The Terminal Man Essay, Research Paper
The Terminal Man was about the
neuropsychiatric section of a hospital doing a breakthrough
surgery to help reverse the effects of psychomotor epilepsy.
The patient’s name was Harry Benson. Harry had
psychomotor epilepsy because he hit his head in a car
accident and it resulted in brain damage. Harry was a good
subject for the operation because he was brilliant, being a
computer programmer with top level government security
clearance. The type of epilepsy that he had caused him to
black out for periods of time and during his blackouts he
would become extremely violent and when he woke up he
remembered nothing. The operation would envolve the
inserting of two electrodes into the brain along with a
microcomputer in his neck and a plutonium power pack
located under his shoulder near his armpit. Harry had his
operation soon after he was admitted to the hospital. The
operation took roughly three hours and in that time they
drilled into his head and inserted the electrodes. They also
put in the microcomputer and the power pack at this time.
After the operation was over Harry was heavily sedated and
put in a room. After the sedatives wore off Harry snuck into
a closet and stole an orderly’s gown and left the hospital. He
was picked up by a lady named Angela Black, who Harry
killed when they got to her apartment. After the investigation
of the murder of Angela Black Dr. Ross went home to take
a shower. When Dr. Ross got out of the shower she found
Harry standing in her living room. The computer in Harry’s
neck was somehow malfunctioning and shocking him every
few minuites. When the computer shocked him enough times
it would cause a siezure. After a few minuites of talking to
Dr. Ross, Harry had a siezure and attacked her. While
Harry was choking her she reached and turned on the
mircowave, which messed up the atomic power pack in his
shoulder and caused him to pass out. When all of the
doctors got back to the hospital they got a phone call from
Harry that came from inside the hospital. They soon figured
out that he was in the basement near the main computer. The
cops and Dr. Ross went down to the basement to find
Benson. When they found Harry he took off running so the
cop went after him. Dr. Ross went into the computer section
and found the main computer smashed. Suddenly Benson
came into the room and saw that Dr. Ross had his gun which
she had found near the computer. Harry asked for the gun
and Dr. Ross said no. Harry came up to her and tried to
take it and she shot him in the chest and he died. 3. One
personality trait in Harry is that he is smart and knows a lot
about computers. This effects the story line because he felt
that computers were taking over the world so he went and
smashed up the main computer at the hospital. 4. "I’m a
fallen man," Benson said. "I’ve succumbed." "To what?" "To
the process of being turned into a machine. Or a time
bomb." Harry is telling Dr. Ellis about how he thinks
machines are taking over the world. 5. I feel I am most like
Harry. I am like him in that we are both somewhat intrigued
by computers. I don’t, however, share in his idea that
computers are concious and are trying to take over the
world. 6. The biggest surprise and dissappointment of this
book is when Harry died. I thought that he would live and
the doctors could fix the computer and Harry would be fine
but Dr. Ross shot him and he died. 7. One thing I would
change is harry dying. I would have had Harry live and get
the computer fixed so he would be alright. 8. My one
sentance moral would be not to take computers for granted.
I say this because they can easily have glitches and those
mistakes can be costly and even fatal. 9. Yes, because it
wasn’t boring and it has a good story line that was exciting.