Film to discuss: Johnny Mnemonic, Director Robert Longo

Mnemonic- Assisting or intended to assist the memory. A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as a mnemonic aid.

Trajectory of the future:

Alternative- Although the movie is a very realistic view of where technology is going, we may or may not use technology in this way.

Dystopian- Since the total saturation of the world by high technology has caused a new disease called "the black shakes" that has infected half the human population

Near future. Not even one hundred years from now.

Objective5: To interpret literature of the future as reflections of the present- the movie shows possible outcomes to the modern outbreak in high technology.

Objective7: To remark alternative visions for human identities- people no longer belong to nations but are part of corporations.

This movie is a lot like the story we read "Stone lives" in that corporations have taken over the world and states or countries no longer exist. This has divided the world into the upper class members of the corporations and the "low techs" who are the poor people living outside of and rebelling against the corporations. Johnny is a type of elite agent who has computer enhancements wired into his brain. He is paid to download valuable data into his head then safely transport it from one place to another. In this clip Johnny is making a deal to download more information than he really should be able to handle. He doesn’t know it but the information is the cure to the black shakes. The people who are hiring him work for the corporation who had discovered the cure long ago but was holding it back so they could make money treating the victims.

Do you think that this type of "wet wiring" technology into the brain is a dream reserved for alternative futures or is it where we are heading today?

If we, humanity as a whole, use technology to improve our brains is that the equivalent of evolution?

Johnny Mnemonic. TriStar Pictures. Robert Longo. 1995

Costello, Robert. American Heritage Dictionary. Dell Publishing. New York, New York. 1994.