One of the most interesting ways The Matrix animated humans, in my mind, was the way they handled Agent Smith taking over other “humans”. I say this in quotation marks because of we don’t actually know what exactly is occurring when Agent Smith takes over the body. The film seems to suggest that it is relatively temporary, and if the body were to be damaged, Agent Smith could abandon it and move to another body. Knowing this, it seems difficult to imagine Agent Smith having his own body. Having a virtual entity take over physical bodies, in addition to cosmetically changing them, is fairly disturbing. However, we don’t know if this change is occurring only in The Matrix, where a virtual program would then be changing another virtual program, or if Agent Smith is taking over their body in reality. Subsequent films show that it is the latter, but Agent Smith also has different abilities than in the first film. I’m inclined to think that for the first film, Agent Smith only had the power to change them virtually, rendering anything he might have done to Neo inconsequential. This is proven by the ending scene, where Neo doesn’t die from the bullet wounds and is able to enter Agent Smith and destroy him from within when he realizes he is just code.
The Matrix uses CGI to animate live action to an extent which we have not up until this moment seen in class. While somewhat outdated by today’s standards, with the growth of technology being exponential as it is, the effects used are still nonetheless effective. For instance, during Neo’s training scenes, CGI is used to “speed up” his arms by creating a blur, or soften his fall from the building in the jump program by turning the pavement into a giant marshmallow-like surface. The theory behind the Matrix that was the most resonating with me was that of the Blue Pill argument given by Cypher. It’s kind of essential to the have in the film or else everything would seem too straightforward and action-movie like. Basically the reasoning behind why one would choose the Blue Pill is explained; even if the Matrix is not “real” per se, what does it matter to the people who are inside of it? The experiences that they have seem real to them, and to individuals who have never known any other world, what is the point of leaving it behind for something objectively worse and more dangerous, let alone the mental readjustment it would take for people to accept the fact that everything they know is a lie. Pretty much every scene with Cypher in it is used to further this theory, but it is best illustrated in the restaurant scene with Agent Smith.
Enslavement by machines, simulated realities, superhuman action, and many other themes are explored throughout the film, but the guiding thread of this film can be found through Morpheus’ search for “The One.” I think this film posits the existence of “absolute truth,” that there is a final figure that will bring harmony and an end to the subjugation machines have made of humans. This is what Morpheus, Trinity, and the whole crew cling to, their only hope in a world that otherwise offers no salvation. The film brings to the surface Neo’s messianic character many times. He is first introduced as a lonely hacker, with little notable qualities, and as he grows to believe in himself more and more, he is able to manipulate the fabric of the Matrix with increasing power. His death and resurrection express with finality that Neo is “The One,” affirming the faith that Morpheus, Trinity, etc. have put in him.
Most interesting in this film is how “The One” fits into the larger framework of the movie and the various other theories it advances. There is a truth and precedence that prophecy and this faith have over everything else in the film. Where does this belief come from? Why do the characters believe in the words of The Oracle as truth? The tension between artificiality and reality, between the ever-present green lines of code that signify the Matrix and the knowledge of a machine-ruled world, could shed some light on this, that people would rely on those words as truth despite living in developed technological world. The ways that this film “animates” the human body in relation to this theory set apart Neo from the rest of the characters. Most notably, there is a division between the humans and the operatives and their physical abilities. The use of animation in slow motion sequences and the use of time lapses in their furious punches continue drawing upon the differences between those aware of the Matrix and those in ignorance. When Neo gains vision in the end of the film of the code, it reduces the “human” body to simply code, showing his transformed awareness of the Matrix after his resurrection.
When answering the question regarding the ways The Matrix (1999) “animates” the human body, two main concepts come to mind. The first is the way the characters as they appear on the screen are “animated.” That is, their movements, specifically how their movements are uncharacteristic of typical live action films and align more with animation pieces. We can look to the opening sequence for an example. When Trinity is being chased, her movements are smooth and precise, and defy what humans are actually capable of – like running along a wall, parallel to the ground. As a rebel, these movements are a part of her superhuman abilities. The bullet-time technique, the slow motion movements of the rebels paired with normal speed camera movements, is also used throughout the film. Together, these effects create a sort of spinoff of cartoon physics and present us with a world that features live action humans on screen with traits normally found in animated characters, thus “animating” the human body. The other way to go about answering this question is one that has to do with the fundamental idea of The Matrix. In the scene where Morpheus is explaining the concepts of The Matrix and The Real World to Neo, he first explains that they are in a computer program, in The Construct. They appear as humans, but they are actually computer generated – how much more could you “animate” the human body than that? Along the same lines, Morpheus then goes into an explanation of The Matrix and this computer generated dream world that Neo has been living in, created to keep humans under control. This is again, the most literal answer to this question. He is saying that this world that humans have been living in is computer generated, which, by the average current understanding of what animation is, would make the world as Neo and we know it, an animated one.
I have never been so disappointed, frustrated, or uninterested from the action scene of a movie than I have today while watching The Matrix. One would think for a bunch of superhuman agents with extraordinary strength, agility, and awareness they would also possess the ability to hit a moving target. Stormtroopers of the Star Wars films are notoriously known for their poor almost pathetic accuracy in shooting but I believe the agents of “The Matrix” got them beat like c’mon…really???
Other than the awful accuracy of the superhuman agents I have nothing particularly bad to say about the movie. It definitely was a great watch and although was quite long it was worth it. Throughout, the entire movie I tried to envision myself in 1999 watching the movie just when it came out. With that mentality, I was completely blown away by the animation and special effects of the film which I would argue were revolutionary for that time period.
“The Matrix” was a major slap to the postmodernist argument that there is no absolute truth. The Matrix argues reality/truth exist whether one believes it or not. Everyone figuratively is given a blue pill or red pill in which if they select the blue pill they can “believe whatever you want to believe” as Morpheus states. They may also opt for the red pill in which they must face reality. The reality that “The Matrix” suggest exist is that fate is the determinate of all things, no one is truly in control of their lives. We see the Oracle accurately predict the future of the characters in the film. For instance, she predicts Neo would knock down a vase which he does; an even more impressive feat is her predicting Trinity would fall in love with the “one” which does occur.
In all honesty though, who would want to face reality when that reality is miserable and unappealing. Possibly, Cypher may be correct in stating ignorance is bliss. Living in the matrix does not seem as bad as I think the rebels are painting it as but that is my two cents.
In the scene where Neo is tortured by agents that we later learn are of the matrix, we see his mouth melded together with the rest of his face and his belly button expand to twice its normal size to accommodate the bug, and later when the sentinels actively pursue Neo and the others we see them able to leap over large distances and switch bodies with any person they want. This is used to further establish the idea of technology as something that is controllable by an outside agent. Even though all of mankind has been subjected to enslavement, it is made clear that the distortion of the world around and the human body are all able to be done by the minds of human beings. Morpheus stresses this during the martial arts training scene where he tells Neo to “Stop trying to hit [him] and hit him.” This is also stressed by the prospective child that lived with the oracle when he says that Neo can’t bend the spoon, he can only bend himself.
I like the fact that this movie emphasizes the power of the mind to change your circumstances. I have always firmly believed that if you change your mindset, you can change your reality. This is also supported by the final fight between Mr. Smith and Neo where the latter was finally able to overcome any obstacles in defeating the sentinel. Not only did he change his strength within the game, his simple willpower was able to stop bullets from firing and he destroyed the crazy program.
1) The Matrix quite literally animates the entire human body. Neo, an adult man, had never truly used his eyes before being freed from the system- the digital avatars of all of humanity are animated in their entirety. This Matrix does this to ensure total control, and the Matrix is noted to fundamentally be about control within the film. Neo is also able to use his powers within the Matrix, signifying that within the animation, reality can be bent and animated.
2) Not mentioning or acknowledging the sequels, the most interesting theory advanced by The Matrix is how adults can not be capable of changing their fundamental beliefs- even to the point of dying before accepting change. Morpheus makes it clear that adults are typically not removed from the Matrix, as the shock of the truth could drive them mad. I am interested by the heavy handedness used by the director to convey the sense of rigor people have to their everyday life. The Matrix is about control, and Zion wants to see this control ended- yet at what cost will humanity be freed? Is it worth “freeing” a population if it means the death of millions?
Many forms of CGI effects in live-action films are attempting to appear as real and seamless to reality as possible. While it is true that the effects technology available in 1999 was not the most sophisticated, it makes sense that the CGI effects applied to the human body would intentionally appear unreal. When the agent is dodging the bullets and appears to be a series of shuttering images, it emphasizes the inhumanness of the agents and the false reality of the Matrix. In the “real world”, the humans never move the same way as they move in the Matrix. The sparing scene between Neo and Morpheus moves in ways that purposely break typically physical laws to showcase their abilities to manipulate the rules of the Matrix. Somewhat ironically the famous bullet-dodging screen was made using a green screen. The scene takes place in an artificial world created by computers and the world that the audience sees is made using a computer. Near the end of the film, the audience is allowed a view through the eyes of the fully aware Neo, who now sees his surroundings as code of the Matrix. In this glimpse, the world is 3D with the code over it, including the Agents, which furthers this sense of unreality. The Matrix includes a decent amount of CGI effects that may have been previously unexplored and uses them in ways to accentuate a world that is not quite reality.
The Matrix is known for its (at the time) seamless CGI in a live-action film world, albeit a world that claims to be mostly “computer generated” itself. SAT guidebooks love to use it as the super-relatable action pop-culture film you can give as an example in the exam’s essay-section. “The Matrix uses mind-blowing CGI to…” Princeton Review is obsessed. If there is anything someone who hasn’t seen the film knows about it, it’s the iconic visual effects, many of them digitally animated. Unsurprisingly, most of those effects are essentially the animation of the human body, from the stuttering motion of the Agents to the flowing control of frozen space and surrounding motion that the Rebels’ airborne bodies exert throughout the film space. The implications of these effects reach beyond themselves, turning human bodies into the plastic and plasmatic, both soaring past the indexicality of cinema and tethered by its sense of realism. Due to its “indistinguishable” nature, animation in this film calls into question the boundaries between the cinematic body and the animated one. This line of inquiry and complication of real and unreal is supported by the film’s narrative, which suggests that the human race experiences life as animated forms in a simulated consciousness (the Matrix), while the “real” bodies of humans are farmed in fields of tanks. The most interesting consequences for this film’s engagement with the presented dichotomy of the animated and the tangible (complicated already by their encounters in the film’s visuals), are, for me, related to the “self-contained” world of the animated as it relates to the Matrix , and the philosophical assumptions of the film. First, a quality of animation has typically been conceptualized as its self-containment; while the animation of the live action bodies of the actors is not contained, the Matrix seems to be, standing for an animated separateness. However, although the Matrix is under the control of an entity and is a contained experience, the “real” bodies of humans exert influence over it. Not only is there shared experience and cooperation of those who know their “real” body’s place and have been awakened, but those within its confinement can interact with one another’s experience provided by the program of the Matrix, complicating the “containment” of the virtual, animated prison. Also, the film makes the assumption that the “real” body and the “true” experience (but what is the truth, anyway, am I right?) are inherently better for the human race than an artificial world and animated astral projections. The awakened character who still chooses the Matrix is the villain, less because of his betrayal of fellow and more because of his betrayal of morality—morality based apparently less on justice against the machines’ destruction and more on the intrinsic “betterness” of the real. But what is it about the animated body that is inherently less than the real body, and what is to say that the animated experience of the Matrix is not an experience in itself?
What is the original and what is the simulation in the Matrix? The movie seemingly states that it is the Matrix that is the simulation and that the outside barren world is the real. Furthermore, the movie implies that the real is very important which explains why the protagonists fight so dearly for the barren world over the utopian matrix. However, the distinctions are blurred if we inseminate this movie with the Jean Baudrillard’s Simulcara and Simulation. In Baudrillard’s book, he claims that modern society has replaced all of reality with signs and the subsequent mutual switch ability has blurred the lines between what is real and what is not. Instead, the human experience is a simulation of reality. Does that sound familiar? But whereas what is real is fleeting for Baudrillard, the real seems to be clear in the Matrix, so why even bring up Baudrillard in relation to The Matrix? Well, Baudrillard’s book is actually shown on our protagonist’s shelf in the beginning of the movie. Of course, we soon find out that this isn’t really the book (or at least it is modified somehow), because it is secretly a container for cash and other important goodies. This little easter egg indicates that the protagonists and perhaps even us the audience should not so readily accept what is seemingly the real.
Animation: A History Flux 
One of the most interesting ways The Matrix animated humans, in my mind, was the way they handled Agent Smith taking over other “humans”. I say this in quotation marks because of we don’t actually know what exactly is occurring when Agent Smith takes over the body. The film seems to suggest that it is relatively temporary, and if the body were to be damaged, Agent Smith could abandon it and move to another body. Knowing this, it seems difficult to imagine Agent Smith having his own body. Having a virtual entity take over physical bodies, in addition to cosmetically changing them, is fairly disturbing. However, we don’t know if this change is occurring only in The Matrix, where a virtual program would then be changing another virtual program, or if Agent Smith is taking over their body in reality. Subsequent films show that it is the latter, but Agent Smith also has different abilities than in the first film. I’m inclined to think that for the first film, Agent Smith only had the power to change them virtually, rendering anything he might have done to Neo inconsequential. This is proven by the ending scene, where Neo doesn’t die from the bullet wounds and is able to enter Agent Smith and destroy him from within when he realizes he is just code.
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The Matrix uses CGI to animate live action to an extent which we have not up until this moment seen in class. While somewhat outdated by today’s standards, with the growth of technology being exponential as it is, the effects used are still nonetheless effective. For instance, during Neo’s training scenes, CGI is used to “speed up” his arms by creating a blur, or soften his fall from the building in the jump program by turning the pavement into a giant marshmallow-like surface. The theory behind the Matrix that was the most resonating with me was that of the Blue Pill argument given by Cypher. It’s kind of essential to the have in the film or else everything would seem too straightforward and action-movie like. Basically the reasoning behind why one would choose the Blue Pill is explained; even if the Matrix is not “real” per se, what does it matter to the people who are inside of it? The experiences that they have seem real to them, and to individuals who have never known any other world, what is the point of leaving it behind for something objectively worse and more dangerous, let alone the mental readjustment it would take for people to accept the fact that everything they know is a lie. Pretty much every scene with Cypher in it is used to further this theory, but it is best illustrated in the restaurant scene with Agent Smith.
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Enslavement by machines, simulated realities, superhuman action, and many other themes are explored throughout the film, but the guiding thread of this film can be found through Morpheus’ search for “The One.” I think this film posits the existence of “absolute truth,” that there is a final figure that will bring harmony and an end to the subjugation machines have made of humans. This is what Morpheus, Trinity, and the whole crew cling to, their only hope in a world that otherwise offers no salvation. The film brings to the surface Neo’s messianic character many times. He is first introduced as a lonely hacker, with little notable qualities, and as he grows to believe in himself more and more, he is able to manipulate the fabric of the Matrix with increasing power. His death and resurrection express with finality that Neo is “The One,” affirming the faith that Morpheus, Trinity, etc. have put in him.
Most interesting in this film is how “The One” fits into the larger framework of the movie and the various other theories it advances. There is a truth and precedence that prophecy and this faith have over everything else in the film. Where does this belief come from? Why do the characters believe in the words of The Oracle as truth? The tension between artificiality and reality, between the ever-present green lines of code that signify the Matrix and the knowledge of a machine-ruled world, could shed some light on this, that people would rely on those words as truth despite living in developed technological world. The ways that this film “animates” the human body in relation to this theory set apart Neo from the rest of the characters. Most notably, there is a division between the humans and the operatives and their physical abilities. The use of animation in slow motion sequences and the use of time lapses in their furious punches continue drawing upon the differences between those aware of the Matrix and those in ignorance. When Neo gains vision in the end of the film of the code, it reduces the “human” body to simply code, showing his transformed awareness of the Matrix after his resurrection.
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When answering the question regarding the ways The Matrix (1999) “animates” the human body, two main concepts come to mind. The first is the way the characters as they appear on the screen are “animated.” That is, their movements, specifically how their movements are uncharacteristic of typical live action films and align more with animation pieces. We can look to the opening sequence for an example. When Trinity is being chased, her movements are smooth and precise, and defy what humans are actually capable of – like running along a wall, parallel to the ground. As a rebel, these movements are a part of her superhuman abilities. The bullet-time technique, the slow motion movements of the rebels paired with normal speed camera movements, is also used throughout the film. Together, these effects create a sort of spinoff of cartoon physics and present us with a world that features live action humans on screen with traits normally found in animated characters, thus “animating” the human body. The other way to go about answering this question is one that has to do with the fundamental idea of The Matrix. In the scene where Morpheus is explaining the concepts of The Matrix and The Real World to Neo, he first explains that they are in a computer program, in The Construct. They appear as humans, but they are actually computer generated – how much more could you “animate” the human body than that? Along the same lines, Morpheus then goes into an explanation of The Matrix and this computer generated dream world that Neo has been living in, created to keep humans under control. This is again, the most literal answer to this question. He is saying that this world that humans have been living in is computer generated, which, by the average current understanding of what animation is, would make the world as Neo and we know it, an animated one.
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I have never been so disappointed, frustrated, or uninterested from the action scene of a movie than I have today while watching The Matrix. One would think for a bunch of superhuman agents with extraordinary strength, agility, and awareness they would also possess the ability to hit a moving target. Stormtroopers of the Star Wars films are notoriously known for their poor almost pathetic accuracy in shooting but I believe the agents of “The Matrix” got them beat like c’mon…really???
Other than the awful accuracy of the superhuman agents I have nothing particularly bad to say about the movie. It definitely was a great watch and although was quite long it was worth it. Throughout, the entire movie I tried to envision myself in 1999 watching the movie just when it came out. With that mentality, I was completely blown away by the animation and special effects of the film which I would argue were revolutionary for that time period.
“The Matrix” was a major slap to the postmodernist argument that there is no absolute truth. The Matrix argues reality/truth exist whether one believes it or not. Everyone figuratively is given a blue pill or red pill in which if they select the blue pill they can “believe whatever you want to believe” as Morpheus states. They may also opt for the red pill in which they must face reality. The reality that “The Matrix” suggest exist is that fate is the determinate of all things, no one is truly in control of their lives. We see the Oracle accurately predict the future of the characters in the film. For instance, she predicts Neo would knock down a vase which he does; an even more impressive feat is her predicting Trinity would fall in love with the “one” which does occur.
In all honesty though, who would want to face reality when that reality is miserable and unappealing. Possibly, Cypher may be correct in stating ignorance is bliss. Living in the matrix does not seem as bad as I think the rebels are painting it as but that is my two cents.
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In the scene where Neo is tortured by agents that we later learn are of the matrix, we see his mouth melded together with the rest of his face and his belly button expand to twice its normal size to accommodate the bug, and later when the sentinels actively pursue Neo and the others we see them able to leap over large distances and switch bodies with any person they want. This is used to further establish the idea of technology as something that is controllable by an outside agent. Even though all of mankind has been subjected to enslavement, it is made clear that the distortion of the world around and the human body are all able to be done by the minds of human beings. Morpheus stresses this during the martial arts training scene where he tells Neo to “Stop trying to hit [him] and hit him.” This is also stressed by the prospective child that lived with the oracle when he says that Neo can’t bend the spoon, he can only bend himself.
I like the fact that this movie emphasizes the power of the mind to change your circumstances. I have always firmly believed that if you change your mindset, you can change your reality. This is also supported by the final fight between Mr. Smith and Neo where the latter was finally able to overcome any obstacles in defeating the sentinel. Not only did he change his strength within the game, his simple willpower was able to stop bullets from firing and he destroyed the crazy program.
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1) The Matrix quite literally animates the entire human body. Neo, an adult man, had never truly used his eyes before being freed from the system- the digital avatars of all of humanity are animated in their entirety. This Matrix does this to ensure total control, and the Matrix is noted to fundamentally be about control within the film. Neo is also able to use his powers within the Matrix, signifying that within the animation, reality can be bent and animated.
2) Not mentioning or acknowledging the sequels, the most interesting theory advanced by The Matrix is how adults can not be capable of changing their fundamental beliefs- even to the point of dying before accepting change. Morpheus makes it clear that adults are typically not removed from the Matrix, as the shock of the truth could drive them mad. I am interested by the heavy handedness used by the director to convey the sense of rigor people have to their everyday life. The Matrix is about control, and Zion wants to see this control ended- yet at what cost will humanity be freed? Is it worth “freeing” a population if it means the death of millions?
LikeLike
Many forms of CGI effects in live-action films are attempting to appear as real and seamless to reality as possible. While it is true that the effects technology available in 1999 was not the most sophisticated, it makes sense that the CGI effects applied to the human body would intentionally appear unreal. When the agent is dodging the bullets and appears to be a series of shuttering images, it emphasizes the inhumanness of the agents and the false reality of the Matrix. In the “real world”, the humans never move the same way as they move in the Matrix. The sparing scene between Neo and Morpheus moves in ways that purposely break typically physical laws to showcase their abilities to manipulate the rules of the Matrix. Somewhat ironically the famous bullet-dodging screen was made using a green screen. The scene takes place in an artificial world created by computers and the world that the audience sees is made using a computer. Near the end of the film, the audience is allowed a view through the eyes of the fully aware Neo, who now sees his surroundings as code of the Matrix. In this glimpse, the world is 3D with the code over it, including the Agents, which furthers this sense of unreality. The Matrix includes a decent amount of CGI effects that may have been previously unexplored and uses them in ways to accentuate a world that is not quite reality.
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The Matrix is known for its (at the time) seamless CGI in a live-action film world, albeit a world that claims to be mostly “computer generated” itself. SAT guidebooks love to use it as the super-relatable action pop-culture film you can give as an example in the exam’s essay-section. “The Matrix uses mind-blowing CGI to…” Princeton Review is obsessed. If there is anything someone who hasn’t seen the film knows about it, it’s the iconic visual effects, many of them digitally animated. Unsurprisingly, most of those effects are essentially the animation of the human body, from the stuttering motion of the Agents to the flowing control of frozen space and surrounding motion that the Rebels’ airborne bodies exert throughout the film space. The implications of these effects reach beyond themselves, turning human bodies into the plastic and plasmatic, both soaring past the indexicality of cinema and tethered by its sense of realism. Due to its “indistinguishable” nature, animation in this film calls into question the boundaries between the cinematic body and the animated one. This line of inquiry and complication of real and unreal is supported by the film’s narrative, which suggests that the human race experiences life as animated forms in a simulated consciousness (the Matrix), while the “real” bodies of humans are farmed in fields of tanks. The most interesting consequences for this film’s engagement with the presented dichotomy of the animated and the tangible (complicated already by their encounters in the film’s visuals), are, for me, related to the “self-contained” world of the animated as it relates to the Matrix , and the philosophical assumptions of the film. First, a quality of animation has typically been conceptualized as its self-containment; while the animation of the live action bodies of the actors is not contained, the Matrix seems to be, standing for an animated separateness. However, although the Matrix is under the control of an entity and is a contained experience, the “real” bodies of humans exert influence over it. Not only is there shared experience and cooperation of those who know their “real” body’s place and have been awakened, but those within its confinement can interact with one another’s experience provided by the program of the Matrix, complicating the “containment” of the virtual, animated prison. Also, the film makes the assumption that the “real” body and the “true” experience (but what is the truth, anyway, am I right?) are inherently better for the human race than an artificial world and animated astral projections. The awakened character who still chooses the Matrix is the villain, less because of his betrayal of fellow and more because of his betrayal of morality—morality based apparently less on justice against the machines’ destruction and more on the intrinsic “betterness” of the real. But what is it about the animated body that is inherently less than the real body, and what is to say that the animated experience of the Matrix is not an experience in itself?
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The most interesting theory put forward in The Matrix is also the central point of conflict in the
film: that there cannot be freedom with control. Morpheus and his merry band of rebels in Zion believe
with, their lives, that they are not free within the matrix as the reality within is not true enough for
them. They instead continue to fight a war that they really don’t remember the start of so that humanity
can choose its own fate. But is this really even an option? If humanity were to win the war in the most
advantageous of ways, that is, if all the egged humans were to awake with bodies and minds intact
enough to rebuild society, they would still be left with a world that has become essentially uninhabitable
across the entirety of its surface and even most of the ground below. The subsurface seems to be mostly
dedicated to monolithic tunnels that do not seem to provide much arable land either. Thus, the new-
born again human race would be left with only a few, drastic, options. They could enact harsh discipline
in order to make the rations for one city last for the entire human race and attempt to slowly rebuild
and terraform Earth to the happy blue and green marble it once was. Alternatively, they could use their
sweet ships to try to find some other giant rock which has fallen just deep enough into the gravity well of
a star to support life somewhere in the Universe.
Now let’s consider life in the matrix. Other than trying to leave the matrix, people are essentially
as free as they were in 1999, as Morpheus explains since that is the time which the simulation emulates.
That is to say, other than the crimes to which society has pretty much always agreed, people can do and
see whatever they want (over complicated US tax code notwithstanding) Now, to me that doesn’t seem
so bad. In fact, it’s clear that most people are happy enough within the matrix; only the chosen few
were disgruntled enough to seek the truth. Perhaps the idea that an AI overlord has the fate of
humanity in its hands is enough to turn most against the idea, but what if it was a person? Or committee
of people? Perhaps a conglomeration of governments similar to the UN? As history has shown, such
groups can make atrocious decisions and take humanity down dark paths. In fact, it seems that having
an AI in charge which has equal amounts of disregard for all human life is far more equal than the
government by majority or by force that has led to oppression in even “free” nations such as our own.
I would argue that freedom cannot exist without control; you may be free from rules, but not
from a bigger person taking everything you have, including your life. I’m not arguing for a police state,
but there must be rules to us from using our freedom to infringe on the freedoms of others. This is, very
simplistically, the basis of society; Locke’s social contract. It is an interesting idea, especially in the year
1999 and all the fear that came with the impending new millennium, that society has it all wrong and
that the socio-economic situation most of us find ourselves in is just a form of slavery, but I don’t think
that, for the average person, freedom would increase if society were to restart in earnest in the new
world.
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What is the original and what is the simulation in the Matrix? The movie seemingly states that it is the Matrix that is the simulation and that the outside barren world is the real. Furthermore, the movie implies that the real is very important which explains why the protagonists fight so dearly for the barren world over the utopian matrix. However, the distinctions are blurred if we inseminate this movie with the Jean Baudrillard’s Simulcara and Simulation. In Baudrillard’s book, he claims that modern society has replaced all of reality with signs and the subsequent mutual switch ability has blurred the lines between what is real and what is not. Instead, the human experience is a simulation of reality. Does that sound familiar? But whereas what is real is fleeting for Baudrillard, the real seems to be clear in the Matrix, so why even bring up Baudrillard in relation to The Matrix? Well, Baudrillard’s book is actually shown on our protagonist’s shelf in the beginning of the movie. Of course, we soon find out that this isn’t really the book (or at least it is modified somehow), because it is secretly a container for cash and other important goodies. This little easter egg indicates that the protagonists and perhaps even us the audience should not so readily accept what is seemingly the real.
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