The Minority Report is a classic science fiction story by Philip K. Dick, one of the grandfathers of the genre. As always with these classic stories, it is as much a window onto the time it was written as it is a window onto an imagined future. There are flying cars and off-world colonies, yes, but also punch-card computers and bread trucks.

The story revolves around the idea that three prescient mutants can predict future murders. Their babbling is input into a computer and at the other end, cards containing the names of a murderer and his victim come rolling out. The police go and apprehend them before the crime is committed. The system appears to be working well, until… the name of the chief of the police comes rolling out of the computer.

Against a backdrop of politics, the story then explores whether it is right or legal to lock up perpetrators of predicted crimes that they didn’t have a chance to actually commit, and the meaning and value of the predictions of crimes, if the predictions can paradoxically prevent themselves from coming true.

Like most classic science fiction, The Minority Report is about the concepts more than the characters, and as a short story, the worldbuilding is limited. That may make it a bit of a dry read for the modern audience, but it isn’t too long and well-paced. The concepts are well-thought out, and for those of you interested in stories about time travel and time paradoxes, it is well worth the time invested.