[ferkel]

I'm confused. When I heard about this film I said "Ah! I know the story it's based on." Now I read that it's from a Philip K. Dick story of the same name as the film. There is an excerpt at:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=6T6YAGHQII&isbn=0375421874&displayonly=excerpt

But, the story I remember is different. Please somebody save me from going mad - the one I remember has people being arrested before they commit murders based on highly accurate computer predictions but none of this chasing people around business. Maybe they've just souped it up for a Hollywood film - or is there another story? The one I remember has a neat reason why the computer has wrongly accused this guy (that I don't want to repeat here in case the film has it too).

Anyway, must go and see the film...

Thanks!

ferkel

[Hobbit]

Hmm...yes, it sounds as if 'the idea' has been used by Spielberg but then used to develop a totally different story - see also BladeRunner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Having said that, the films getting good reviews here in the UK and might be worth a watch, though not out until July 4th (I think!)

[Keyoke]

I saw it here in Canada, and it was quite the good film. Much better than Star Wars - Episode II.

Keyoke

[Hobbit]

Thank you Keyoke - I quite fancy this one actually when it comes out here. :)

[birhutanuh]

the first time i saw this preview, i was amazed because i had just read some short story a while ago exactly like it. it was called somthing like "nearly perfect world" and there was a huge computer predicting possible crimes so people would be arrested... yadda yadda yadda. the computer was called Multivac. and in the end, it was the computer who set up a big plan so someone would kill itself. I guess it couldnt take all the worlds crimes and so it wanted to die, or somethin. anyway, i hope this is the story its based on or a bunch of really similar stories are out there...

[dune dude]

The Multivac machine is a recurring 'character' in Isaac Asimov's short stories. I don't know which story though. Does anyone out there know???

[Spawfonk]

yeah it seems to me that this machine is used in many stories, and nearly everyone has heard of it before or thought of it. even if they havent read the stories.

[Hobbit]

Yes, Multivac appears in Asimov's Robot stories. It was a huge supercomputer.

Try 'I, Robot' or 'The Rest of The Robots' for examples (or even 'The Complete Robot', which is a combination of these books as well as other robot stories).

[Bond]

The evolution of a Multivac concurrently with mankind is given in Asimov's personal favorite short story of his own creation "The Last Question".

[ferkel]

birhutanuh, that's the one!

And it's *not* the same as the P.K.Dick story that Minority Report is based on. The PKD story has 'precog mutants' doing the prediction of crimes, not a computer. Did PKD copy this Multivac story or what?

Does anyone know the name/author of this story? (It could be an Asimov, the Multivac/Univac idea would seem to indicate so.) I bet
PKD's ending isn't as good...

lots of love,

ferkel