Comparing The Experience Of The Machine And The Matrix

People seem to think that everything that happens to them everyday is real. The question is, though, “What is real?”. Is everything you see everyday really real or is it fake? We might see fantasies that other people or machines have created for us. Maybe we are the ones that are not enlightened yet. Numerous essays and films have been produced on this subject. One essay is “The Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato in 360 B.C. Also, the movie The Matrix was filmed in 1999. Even though many differences can be drawn between “The Allegory of the Cave” and The Matrix, there are many similarities as well.

The Matrix, written and directed by Lary and Andy Wachowski, is a 1999 science-fiction action film that has been regarded as one of the most igneous and highly imaginative films of all time. It depicts the complex story of a dystopian future in which the reality perceived by most human beings is actually a simulated one created by AI machines who use the suppressed humans as energy sources. Though the main characters of the story have freed themselves from the matrix, one character named Cypher (a.k.a. Mr. Reagan) regrets learning the truth and wants to return back to the dream world. Cypher is an example of antagonist Agent Smith's belief that "as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering" as he believes

In 1999, Larry and Andy Wachowski directed The Matrix, a movie featuring the future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality or cyberspace called "the Matrix”. This fake reality was created by sentient machines to pacify and subdue the human population. To some, this movie represents just another brilliant Hollywood sci-fi action film, but for others, it challenges the understanding of perspective, reality and appearance ("The matrix 101," 2003). The Matrix heavily relies on the concepts of Irish Philosopher George Berkeley who believed reality, or reality as humans perceive it, is fundamentally mental and therefore immaterial which is known as Idealism.

Sounds interesting..will look into it. Regarding reality, we already live it and most often than not it's fundaments are to be found in the works of science fiction. How many books already can be understood and seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy, starting from Jules Verne onwards.. We do not long for what cannot be, but are in every sense (and now I will use a quote from the movie) "sucking the marrow out of life". Life without imagination is like a blank sheet of paper. Only our mind can bring life to it using the infinite spectrum of colours contained deep within our souls.

Having read the synopsis from The Matrix, the excerpt from Plato, The Republic, Book VII, 514A1-518D8 “The Allegory Of The Cave”, and the excerpt from Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641 “Meditation I Of The Things Of Which We May Doubt”, I am able to conclude that there are similarities as well as differences among these readings. Each question the state of reality in which we live. Is our reality a true state of reality or is it a state of mind we have allowed ourselves to exist in?

What is reality? What is known? These questions are constantly being reviewed keeping people anxiously waiting for the real answer. The Matrix is a popular movie dealing with many philosophical ideas from, Gods, Beauty, Reality, and existence. The Matrix deals with an intelligent “computer hacker,” Neo, who questions many things such as reality as he lives two different lives day vs. night. With that being said, Neo starts to ponder how does he know what is real, true, or all knowing. As humans we face this challenge everyday, how do we actually “know?” We know because of our senses, evidence, observations, assumption, and Epistemology.

In the movie, truth is revealed to be reality, the world as it actually exists, or, life outside of the control of the Matrix. While Kierkegaard presents the belief that the only truth that matters is subjective, the Matrix claims that only objective truth matters (Kierkegaard). Reality is an objective subject, and the Matrix is subjective due to its existence as merely a computer system in a person’s brain. Therefore, according to the movie, truth is our objective reality. Morpheus tells Neo that reality is outside of the Matrix and claims that all those still living in the matrix are enslaved by the machines (The

But then it asks the question: what is reality?” (What the Bleep Do We Know!?). The film is full of these parallels; reality through our eyes and reality through our brain to science and religion because in

What we think is reality will ultimately become our reality if we believe certain things about an individual; he/she begins acting in exactly that way.

What is real and what is really real? Philosophy is interesting and can be really confusing at times. The film I will be analyzing with philosophical views does a good job on giving examples of the nature of reality and the Methodological doubt. I will show by giving examples of Descartes rule that everything is to be doubted and Plato’s allegory of the cave.

Plato’s allegory of the cave and the Matrix both show us how to distinguish between what is real, not real and how to perceive our own reality. In the story the Matrix a machine is controlling people minds and making humans see what it want them to see. The allegory of the cave is a metaphor for senses for which the prisoners in the cage are blind by true reality of the outside world. The prisoners inside the cave can only see shadows of what they believe are real a wall and people passing by. While in the cave the prisoner is able to accept reality of the cave and the real world outside of the

The Matrix Philosophy can be said to “go beyond our ordinary, unreflective awareness of things…attempting to arrive at a critical standpoint which will enable us to discard what is confused, and to supply a solid rational justification for what is retained” (Cottingham, 2). Through the study of philosophy, we are able to question our beliefs and what seems to be real and what really is real. Philosophical ideas can be seen in many aspects of our lives, even in movies. In the movie, The Matrix, philosophical ideas and themes can be seen. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world that was built to keep its people under control and change a human being.

The second philosopher that analyses the problem of what is reality and what is not in the Introduction to Philosophy textbook is Christopher Grau. Grau, in his essay, expands on Descartes idea of the “evil demon” by basing it off of The Matrix with his theory, The Brain in a Vat Theory. The theory is just like it sounds. Just like in Total Recall, an extremely intelligent device has the ability to give humans and gives them a false reality of a life. What Grau is purposing is that we, as people, could quite possibly be hooked up to a super computer and given false memories and experiences as well.

What is reality? Did the past you remember actually happen? Can you exist in two realities at once? Are you who you think you are? Through his work, science fiction author Philip K. Dick implies that we will all be asking such questions soon. For Dick, reality is just one of his layers. All of his novels combined together accurately predicted the world we are in now.

Questioning reality is something that has been seen many a time from philosophy but recently films such as "Inception" and "The Matrix" introducing false or alternate realities prompting the audience to question reality. In fact, in 2011 a film named Source Code has intrigued philosophical questioning due to its premise. "Source Code" is a film in which a U.S. pilot, named Captain Stevens, is tasked to enter the memories of another person named Sean Fentress via the source code program in order to discover a bomb and learn who set it in order to prevent this individual from killing more civilians. Throughout the film, Stevens discovers the memories he is entering are those of a victim of the bomb he is currently trying to find and that he himself is dead, with his brain frozen so it can enter the source code program when necessary. Now why this film is so fascinating is that near the end of the films Stevens' actions within the victim's memories seem to change the real