The Terminal Man Sparknotes

The Terminal Man
Michael Crichton’s book, The Terminal Man, takes place over a five-day period in 1971. Harry Benson suffered from seizures, which caused him to blackout, become violent, and have no memory of the episode. Dr. McPherson, head of the Neuropsychiatric Research Unit (NPS), believed that a revolutionary brain surgery could cure Benson’s seizures.
Benson was in a car accident, which caused him to develop an acute disinhibitory lesion (ADL) and have blackouts, which lasted for a few minutes to several hours. During these blackout, he would become violent. The stage three procedure was designed to cure Benson’s seizures by placing electrodes inside his brain. Benson’s ADL caused a portion of the brain to become damaged and scar tissue formed on his brain. The brain injury created unusual electrical discharges. These electrical discharges caused seizures. Part of the debate between the physicians was did the seizures make Benson violent or did his psychosis make him violent.
The electrodes were designed to produce an

electrical shock that stops the seizure and creates a stimulation; however, the electrodes were not a cure for his underlying psychosis. Forty electrodes were surgically placed inside his brain and then would go through a process called interfacing. The process of interfacing tested each electrode to see how Benson reacted to the shock. The electrodes that produced a positive reaction would be used to stop the seizure from occurring. When a seizure was beginning to occur, Benson would often smell a strange odor. When he detected a funny smell, he would disconnect from reality. The electrodes would stop the seizure as it was beginning to occur and put his mind in a positive state. A small computer, the size of a pack of cigarettes, was placed beneath the skin of his right shoulder. This controlled the feedback mechanism from the electrodes when they identified a new attack. It monitored the electrical activity of the brain and when it sensed an attack coming, it would transmit an electrical shock to the brain.
Benson was a brilliant computer scientist who believed computers would eventually take over the human population. A computer’s capacity would be larger than the capacity of a human brain. Benson feared losing control to a computer. The doctors involved in the operation at the NPS were Dr. Ross, Dr. Ellis, Dr. Morris, and Dr. McPherson. Dr. Ross was a psychiatrist who did not want the surgery performed on Benson. She diagnosed Benson with an underlying psychological issue, known as psychosis, which could not be cured from this operation and therefore, he was not the best candidate. Dr. Ellis and Dr. Morris were the two surgeons. Both performed the operation on many animals, such as monkeys, and wanted the fame and glory from this being the first stage three operation on a human. The surgeons believed the intellectual Benson was a good candidate for the surgery. Dr. McPherson was the head of the NPS. He was interested in the Neuropsychiatric Research Unit growing along with the economic benefits.
Computer science and artificial intelligence were a key role in the operation. Artificial intelligence is having a computer, a machine, or a software program perform human intellectual tasks. When this book was written in 1972, artificial intelligence was at an early developmental stage. Scientists believed that by implanting a computer and electrodes in Benson’s shoulder and brain, that they could control his seizures and effectively control his mind. This is exactly what Benson was afraid of: being controlled by a greater computer with a larger capacity than the human brain. An early study at Dartmouth called A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence in August of 1955 studied the components of artificial intelligence. “We propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to stimulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves,” (McCarthy, Minsky, Rochester, Shannon 1). This early research was one of the key components in artificial intelligence design.
Benson developed acute disinhibitory lesion (ADL) from the car accident. This organic change caused him to develop violent seizures. The ADL seizure is a neurological problem that causes him to become unconscious during the seizure and then not recall the event. This led to violent acts, such as beating people up and eventually becoming more violent and killing people.
Benson suffered from an underlying personality disorder, known as psychosis.

Dr. Ross recognized that psychosis would not be cured from the operation. “A personality disorder is a type of mental disorder in which you have a rigid and unhealthy pattern of thinking, functioning, and behaving,” (Mayo Clinic Staff 1). In doing further research in reading the Mayo Clinic Personality Disorder article, I believe today Benson would be categorized as a “Cluster A” personality disorder, which is characterized by unusual thinking or behavior. He had schizotypal personality traits, such as odd thinking beliefs and speech behavior; peculiar perceptual experiences such as his strange smells; apathetic, mistrustful, and guarded towards others. He believed that certain events had secret messages, such as the time period when computers overtook humans during “Watershed Week,” which was when his coworkers believed his behavior became much more

aloof.
Due to Benson’s psychosis, he developed a plan to escape before the surgery from the hospital. After his surgery and escape, he killed two people and injured one of his doctors. His crime spree triggered a large police manhunt led by Captain Anders in Los Angeles. Because Benson was an intelligent computer programmer, he discovered how to control the electrodes in his brain and the computer beneath his right shoulder. He began to experience a stimulation every few minutes. He then went to the main computer in the basement and tried to turn off the computer in his shoulder. When Captain Anders and Dr. Ross found him in the basement, Anders shot at Benson’s leg, but did not succeed in killing him. Benson died when he dodged Dr. Ross’s bullet and he crashed into the printer and a wall.
This book showed that with any new type of medical procedure, there are ethical considerations that need to be addressed from all points of view. Just because we have the technology to perform an operation or explore artificial intelligence, it does not make it proper for every patient. Benson was not the best candidate because of his underlying psychological condition, which could not be cured from this experimental operation.