Wachowski Sisters' "Matrix""

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Overview

The Matrix is a franchise of dystopian fiction that consists of four movies directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-An Moss and Laurence Fishburne. With the first movie of the same name (The Matrix, 1999) winning several awards including multiple Oscars and grossing over 445 million USD at the box office. The franchise consists of four movies with the fourth one coming out in December 2021.1

The Plot

The world building portrays a dystopian world in 2199 after the takeover of Artificial Intelligence. After a war between humanity and AI, the atmosphere darkened, whereby there is no more energy from the sun. Therefore leading the machines to grow humans in cocoon-shaped pods in cultivation fields, for the AI’s energy regeneration. Therefore using humans as living batteries. The Humans conscious is living in a pre dystopian artificial world in 1999 - The Matrix. The few humans managing to break free from the Matrix are able to connect to the Matrix via computer plug. Once they die in the Matrix, they die in reality as well. The last natural human civilization, Zion, is being controlled by a central computer. It was built by 23 people using the so called „The One’s“ powers. The one had the ability to reality-warp the matrix, therefore bending the physics of the Matrix and freely manipulate the simulated reality. The One was born in the Matrix and freed the first people teaching them the truth. Morpheus, one of the leaders of the awakened, breaks hacker Neo free, thinking he’s the next ‚The One’. The so called Oracle is an independent program living in the Matrix. When Neo goes to question the Oracle, where he is told that he is not the one. However Neo later falls in love with Trinity, who was told that who she would love would be the one. Therefore becoming the next ‚The One’. After several expeditions into the Matrix the first movies final fight pursues between Neo and agents (Agent Smith) where Neo is able to survive and beat the agents using the Ones powers.1

The Matrix

The Matrix is a virtually created artificial computer reality made by AI. While in the external world the year is 2199, the Matrix depicts a world in the year 1999. While the real world is described as the "desert of the real" by Morpheus, he describes the Matrix as existing "now only as part of a neural-interactive simulation […]". A "computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being". The people within the Matrix aren't aware, that they are not living in the real world. They believe the artificial world to be reality. The Matrix is a prison for the mind. It's a system.1

Is the Matrix reality?

As Morpheus suggests: „it's all a lie - an artificial world created by the machines“, the Matrix is not reality in the sense of it not being the real external world. Though it is perceived as the real world by the people in the Matrix. Proposing the question of whether what we perceive as real can be considered reality. As everyones perception may be altered. Leading to the determining factor of answering this question to be the question of what is reality.1

The Agents

The Agents in the matrix are sentient security programs, guardians protecting the Matrix from any threat to the false reality. The agents being computer programs can theoretically takeover any human in the Matrix’s body by loading their program. Therefore anyone in the Matrix can be seen as a possible enemy. No one of the freed has ever beaten nor survived an encounter with an agent prior to Neo.1

Agent Smith

One of most prevalent, most exposed agents is Agent Smith. After losing the fight against Neo Agent Smith refused to be deleted as a program and no longer followed the rules of the Matrix and thus became an enemy of the matrix. He arguably shows aspects of possibly interpretable human behavior. As he is annoyed with being in the Matrix and as he shares his thoughts on humans, comparing humanity to a virus and the Matrix to a zoo. Arguably showing emotions as he displays disgust for humans, therefore humanizing himself. Seemingly making the AI not seem better but instead have human qualities. Also showing conflicts between the programs like humans would have.1


Utopia and Dystopia

Utopia

A utopia (Greek: without place) paints the picture of a perfect society, which is mostly in the future. “Thomas More (Sir Thomas More) described the ideal state of such a society in the eponymous novel " Utopia "(1516). In Utopia, the common good is paramount. The inhabitants of the imaginary country despise cruelty to humans and animals, there are few but clear laws, doctors are well trained and hospitals are properly equipped. The ultimate goal is people's happiness. The satirical work of the English state theorist not only describes a hoped-for state of society, but above all criticizes the social conditions that existed in England at the time. "2 The concept of an ideal state goes back to Plato. Plato’s ideal city, Magnesia, for example, has the basic political structure and laws of an ideal city3.Moore had the idea of a state in which everyone has the same right to everything and there is no private property. "In Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full no private man can want anything"4. This idea came true in 1917 with the establishment of the first communist state under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. But already under his successor Josef W. Stalin the Soviet Union turned into a dictatorship.2

The first Matrix as argument for a Utopia

When agent Smith tells Morpheus about the first ever Matrix he tells him that it was designed to be „a perfect human world where none suffered [and] where everyone was happy“. That it was a disaster and „no one would accept the program and entire crops were lost“. While others thought that they lacked the programming language agent Smith believes that „human beings define their reality through misery and suffering“. Implying that humans can’t ever be happy or satisfied even though living in what could possibly be considered a Utopia. This arises the question whether humanity could even survive in a perfect reality. Whether a Utopia would even be accepted. This contrast between a Utopia not being accepted by humanity and a dystopia being the actual reality, highlights humans capability of both good and evil. Arguably representative for a middle ground, the Matrix, for J.J. Rosseau and Thomas Hobbes opposite image of man applied to the external world. Though it can be argued that in order fo reality to be there has to be negatives whether these are necessary qualities for reality may be argued.1

Dystopia

A dystopia is the opposite of a utopia. According to Duden, dystopia is a “fictional story or the like that will play in the future. with a negative outcome."5 “The terms are derived from the Greek word topos for“ place ”and ou for“ not ”and dys for“ bad ”. A dystopia or anti-utopia is an imaginary futuristic world in which an oppressive regime, a powerful technology or a corrupt large corporation is destroying people's lives ”6 Distopias usually begin with the utopia of a perfect society. This perfect society turns into a worst case scenario in the course of the story. Most of the time, current political, social or technological developments are processed in narratives and show a negative version of the future. The aim is to make people think and reflect on current developments. 6 "Dystopia, Utopia’s doppelganger, speaks directly to the crisis in belief, for dystopias conjure up a world in which no one wants to believe."4

Dystopia in the Matrix

Matrix represents a very extreme development with fatal consequences in the development of AI. The earth as a livable planet is no longer available in the form it used to be. The people as self-determined individuals have degenerated into purely an energy supplier. The mind or spirit of man only lives in a virtual world and is not aware of it. People's perception is limited to what the Matrix tells them to do. Biological perception (seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling and hearing) is switched off. There is no longer any truth or reality - as we understand it - because everything takes place in a virtual space. Everything we know, like and all social contacts are therefore only the result of programming and do not exist. A society, knowledge and everything that doesn't exist. The Matrix thus creates a frightening scenario where the question arises whether we are not already living in a matrix but cannot recognize it. Do we humans exist in the form we know, or are we trapped in the programming of a supercomputer? Deja vu experiences are defects in the Matrix. It is interesting to compare it to the book by Hervé Le Tellier "The Anomaly", where, among other things, the question is raised as to whether we are programming. Matrix doesn't go that far. Here the consciousness of the human lives in a program, the human himself is real.

The Transparent Society

In the dystopia of the Transparent Society, surveillance and control are in the center. The people have fallen victim of an almighty system. Totalitarian states demanding absolute control, social contact is controlled and there is a lack of privacy. In addition in 'Matrix' environment and perception are controlled as well. One goal of the transparent society is to have a perfect social assignment of people to their functions, so that they can lead a full life. Therefore not giving rise to a desire for change. In the case of trouble, the person can be taken out easily, as through the surveillance theres little to no way of avoiding autority. David Brin describes a transparent society in his book of the same name. He "argues an interesting and controversial case about the nature of privacy and accountability in an era of widespread surveillance technologies."7 One of the most famous examples of this dystopia is George Orwells "1984", where "Big Brother" is watching everything.

Philosophical Support
  • Claude Shannon
  • Jean-J. Rosseau
  • J. Bentham - "Panopticon"
  • G. Orwell
  • David Brin
Other Examples of the Transparent Society as Dystopia
  • "1984" - George Orwell
  • "Brazil" (1985) - Terry Gilliam (dystopic movie with grotesque elements)
  • "The Transparent Society" - David Brin


Philosophical Views

Rene Descartes

„The central motif in “The Matrix” is the question: What is truth? Can we trust our perception? Is human knowledge subject to deception? Is our environment including our body just an illusion? What can i know? The French philosopher René Descartes, an important pioneer of the Enlightenment, pursued these questions in his epistemology in the middle of the 17th century. According to Descartes, everything that we perceive and accept as truth can also be questioned. After all, these could also be hallucinations. Everything that happens ultimately happens in the brain. But according to Descartes, one truth remains: we may be exposed to hallucinations, but we are also able to ponder them. That we think presupposes the existence of our ego. As soon as we think we can be sure of at least one thing: our own existence. The quintessence is in Descartes' famous sentence: Cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am.“8 Descartes Method of doubt when applied within the Matrix makes one question whether „I am“. As though one is thinking, one arguably is not existing. Arising the question of whether one can really think in the Matrix or whether one is existing within the Matrix.

Platos allegory of the cave

In Plato's Allegory of the cave people are chained in a cave and see the world as a shadow cast on the wall by a fire. If a prisoner were to be untied and mounted, he would see the objects that he had seen so far in the shadows in reality. He would be confused, blinded by the fire and would initially perceive the things he sees as less real. After a while he would recognize this as true but return to what he knew as it’s more comforting. When compared to The Matrix, presenting the Matrix as the shadows, a clear connection can be drawn. „As with the ascent from Plato's cave, Neo's confrontation with reality is initially painful. But he consciously decides in favor of the real world and against a life in the matrix. He does not want to be a slave and does not want to be controlled and exploited by machines. He wants to shape his life in freedom and according to his own ideas. But Neo realizes that most people - similar to Plato's cave dwellers - are not ready for the truth and do not want to separate from the matrix. It is more beneficial for them to live in the illusion. For example, the resistance fighter Cypher is tired of the harsh reality and ready to betray his friends to Agent Smith in order to be reintegrated into the matrix.“ 8 It is mirrored in Neo’s despair when finding out about the real world and the continuously painful way of piloting through it. Proposing the question whether it would be better to stay in the Matrix. As Morpheus asks Neo the „Red Pill, Blue Pill“ question, it is arguably representative of wether a cave dweller should go up to find reality or stay in his perceived world. With Cypher even saying he regrets not taking the blue pill showing a case where reality was too much to bear. Morpheus gave them the choice of whether they want to know the truth or stay oblivious and stay in the matrix, going back to their old lives.1


Could the Matrix become reality?

Nick Bostrom’s Simulation Hypothesis

In Bostrom’s simulation hypothesis he handles the possibility of us living in a simulation. He describes a „posthuman“ civilization as one that has the computer power and the knowledge to simulate conscious, self-replicating beings with a high level of detail. Bostrom therefore displays three possibilities of what would happen to technically non "posthuman" civilizations:

  1. Human civilization is likely to go extinct before developing the technological capacity to create simulated realities, prior to reaching a "posthuman" level.
  2. The proportion of “posthuman” civilizations being interested in simulating their own evolutionary histories or variations of it is likely to be close to zero.
  3. We are most likely living in a computer simulation.

Therefore if (1) were to happen human civilizations almost certainly will not reach a „posthuman“ level at our level of technological development. If (2) were to become true, there would be a high level of convergence among the technologically advanced civilizations. And if (3) were true, then we would almost certainly be living in a simulation, and most of us are living in a simulation. According to Bostrom the three possibilities have a similar probability. 9

Do we live in a simulation?

A computer simulation is „a program that is run on a computer and that uses step-by-step methods to explore the approximate behavior of a mathematical model. Usually this is a model of a real-world system“10. So how likely are we to live in a simulation? According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk any sufficiently advanced civilization could create a simulation similar to our own existence. The strongest argument being that compared to 40 years ago technological advances have been so fast and we now have 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously. Therefore even if the speed at which technology advances gets cut down by a lot, in thousands of years a civilization would nevertheless be capable of creating simulations. With VirtualReality and augmented reality becoming indistinguishable from reality. Therefore the odds of that we are living in base reality are one in billions. Either a civilization will be able to create a simulation or cease to exist.11


References

Disclaimer: All quotes without reference are quotes from the first Matrix movie 1

  1. 1 The Wachowskis: "The Matrix" (1999), movie.
  2. 2 Alva Gehrmann: "Was ist eine Utopie? Traum, Wunsch, Hoffnung", (01.02.2004), in (https://www.fluter.de/was-ist-eine-utopie).
  3. 3Bobonich, Chris and Katherine Meadows, "Plato on utopia", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/plato-utopia/>.
  4. 4Thomas Morus, Stephen Duncombe: „open|Utopia Edited and with an Introduction by Stephen Duncombe“(2012),after "Utopia"(1516), Minor Compositions, ISBN 978–1–57027–245–5, in (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzLTHfKdS9G-R3h0eWJaSTRxWVk/view?resourcekey=0-MpsQs7g4EHWzcK9GRarO7A).
  5. 5Duden: "Dystopie", in DUDEN, in (https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Dystopie#bedeutungen).
  6. 6'Simon': "Utopie und Dystopie – Was ist das?-Was bedeutet Dystopie?"(21.05.2019), in Schultrainer, in (https://www.schultrainer.de/lernen-und-wissen/fremdsprachen/utopie-und-dystopie-was-ist-das/).
  7. 7 [Book Review of David Brin: "The Transparent Society", Addison-Wesley, 1998, ISBN 0-201-32802-X], in (http://www.techsoc.com/trnspsoc.htm).
  8. 8 [ ]: "PHILOSOPHIE IM FILM-KLASSIKER „MATRIX“: WAS IST WIRKLICHKEIT?“, 31.08.2019, in (https://www.sinndeslebens24.de/philosophie-im-film-klassiker-matrix-was-ist-wirklichkeit).
  9. 9 Nick Bostrom: Are you living in a computer simulation? In: Philosophical Quarterly. Vol. 53, No. 211, 2003, in (https://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html).
  10. 10 Winsberg, Eric, "Computer Simulations in Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/simulations-science/>.
  11. 11 Recode: „Is life a video game? | Elon Musk | Code Conference 2016“, 02.06.2016, in (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KK_kzrJPS8).
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