Matrix: questioning reality

What is Matrix? That is the question that runs through the minds of the protagonist, Neo, and the viewer the first time he sees the film.. Today, the Wachowski Sisters trilogy is well known to the general public; Countless analyzes of the films have been carried out and, on occasion, they are used to complement some philosophy classes.

I am not going to talk about the entire trilogy, but about the first film, as it is perhaps the most significant and the one that raises the most questions. Result difficult to summarize in one article all the points worthy of analysis that appear in the filmso I will focus on making a global analysis of some of the sensations we have after watching the film, without dwelling too much on any issue.

How can we know that we are awake? That is real? Surely many of us who have seen the film have asked ourselves these types of questions and, most likely, we have also done so before. Many of us have had the feeling of not acting with total freedom, many of us have thought that our actions are predetermined (or highly influenced) or that we live in an eternal constant return of the most Nietzschean; even, that we are being manipulated and controlled and that we are inside a dream. Matrix It answers all these questions, it is a kind of contemporary myth, a solution to some of humanity’s dilemmas..

The technological advances that were born to make our lives easier have ended up enslaving us, These increasingly more and more intelligent machines have acquired their own will, reached and surpassed human intelligence itself. However, energies are depleted, resources are scarce and these machines need to be powered; In this way, after a war, machines have enslaved humans, turning them into food sources. Humans have been forced to live a dream, to sleep a lifetime connected to the machines that, now, feed on them.

A dystopian and dark future that, however, is becoming less and less crazy. Some humans have managed to resist and live in the only free city, Zion, from which they access Matrix with the intention of freeing more humans and undertaking a fight to escape slavery. A science fiction speech, but loaded with criticism, loaded with power and capable of making us rethink our own reality. How do I know if I’m not living a dream? Am I the owner of my decisions?

What is Matrix?

The first thing I will try to do is answer the question with which we opened the article, what is Matrix? Morpheus himself is the one who responds to this by saying: “it is the world that has been placed before your eyes to hide the truth from you”, that is, Matrix It is a lie, a deception to the senses; It is not real, but we perceive it as real. This, without a doubt, refers us to the Platonic myth of the cave.

Plato told us that the senses are deceptive, that they are not reliable. For those who do not remember, the myth of the cave presents us with humans who live tied hand and foot observing the bottom of a cave, behind them, a lit fire projects shadows on the bottom that they contemplate. For these humans, that background is reality, since it is the only thing they know, the only thing they have access to and what they perceive through their senses.

If one of these humans manages to escape, they will access the real world, knowledge; At first, the light will blind his eyes, he will feel pain and will have to adapt. Upon returning to the cave, his companions will probably believe that he is lying and want to kill him. These companions only know one reality and, as a consequence, they will protect it; It is their reality and they do not want it to be in danger.

Something that reminds us a lot of times past, think, for example, of Galileo or Copernicus. In Matrix, Neo has a suspicion, an idea floating around in his head; like Alice in WonderlandNeo will follow a rabbit that will lead him to fall down the rabbit hole But, in this case, you will not access a fantastic and unreal place, but you will reach the real world, the world of ideas that Plato proposed.

The interesting thing about Matrix It is also how it responds to “reality”, taking things as everyday and known as a deja vu, giving it meaning, adapting it to the proposed system. Matrix It is a kind of virtual reality in which we are all asleep and live as if it were real. Isn’t it true that when we put on virtual reality glasses, despite knowing that it is not real, our senses interpret it as if it were? That is precisely what happens in Matrix, sensations are perceived as real and, as a consequence, we stop questioning whether we are awake or not.

On the other hand, those questions that Neo asks about his reality remind us deeply of Descartes, who solved the problem by talking about an evil genius who manipulated and deceived us, just as machines do in Matrix. Descartes doubts everything and Matrix It makes us also doubt our senses.

All this refers us, in turn, to the philosopher Hilary Putnam, who proposed something similar to the evil genius, but renewed. How can we know that we are not brains in vats? How can we know that we are not living a shared dream? That is what Putnam proposed and that we also see in Matrix, a simulation shared by everyone, without being aware of the nature of what we are experiencing.

We’re free?

If we live trapped in a shared dream that we are not the owners of, it is worth asking if destiny exists and if our actions are really ours.. One of the most interesting characters in this regard is the Oracle, because he is the one who tells Neo that he has the ability to decide, that only he is the owner of his decisions and the curious thing is that, precisely, the Oracle is the character linked to the destination. The film is constantly based on decisions: red pill or blue pill, knowing the truth or not. This freedom of choice has been related to Sartre’s existentialism.

If destiny does not exist, if nothing is written, then we are the ones who, with our decisions, draw it.. But the film also presents us with the possibility of a destiny, of something already predetermined and, at the same time, arguments appear that contradict it. The Oracle will be one of the most important characters at this point, but also Morpheus, whose position does not deny any of the previous hypotheses: he believes in destiny, but also in the power to decide.

Matrix It also presents us with the problem of knowledge and happiness, we see that the real world they access when leaving the simulation has nothing good, they discover a terrifying truth and find themselves immersed in a world of shadows. In this point, It is worth asking if this knowledge is really good, if it leads us to happiness. Happiness has been seen as the supreme good, the object to be achieved throughout human life..

Cifra is the repentant character in the film, he wanted to access the truth, but upon learning it, he decides that he prefers to return to the unreal world, the fantasy world and ignore reality. Cifra decides that he prefers to live a life in ignorance rather than knowing the truth.

The number of philosophical questions that it proposes Matrix It is really interesting, it makes us, for a few moments, become judges, observers, and ask ourselves things about our decisions, happiness and the world around us. Definitely, Matrix It is a must-see in philosophy classrooms. A film that recovers some threads of philosophy and, as if it were a myth, aims to provide an answer, erasing prejudices and opening our minds, doubting everything.

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