John Baldwin (Jeffrey Jones of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) is a scientist, but not just any scientist. He’s trying to determine how to transfer thoughts to a computer (remember, this is 1986). The team is having some success doing so with a monkey, but they are also having some number of failures. It’s frustrating because he’s hoping to get the project done soon, because he himself is on the verge of dying – his body is failing him.
So one night he transfers himself to the computer. To everyone’s surprise (except his own), it works. The only problem is that he’s forgotten the one important ingredient, and that is that there is no sensation. His mind works well. He can take in the visual and audio stimulation, he can see and hear everything, but he can no longer remember the feelings associated. So he begins plotting his own demise, and eventually he conceives a plan whereby he walks his wife through dumping the computer of his program. Not bad, actually.
