes, also. With the whole iris recognition technology in place, wouldn’t there be a necessity to prevent eyeball gouging cases more than murders. Ugh.

Still, despite my apprehension regarding its technology, Minority Report is an amazing show, so if you haven’t watched it, its time to come out of your cave and do so now!  HEEE.

I was thinking about film today, as I do pretty often, wondering what I’d pick if I tried to come up with a combo list of slightly strange sci-fi movies including some post apocalyptic stuff.  Films I liked.  Films that had an impact on me… couldn’t forget scenes from them, made me think a bit… that sort of thing.  This is what I came up with…. in no particular order.

2001: A Space Odyssey (68)

2010 (84)

A Boy and his Dog (75)

A Scanner Darkly (06)

Bicentennial Man (99)

Blade Runner (82)

Brave New World (80)

Capricorn One (77)

Cherry 2000 (87)

Damnation Alley (77)

Dark City (98)

Demolition Man (93)

Dreamscape (84)

Escape from New York (81)

Gattaca (97)

Handmaid’s Tale (90)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)

Jacob’s Ladder (90)

Liquid Sky (82)

Logan’s Run (76)

Mad Max Movies (79-85)

Matrix Trilogy (99-03)

Metropolis (27)

Minority Report (02)

Mission to Mars (00)

Omega Man (71)

On The Beach (59)

Planet of the Apes Films (68-73)

Quatermass and the Pit (68)

Scanners (81)

Red Planet (00)

Silent Running (72)

Soylent Green (73)

Stargate (94)

Tank Girl (95)

The Running Man (87)

The Day The Earth Stood Still (51)

The Island (05)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (77)

The Andromeda Strain (71)

The Time Machine (60)

They Live (88)

The Thing (82)

V for Vendetta (05)

Total Recall (90)

Videodrome (83)

The Warriors (79)

Waterworld (95)

Westworld (73)

Zardoz (74)

At the ‘Nokia World’ event in Stuttgart (September 2-3), the research team unveiled some interesting concepts, including a Nokia device that boasts a no-glasses-required 3D display, the ‘Linked Internet UI’ concept which gives users an aggregated view of each contact’s content across multiple social networking sites, SMS, email etc, and the official announcement of upcoming N97 Mini.

Interesting stuff, which you can find out more about here. In the meantime, take a quick look at their somewhat minority-report-a-like (and extraordinarily cheesy) vision of the future here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGwvZWyLiBU[/youtube]

According to Nokia, ‘this concept allows to you to experience immersion and effortless navigation in new ways. New types of interactions involving near-to-eye displays, gaze direction tracking, 3D audio, 3D video, gesture and touch. Through these new types of social linkages people will be connected in innovative ways between the physical and digital worlds.‘

There were only two things in the Minority Report I remember; Tom Cruise using his fingers to control his ‘desk top’, and Tom Cruise (kidding).

After I got over Tom, I wondered what technology was. It had balls. That’s right, one day I shall go up to my grand children and say, “In my time, we had to use a mouse with a ball in it.”

Ironically I think they would reply with “What’s a mouse?” Now all school mice are optical, gaming mouses are laser and who knows whether we would need mouse devices in the future? My current desktop (HP TouchSmart) doesn’t necessarily need a mouse, though poking the screen does tend to get tiring and the insensitivity of the screen makes it tedious.

If the future was like the film ‘Minority Report’, I guess apart from the aching arms from all the shifting and pushing of the screen, it would definitely streamline browsing fluency. IPhones, at the moment, respond pretty accurately to the simple flicks (to change from picture to picture), using two fingers to poke one spot before spreading causes a zoom according to the distance between your fingers.

I bet that after all the arm aching, it would change to eye blinking for double clicks, sticking out your tongue to delete stuff and using your pupils to navigate pages.

Speaking of pupils, the whole eye issue in the film, while highly inspired, was pretty gross. An eye transplant in order to get a new identity is pretty harsh (on a side note, if apple comes up with a system like this would it be called i-eye?).

This ultimately eliminates paying the fine when you lose your IC (eye see?), and it makes identity theft “virtually” impossible. If perfectly integrated with all sorts of personal information, your Eye See would be your ezlink card, Cash card, Credit card, IC, PIN, NRIC and Passport.

If the list expands, it could even be your resume, criminal record and purchase records.

Eyes are windows to your soul, and if this is the future, that would virtually be true.

P.S Isn’t it scary that it was so well-received? This is just like horror films. We hate it if everything in the film actually happens to us, yet we’re spellbound when it’s on the screen and touted as Science-Fiction. Just imagine, in a few years, we might actually be living it.