THX-1138: Not my favorite Lucas attempt

I don't actually have anything very productive to say about this film, mostly because I couldn't follow the plot. I thought it was boring as hell and completely convoluted. What was it about anyway?
I think the most interesting part of the film for me was watching a very young Robert Duvall. I have not seen anything with him at this age.
I think the jist of the Dery article was that technology could easily escape us and escape our control. If this is correct, then one sees some of this in THX-1138. The scene where the machines seem to be taking out all the essence of Robert Duvall's character that makes him him and implanting devices so that they can monitor his brain and body was disturbing. What exactly were they implanting, anyway?
I was mostly interested in the concept of "thereness" in the Dery article. People throw around words like "cyberworld," but I realize I've never stopped to think about what that might mean. I mean, it's not a world, not in the sense that places have an essence and a location. You can't point to cyberworld on a map. And yet, like real places there is a real sense of place and community to the cyberworld. How can we "be" in a place that does not actually exist?
My one answer to that is that it's not our actual presence in a real life geographic location that gives a place a sense of "thereness," but it's our connection to other people. And goodness knows there is plenty of connecting to others online.