Menno’s Mind

Work Title: Menno's Mind
Medium: Film
Episode Title:
Year: 1996
Writer(s): Mark Valenti
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: Yes
Summary:

(Copied from IMDb) Menno is a computer programmer at The Resort, an enormous funhouse where people can live out their fantasies in virtual reality. Feeding their personal data into a software program called The System, head of security Felix Medina is setting up a big voting fraud, in order to win the presidential elections. His only concern is a group of terrorists, rebelling against his plans. As an ex-colleague of their leader, Menno is forced to help them.

Era/Year of Portrayal: distant_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

The world is highly computerized and automated, with basic household functions controlled by voice commands. It is a semi-police state that uses thumbprints as security devices. There is a small underground group of rebels. Everyone has a data port in the back of their neck to plug into the virtual reality system.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: The Resort
  • Description of the technology: The Resort is a computerized fun-house where citizens spend government allotments or credits to experience programs. One of the most popular offers virtual sex; others offer virtual killing sprees, vacations and reunions with lost loved ones. To experience a program, a user sits in a recliner and has a cable plugged into their neck data port. A technicians then runs the program and guides them through the start of it. The quality of the video image is not very realistic - it looks like a television with poor reception.
  • Nature of task or activity: Most users sought leisure and escape, including sex and mass killing fantasies. One user came in wanting a reunion with his long lost love, which the technician was able to deliver. Early in the film, a virtual execution was performed on a convicted murderer. He was sentenced to death by firing squad, electrocution and beheading, all delivered via virtual reality. The virtual experience of being beheaded finally killed him. A power-hungry politician attempts to use the Resort's system to plug into the brain of everyone who has ever used it and swing their votes in the election. Mick, the leader of the rebels, uses the technology to upload his brain into the mainframe computer when he realizes he is dying.
  • Performance of the Technology: The system is used for many purposes throughout the film, and several characters try to take it off line by cutting the power and other means. Therefore it doesn't function consistently - it's goes up and down and gets hacked into a lot.
  • Description of creator(s): The Resort is controlled by a company that seems to be associated with the government (or perhaps is the government). The technicians are average men, with a few identifiable computer nerds among them.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): The Resort uses the technology to provide entertainment to people. The politician tries to use it to control their behavior and make them vote for him. Menno is a technician who tries to occasionally use it for pro-social purposes, and argues at one point that the company could be using it to treat people with disabilities.
  • Description of users of technology: Nearly everyone in the film is shown using it at some point. Lonely old men, horny middle-aged guys sick of their wives, Menno when Loria forces him to download Mick's brain into his own, Loria when she's dying and Menno "sends" her into the mainframe so she can be with Mick.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: both
  • Description of presence experience: Users experience death by execution, extreme pain, sexual pleasure, nostalgic euphoria at reunions with loved ones, relaxation, and the experience of killing other people.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: They're aware of the technology when going into it, but seem mostly unaware of the fact that they're in a virtual reality once the program gets underway.
  • Valence of experience: Users' experiences run the gamut from extreme pleasure to horrifying and painful death.
  • Specific responses: It is noteworthy that the convict given a virtual execution seems to die only by experiencing a virtual beheading. It isn't clear if his death is due to that or due to some other external factor (the nurse gives him a shot beforehand, but it's supposedly anesthesia). When male users are kicked between the legs by a character in their virtual experience, they roll up in the chair as if they're in genuine pain.
Long-term consequences:

The threat of the power-hungry politician controlling everyone's brains (and their votes) through the mainframe would have been a bad ending. But that didn't happen. The ending is somewhat positive, as the mainframe allowed the dying Loria's brain to be uploaded so she and Mick's brain could spend eternity together.

Other:

Coder name: Tina Peterson
Coder email: tina.peterson@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University