Understand that whoever controls the search engines controls the internet. Watch one search engine rule them all. The engine’s ranking algorithm is more secret than the Coca Cola formula. No one but the engineers who work on it know exactly how it works. The search engine is your reality interface—remember, you worship before the altar of the web and you’re just a back-of-a-head. But you don’t know how the reality is made.

You reckon that mobile internet has to be a categorically good thing for the world. Like the printing press. Like the railroad. This exploding net of satellites, cables, servers, modems, and repeaters is nothing short of a Cambrian explosion. Watch communication distribute. Watch the crowd source information—the crowd which can think faster and more accurately than any one human, the crowd which is an incredible asset in times of both danger and celebration. Watch the crowd use this hackery thing called hashtags to track the advance of wildfires. Watch the crowd reproduce the Mona Lisa one pixel at a time from all points of the compass.

Particularly because knowing the words that you’re saying doesn’t really give much insight into what you mean: “Human language is overrun with sarcasm, innuendo, double-entendre, and pure obfuscation,” Martínez wrote. “To assume that at-Facebook-scale AI will be able to figure out, even at the fluky level of internet advertising, just what you crave based on any given statement gives these technologies more credence (or paranoia) than they deserve.”

Essentially, collecting and storing that data would be too huge a task: “Constant audio surveillance would produce about 33 times more data daily than Facebook currently consumes,” he wrote. And “such snooping would be eminently detectable, ringing up noticeable amounts of data on your smartphone as Facebook maintained your always-on call to Zuckerberg.”

These data brokers also manage the majority of loyalty programs in grocery stores and major pharmacy chains, which means they don’t need you to pay for things with a credit card in order to know what you’re buying.

They spoke to former Facebook engineer Antonio García Martínez, who more or less launched the ad-targeting division of the company. Most notably, he created Facebook Pixel, which is essentially a piece of code that can be put on virtually any website, allowing Facebook to collect information about what you do there — which items you look at and click, what kinds of things you spend time reading, what you almost buy but don’t quite buy, etc.

The perennial debate about whether your phone is secretly listening to you, explained

The oth­ers had been patched up. And the coup had been successful.

"After the Anglo-Chinese War, the Army lost out. It isn't what it was in the good old AFWA days. They ran the complete show, both military and domestic. And they did their own police work."

Obviously, "Jerry's" report superseded the majority report. Having been informed that he would commit a murder, Anderton would change his mind and not do so. The preview of the murder had canceled out the murder; prophylaxis had occurred simply in his being informed. Already, a new time-path had been created. But "Jerry" was outvoted.

This is explained by the theory of m11ltiple­f11t11res. If only one time-path existed, precognitive information would be of no importance, since no possibility would exist, in possessing this infor­mation, of altering the future.

" ... this man has used the advantage of his high position to carry out an initial escape," the announcer was saying, with professional indignation. "Because of his high office he had access to the previewed data and the trust placed in him permitted him to evade the normal process of detec­tion and relocation. During the period of his tenure he exercised hisauthority to send countless potentiaUy guilty individuals to their proper confinement, thus sparing the lives of innocent victims. This man, JohnAllison Anderton, was instrumental in the original creation of the Pre­crime system, the prophylactic pre-detection of criminals through the ingenious use of mutant precogs, capable of previewing future events and transferring oraUy that data to analytical machinery. These three precogs, in their vital function ... :'

The bus had entered the vast slum region, the tumbled miles of cheap hotels and broken-down tenements that had sprung up after the mass THE MINORITY REPORT 2113 destruction of the war

"A sort of police force that watches the police. To see," he added, "that everything stays on an even keel."

"Who's behind it?" "Your wife." Anderton's head spun. "You're positive?''

Anderton sighed. At that point he wasn't certain, himself. Perhaps he was trapped in a closed, meaningless time-circle with no motive and no beginning. In fact, he was almost ready to concede that he was the victim of a weary, neurotic fantasy, spawned by growing insecurity. Without a fight, he was willing to give himself up. A vast weight of exhaustion lay upon him. He was struggling against the impossible-and all the cards were stacked against him.

Precrime system, is hereby declared a potential murderer and as such forfeits his rights to freedom and all its privileges."

Leopold Kaplan, General of the Army of the Federated Westbloc Alliance." Begrudgingly, he added, "Retired, since the end of the Anglo­Chinese War, and the abolishment of AFWA."

"That's exactly what it is," Anderton said, quick to see the advantage of stating frankly what he believed to be the simple truth. "The prediction on the card was deliberately fabricated by a clique inside the police agency. The card is prepared and I'm netted. I'm relieved of my authority automat­ically. My assistant steps in and claims he prevented the murder in the usual efficient Precrime manner. Needless to say, there is no murder or intent to murder." "I agree with you that there will be no murder," Kaplan affirmed grimly. "You'll be in police custody. I intend to make certain of that."

Possibly he was wrong about Witwer-but how could he be sure? In any event, the conspiracy against him was far more complex than he had realized. Witwer, in the overall picture, might be merely an insignificant puppet animated by someone else-by some distant, indistinct figure only vaguely visible in the background.

"Right now," Anderton said abruptly, "I'm going home to pack my things. That's about as far ahead as I can plan." "You're really going to-to try to hide out?" "I am.

Rapidly, he made his way to the ramp at its far end. He was striding down the outside stairs toward the public sidewalk, when Lisa appearedbreathlessly behind him."What on earth has come over you?" Catching hold of his arm, shemoved quickly in front of him. "I knew you were leaving," she exclaimed,blocking his way. "What's wrong with you? Everybody thinks you're-" She checked herself. "I mean, you're acting so erratically."

Startled, Anderton backed off. What were the chances of his wife'sfriendliness being benign, accidental? Witwer would be present the balanceof the evening, and would now have an excuse to trail along to Anderton'sprivate residence. Profoundly disturbed, he turned impulsively, and movedtoward the door

"It wouldn't do any good. A duplicate file of cards pops out at Army GHQ. It's check and balance. They can keep their eye on us as continuouslyas they wish."

The criminal escaped our teams. We had his name-in fact, we had all the details of the crime, including the victim's name. We knew the exact moment, the location of the planned act of violence. But in spite of us he was able to carry it out." Anderton shrugged. "After all, we can't get all of them." He riffled the cards. "But we do get most."

In the gloomy half-darkness the three idiots sat babbling. Every incoher­ent utterance, every random syllable, was analyzed, compared, reassembledin the form of visual symbols, transcribed on conventional punchcards, and ejected into various coded slots. All day long the idiots babbled, im­prisoned in their special high-backed chairs, held in one rigid position bymetal bands, and bundles of wiring, clamps.

"You've probably grasped the basic legalistic drawback to pre­crime methodology. We're taking in individuals who have broken no law." "But they surely ,viii," Witwer affirmed with conviction. "Happily they don't-because we get them first, before they can com­mit an act of violence.

"With the aid of your precog mutants, you've boldly and successfully abolished the post-crime punitive system of jails and fines. As we all realize, punishment was never much of a deterrent, and could scarcely have afforded comfort to a victim already dead."

"I have the information publicly available,"

Witwer met his gaze guilelessly. "Private and public. The Senate's pleased