Mow the lawn yourself.

“By the turn of the millennium a technology known as VIRTUAL REALITY will be in widespread use. It will allow you to enter computer generated artificial worlds as unlimited as the imagination itself. Its creators foresee millions of positive uses - while others fear it as a new form of mind control...” opening lines from the movie, “The Lawnmower Man”


This past week I watched “The Lawnmower Man.” I read on the back cover that it had to do with virtual reality. I thought it might help with my second life research so I rented the movie. It left me wondering where are my helmets and goggles?

It’s an interesting film. For 1992 the special effects were pretty impressive. For 2007 they were kind of sad. It asks the same questions so many science fiction movies do. Namely, what happens when technology gets into the hands of bad people (governments usually) or gets taken too far?

It’s the typical American fear film. You know the theme. Sing along, “One day technology will be our undoing.” Yes boys and girls, we will do it to ourselves. I guess our puritan heritage still leaves us wanting to crave in moderation. It’s the old, “Let me flagellate myself while I camp out for my new iPhone” mentality.

I also noticed the rampant use of drugs paired with VR in the film. I wonder if second life could get away with selling some type of “experience enhancement” vitamin supplements or something? Maybe they could just include it free with the helmet. Now I will have to figure out a way to determine if second life is making me smarter. Since everyone knows telepathy is a sign of intelligence, telepathy would be a sure sign. Um, yeah.

The movie is like VR meets Of Mice and Men with a bit of superhero comic elements thrown in for good measure. It’s the story of a mentally disabled lawnmower man, Jobe, who gains great mental abilities such as telepathy through the use of VR and the VR drugs. But like any good superhero film, it all goes terribly wrong. Jobe gains too much power and is now a threat to everyone. And like Frankenstein, he is even a threat to the man that “created” him. Anyone notice the links to religion in this movie yet?

Jobe sees himself as a conduit channeling all the ancient wisdom like that of the alchemists. He wants to take over all the computer networks. It was hard not to laugh when all the phones were ringing in the end. It made me nostalgic for that dial-up modem sound. Despite its best efforts this movie did not make me afraid of second life. Not any more afraid than I was anyways. I mean I can’t even get my avatar to look like me. What do I have to fear? And from what I’ve seen so far, the biggest threat is that in a place where people could be or make anything it depressingly looks very much like the world we already live in. It amazes me that there isn’t more flying sex going on! But that’s another post.