The Outer Limits: Mona Lisa

Work Title: The Outer Limits: Mona Lisa
Medium: TV Episode
Episode Title: Mona Lisa
Year: 2001
Writer(s): John Schulian
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: No
Summary:

Mona Lisa is an android trained to be an assassin. However, she escapes her programming in order to experience human emotion.

  • Self-Written?: 1
  • Source Name:
  • Source URL:
Era/Year of Portrayal: present_day
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

Present day 2001.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Mona Lisa
  • Description of the technology: Mona Lisa 37X is an artificial human, an android. She was built by the Quantitron corperation and is equipped with GPS, Chomsky language accquisition, an abilty to access the Internet, extreme strength, and the abilty to start any electronic equipment, such as cars or ATMs. She appears human and desires to be human. She uses food for energy. She has a strict moral code, which results in cognitive dissonance in her mind, as she is trained to be an assassin.
  • Nature of task or activity: Teddy, the protaganist, helps Mona break free from the scientists and in return Mona helps her find her daughter.
  • Performance of the Technology: Works well, until breaks free from the creators. Later, she chooses to kill herself instead of killing people as an assassin.
  • Description of creator(s): White men, in their 50s. scientists for a for-profit company, working in relation with the goverment.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): To kill people for the military-industrial complex.
  • Description of users of technology: Teddy and her friends are working class - mechanics, etc. Teddy is of unknown ethnicity, in her 30s, athletic, a petty criminal, yet abides by her own moral code.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: social_presence
  • Description of presence experience: Fine - at first people are afraid of Mona, but they warm to her as she exhibits human qualities.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: at first, people think she is human. She reveals herself as android fairly soon.
  • Valence of experience: they generally enjoy being with her.
  • Specific responses: intense parasocial relationships, heightened aawareness of morality and what it means to be human and experience emotions.
Long-term consequences:

Mona kills herself rather than return to the lab, and her path as an assassin.

Other:

Coder name: Amanda Scheiner
Coder email: amandags@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University