The Institute

“The Minority Report” and The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick (1956)

“The Minority Report” is a novella about agency that follows the creator of a police force guided by three mutant “precogs”—originally published in American science fiction magazine Fantastic Universe. It was also adapted into the film of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise in 2002.

The World Jones Made is a science fiction novel about precognition and politics.

The titular Institute’s mission is based on the assumption that “precogs”—people with the ability to see glimpses of the future—can accurately predict events that can then be prevented.

Most science fiction stories concerning precognition depict protagonists successfully averting a disastrous future. On the other hand, some stories frame the future as predestined—stories in which attempts at intervention cannot avert, and may even cause, disaster.

Firestarter by Stephen King (1980)

Like The Institute, Firestarter was influenced by the CIA’s Project MKUltra. It follows a father and his psychically gifted child fighting a government agency that seeks to use the latter.

It by Stephen King (1986)

It follows a group of preteens banding together to fight a powerful entity that embodies and feasts on fear, children being its preferred prey.