Introduction
Written and directed by Andy and Wachowski, The Matrix is a fiction movie released on March 31, 1999. It has attracted numerous responses from fans who think of it as ingenious, intriguing, and very entertaining piece, as well as critiques who think that it is just an idea borrowed from previous fictional works produced in the past. Nevertheless, it offers a unique perspective on the world and especially with regard to the element of reality. The post-apostolyphic world depicted in this movie is bad.
The movie depicts the co-existence of two worlds. One of the worlds is termed as the “real” world, whereby the sentient machines seize control of the world, imprisons the entire human population, and uses the prisoners as energy sources. The machines live off the heat and electrical energy emitted by people.
The second world is a generic world created by the machines in order to pacify the human being as the machines siphon energy from people by plugging the human beings into an artificial intelligence system known as the Matrix. Once plugged in, the Matrix re-programs the brain to think that what it perceives is actually real and so every person plugged into this system thinks that the life he or she is living is real.
For instance, Thomas Anderson, the main character in the movie, is a computer programmer who has a double life as a hacker going by the name Neo. This side of a hacker is his life in the matrix. In the “real” world though, the machines have plugged him into the Matrix and he has been there ever since.
The entire movie revolves around Thomas, alias Neo, and his quest to free everyone from the Matrix so that together they can fight against the machines and attain their freedom from both the Matrix and the machines that control them. With that in mind, this essay takes a critical look into the generic world, the Matrix. The aim is to establish whether that world is good or bad as depicted in the movie by highlighting some of the advantages and disadvantages as compared to the “real” world.
Demystifying ‘The Matrix’
Everything has its advantages and disadvantages and this age-old aspect is one of the criteria used in the determination of good and bad. Looking at the Matrix from the point of view of the people, one of the discernible advantages is that even though the machines plug people to the system against their will, the people co-exist peacefully without conflict.
Human beings are prone to conflict due to their numerous differences regarding personalities and ideas. This element is notably absent in the Matrix before Neo, in his self-awareness, disrupts it. The existence of peace benefits the machines in that they are able to optimize energy harvesting, but it also enables people to get along without fighting one another.
Another notable advantage is that there is synchrony in the running of affairs in the generic world. People do not fight for resources as what they perceive as a good life is controlled by the system. People have jobs and homes and though only generic, they seem “happy” in this state.
Thirdly, those who understand the difference between the ‘real’ world and the Matrix can enter into the simulated reality at will. Their understanding of its nature allows them to compromise its systems of operation laws and by so doing assume herculean abilities that do not work in the real world.
That aside, life in the Matrix also has its demerits. The first disadvantage is the fact that the machines forcefully take away the will and freedom of the human beings, thus leaving them at the mercy of the machines to do as they please.
The danger in this move is that the machines look at things from a self-preservation point of view and although they have sentience, they would consider their own survival pertinent thus dooming the human population to death. This death occurs gradually as the machines drain the energy out of the people for the entirety of their lives until nothing is left.
Another disadvantage is that plugging people into the Matrix makes them prisoners to their perceptions. They lose the cognitive ability to determine the difference between an illusion and reality, which is much akin to the theory of forms discussed in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
The theory suggests that the substance of an object lies not in people’s understanding, but the character of that object. In Plato’s view, nescient people amount to restrained individuals in his allegorical cave. As a fire burns behind them, shadows appear on the walls of the cave, but not the real objects. Such individuals confuse shadows with the reality, and in the confusion, the inherent meaning of the reality is lost and ultimately the individuals become captives of the ensuing unending confusion.
The people perceive the shadows as the reality thus losing sight of the true forms of the objects and consequently becoming prisoners of their own false perceptions. Similarly, people plugged into the matrix perceive their lives in the Matrix as real. It is thus more difficult to free themselves from their own perception than it is to free themselves from the machines, even after being unplugged from the Matrix.
For instance, Morpheus asks Neo to twist a spoon with his mind. He tries, but it does not work because he views the spoon as real. However, Morpheus is in a position to do this bending with ease. When asked how it is possible, Morpheus responds by saying, “there is no spoon.”
Due to the lives that people lead in the Matrix, and even though the idea of freedom is seemingly tantalizing, some people get disillusioned when they do get to the ‘real’ world and find that it is not as they expected. It is like leaving a comfortable prison and going into a free world where one has to fight everyday to survive.
To some people, this idea may not seem ideal, thus beating the whole purpose of liberation and setting back the process of attaining freedom. One such example from the movie is Cypher. He willingly joins the rebellion, but upon his encounter with the real world, he gets disillusioned. He strikes a deal with the agents to deliver Morpheus to them in exchange for comfortable living back in the matrix.
Conclusion
Given the fact that the demerits of living in the matrix outweighs the merits of the same, it is a sensible deduction that the post-apostolyphic world depicted in this movie is bad, taking into account that if operated as planned, its result would be the extinction of the entire human race, without as much as a fair fight. Machines govern the system in a totalitarian way, and thus they depict human beings merely as sources of energy.