Welcome to The Mystical Underground

In the 2002 movie Minority Report, based on a short story by legendary – and visionary – writer Philip K Dick, criminals are arrested before they commit a crime. Three genetically altered humans, known as Pre-cogs, “see” crimes before they happen and a special law enforcement unit (Precrime) tracks down the would be offenders. The year? 2054.

Now, thanks to the close call Christmas Eve, perpetrated by the Nigerian “underpants” terrorist, Philip K Dick’s  fiction may become a reality in 2011.

According to AP writer Michael Tarm, machines that read minds may be in our future. They may not be the genetically altered humans from the Minority Report, but are nonetheless eerie – and disturbing. WeCU – we see you – is an Israeili-based company that combines high tech with behavioral psychology. The system is being tested in Israel and here’s how it works.

You’re at the airport, caught up in the usual stuff, pulling your suitcase behind you, wondering how long it’s going to take to get through security, if your plane will be delayed or the flight cancelled. But let’s say you’re a terrorist with a nefarious agenda instead of just some ordinary traveler, okay? So suddenly, an image flashes on one of the airport billboards – a symbol or something else that only a member of your terrorist organization would recognize. In other words, a familiar symbol or image appears in an unfamiliar place. Your body  responds – not in an overt  I need to get outta here sort of way but with an increased heart rate, an acceleration in breathing, sweaty hands, twitches, nervous glances. Sensors – machines and humans – pick up your reaction and you’re pulled out of line and subjected to more “enhanced” screening.

Aside from the aspects of big brother that are evident in this type of screening, there are some obvious problems. How are nervous passengers separated from would be terrorists? Honestly, who enjoys flying anymore? Stress levels rise as soon as many of us enter the airport and only increase with security routines that seem to be more reactive than anything else. One guy puts explosives in his shoes, so now everyone has to remove shoes and passengers can’t bring bottled water past the security check points, can’t carry more than 3 ounces of shampoo or any other liquid, and all of it has to be in a ziplocked Baggie. You know, the Baggie with that annoying plastic thing that’s supposed to zip the Baggie shut. Why that Baggie?

Now the underpants terrorist idiot comes along and we can’t use the restroom in the final hour of an international flight and our hands must be in full view during that last hour. We’re already being treated like middle schoolers. Now we’re being reduced to kindergartners.  What next? Everyone strip and bend forward before boarding a plane?

It seems to me that if the law of attraction actually works, then what we’re doing is attracting more would-be terrorists with increasingly ridiculous schemes, more reasons to feel stressed out while traveling, and more of everything that we don’t want. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if just one person in power understood the law of attraction and began the reversal of this cycle?

Even in Philip K Dick’s story – and in the movie – one of the members of the elite Precrime squad (John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise) sees the light when the Pre-cogs finger him as a suspect in a crime he hasn’t yet committed. But perhaps this is the way that fiction differs from real life.