Summary

Yorkie and Kelly — polar opposites — are aging women in separate retirement homes in a future society. They visit each other once a week and develop a romantic relationship during transcendental “preview” visits to the afterlife, a place called San Junipero. These visits are initiated with a button press, facilitated by technology involving a device attached to the head.

Yorkie is a quadriplegic due to her suicide attempt 40 years prior where she drove her car off the road following her parents’ negative reaction to her coming out. Euthanasia isn’t allowed unless a patient, their doctor, and a family member authorize it, a rule intended to prevent people from permanently crossing over prematurely because they prefer San Junipero to real life. Yorkie’s family won’t sign off, but since a spouse can overrule family, Yorkie wants to marry so she can cross over permanently. Kelly proposes to Yorkie during a short San Junipero visit, and their resulting marriage facilitates their euthanasia and permanent afterlives together.

Something disturbing: The afterlife reduced to discs on a massive server wall.

Something entertaining: Being able to visit the afterlife while still alive and do whatever one wants. The possibilities are endless.

Overall Reaction to the Episode

Positive. This was the most moving episode yet for me. The idea of an artificial, device-initiated heaven we can preview before we die is an amazing fantasy. And Yorkie’s life-long suffering/lack of living is super depressing and sad.

Most Relatable to our Societal Condition Today

Current virtual and augmented reality technology provides a temporary, alternate existence/escape similar to what Yorkie and Kelly have in San Junipero.

Element Connected With This Week’s Assigned Readings

The element most connected with this week’s readings was obvious — Yorkie’s and Kelly’s subconscious (out-of-body?), device-initiated expeditions/visits to San Junipero speak to the human/machine ethical dilemma Warwick discusses in Cyborg Experiments and Hybrid Beings. He states, “Cyborgs represent a powerful ethical dilemma when an individual’s consciousness is modified by the merging of human and machine” (Warwick, 72). I’m not sure if the San Junipero device was implanted or attached to the head — the episode didn’t explain the technology in depth. But the use of a device/machine to alter the consciousness of Yorkie and Kelly definitely connects with this ethical dilemma.

Discussion Question

If you had a loved one who was in a non-medically induced coma, perhaps with little-to-no hope of coming out of it, would you authorized a vivid, lucid dream-like subconscious experience for them if the technology existed to induce it? Or would you have ethical concerns about the technology or not having their permission?