"At the beginning of The Matrix, a black-clad computer hacker known as Neo falls asleep in front of his computer. A mysterious message appears on the screen: "Wake up, Neo." This succinct phrase encapsulates the plot of the film."
Nine of us gathered to watch and discuss The Matrix. All of us (except one) had seen the movie before. Each of us had our favorite scene. Mine is when Trinity and Neo go cartwheeling and shooting their way into the building to rescue Morpheus. I also like spoon boy and the scene when Neo meets the Oracle.
The movie gained traction with audiences in 1999 because of its edgey music and its innovative special effects. But it is also doused with a hodge podge of religious and philosophical themes. The Wachowski brothers openly admit to Buddhist influences in the story, but a strong case can be made for Gnostic themes as well.
I read two good write ups on the philosophical undertones of the movie. The first is called The Gnostic Matrix by Don Closson. The second is called Wake Up! Gnosticism and Buddhism In The Matrix, by Flannery-Dailey and Wagner.
The danger in the film, in my opinion, is that it promotes the idea that reality is illusory and the path to enlightenment is to free your mind. The Matrix messes with your mind a bit. You are left with this nagging doubt about what truly is real and how would you really know what is real.
Our culture is already awash in relativistic thinking anyway. The Matrix takes it one step further to question reality itself. While you may not walk away questioning reality, a seed is planted in your mind.
The group had a good discussion about moral relativism and how to engage relativistic ideas. We also discussed the self-refuting nature of a worldview that claims that all is illusory. If everything is a dream, then those who teach that everything is a dream are just a dream too -- and so is their teaching.
I hope to host more worldview movies in the future -- but it may have to be on a Friday night since school is starting.
Cheers.
One thing that disturbed me about _The Matrix_ is that given the scenario that the film lays out, the carnage perpetrated by Neo and friends isn't exactly illusory. If the people in the Matrix are immersed in a seamless virtual reality, then they will react to the illusory deaths of their loved ones in the same way that we would if our husband/father/brother really were machine-gunned by black-clad terrorists. The fear and grief would be identical. That being the case, is the illusion really just an illusion?
A good SF novel that deals with some of the same themes is Ken Macleod's The Stone Canal. Opening line: "He woke, and remembered dying." The idea that illusion can be just as real as "reality" is a common theme, almost a cliche, in "post-singularity" SF (e.g. Charles Stross's Accelerando)
Posted by: Nick | August 18, 2006 at 10:00
Nick
I had some of the same problems with the Matrix. The people they are killing are real, somehwere, and the emotions that feel inside the Matrix are real. And yet there is no attmept to minimize the damage they do -- they just walk in trhough the front door and blow away anything they come across. Cool to watch, but if you treat the ideas in the movie even rmeotely seriously, as the film makers want, then there is a real problem with the moral code of the rebels.
Which leads me to my answer to the "questions" about reality: it doesn't matter if life is an illusion if I cannot know that. Getting hit still hurts, whether it is an illusion of pain or pain casued by an actual physical harm.
And let me second the Stone Canal -- and, really, anything by Ken MacCleod. He is one of the best sci-fi writers around, and he goes well past cliches and popcorn with his books.
In fact, Jeff, if you want -- we are clearing some books. Email me your address and I will send you a couple of his paperbacks instead of giving them to the library.
Posted by: kevin | August 18, 2006 at 11:33
Good point Nick.
But, if reality is a construct, so are ethics, right?
Those guards in the mezzanine were really just copper tops and had no quality of life anyway, right? Neo and Trinity did them a favor.
Incidentally, did you ever wonder why the agents had to instantiate themselves into the bodies of virtual humans? And like a young viewer asked me after the movie, if it is all a computer program anyway, why not just add weightless impenetrable body armor to your arsenal when you deploy into the matrix.
The story in the film breaks down under close scrutiny, but what do you expect from a story that messes with reality.
It is not nice to mess with reality -- in films, or entire worldviews.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | August 18, 2006 at 11:33
But, if reality is a construct, so are ethics, right?
Not necessarily, since even _The Matrix_ assumes that reality exists. In order to have an illusion, you have to have some underlying reality on which to build the illusion.
Those guards in the mezzanine were really just copper tops and had no quality of life anyway, right?
Quality of life is in large part a perception, so their quality of life was as good as mine, even though they were really floating in a vat of slime. That's the point at which it doesn't matter if what we perceive as reality is wholly accurate, slightly distorted, or entirely an illusion.
Consider a paranoid schizophrenic. He lives in a distorted world of illusion, but we would still consider it cruel to manipulate those illusions in a way that distresses the schizophrenic. The fear that the schizophrenic feels is real, even though we know that the conspiracy to get him is an illusion.
_The Matrix_ is actually kind of a weak form of illusory reality, since the people have actual existence in the real world. The next step up would be programs that think they are people but exist only in the computer. Whether one find that scenario plausible would depend on whether one subscribes to a materialistic view of humanity and what one thinks of the possibility of AI. Greg Egan's Permutation City deals with that theme (but I found it boring and didn't finish). Stross's Accelerando is more engrossing and has characters who jump back and forth between physical existence and purely software existence. One scene has the characters debating reality in a cafe that is part of a program running in a spaceship the size of a coke can -- and the characters know it.
Posted by: Nick | August 18, 2006 at 12:13
Here are amazon.com links to the Macleod and Stross books that I mentioned.
The first chapter of the Stone canal also has one of my favorite lines that sets up a feeling of time, distance, and alien vistas -- the "sense of wonder" that SF depends on.
Accelerando is a compilation of several linked novellas.
Posted by: Nick | August 18, 2006 at 12:24
For reading along this line I'd suggest Cory Doctorow's(BoingBoing) Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
The energy issue is solved. People die and get uploaded into a new bodies. Commerce is based on reputation or "Whuffie". I like the writing style so that's part of the appeal for me. It might not be for others.
Doctorow has made this book available for free and you can find copies of it all over the 'net. One of the more readable versions is here but you can find a ton in various formats here
Posted by: Brian | August 18, 2006 at 15:25
The story in the film breaks down under close scrutiny
The story in the film breaks down under any scrutiny!
Posted by: tgirsch | August 18, 2006 at 15:49
"The story in the film breaks down under any scrutiny!"
Spoken like a true realist. On this, we agree.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | August 18, 2006 at 17:19
Nick,
I was speaking tongue in cheek about the copper tops and the quality of life stuff. You are right ... even a human being floating in a vat of slime (poor fellow) has dignity because he has the imago dei.
I am too much of a realist to buy into the illusory reality myth. It makes for an interesting story, but ultimately too difficult a pill (pun intended) for us realists to swallow.
Having dealt with these blasted computers for my entire career, I have quickly come to realize that true AI is not possible. It will never be possible technologically speaking ... nor metaphysically speaking.
I try to suspend my skepticism and enjoy the stories ... like watching the character Data on Star Trek ... but ultimately, I have a hard time keeping my skepticism under control. It is kinda like a physicist trying to watch the Enterprise achieve warp speed and go faster than the speed of light. Physics won't allow it. Reality kinda ruins things. :)
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | August 18, 2006 at 17:27
"The 13th Floor" of some years back is a fun film and another alternate reality flick, the people are programs in a computer world but don't know it.
Posted by: PDM | August 18, 2006 at 21:11