“Meeting adjourned!” the chairman announces. In one swift move, I’m out of my chair and walking toward the door ahead of the other board members when I hear my name, and there’s no mistaking that voice.

In the movie “Minority Report,” set in 2054, Tom Cruise plays the captain of the “PreCrime” police force, which uses “precognitive” abilities of mutants to stop crime before it happens. Silicon Valley futurists have sometimes used this reference in...