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The Matrix Movie Now in a College Course

Posted by emmett on from the movie-ticket-equals-college-tuition dept.

koolade writes "It looks like The Matrix meant a lot to some people at the University of Washington in Seattle, since an introductory philosophy class is now being offered based on the movie. You can read about it here."

4 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like a neat piece of marketing by Goonie · · Score: 5
    Courses like this are designed to hook people in - for instance, the Mech. Eng. department at my university offers a "high performance vehicle" course in first year. The idea is to make it sound sexy in the handbook, and hope that at least some of the people find the meat of the course interesting.

    While The Matrix has some interesting philosophical ideas, there are a whole bunch of other novels and movies that examine the same ideas, and more effectively IMHO. I would suspect that a large number of them are on the reading list for the course.

    However, I've got to give the lecturer A for initiative - I hope he gets a good student or two out of it.

    --

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
    --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
  2. Wish I may, wish I might by jabber · · Score: 5

    It's really too bad that the Wachowski brothers can't make a fillum (sic) as good as The Matrix, but about Calculus. I could have really used that back in College.

    Imagine the same noir scenery. A lone function f(x) is just a mundane polynomial, but if you look in the table of contents, you know it's destined to perform derivatives, integrations (by parts when necessary), and even Fournier analysis.

    f(x): When I am ready, will I be able to perform Reimann summation?

    g(x): When you are ready, you won't have to...

    Wow...

    --

    -- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
  3. Philosophy Lecturer by jdub! · · Score: 5
    Last year, my Epistemology 1001 lecturer walked into the lecture theatre and (in his usual style) began his rant with no introduction, or waiting for everyone to shut up. It went kind of like this:

    "I went and saw a fillum (sic) this weekend. Some of you boys might be familiar with it. Actually, there's a "cute" boy in it as well, so you girls may have heard of it too. It's called the Matrix. My personal opinion on the matter is that it was utter crap. However! HOW EVER! My professional opinion on the matter is that in under two hours, this film summarises the entire Epistemology 1001 course. Luckily for you, there are also exploding helicopters and computer graphics. Luckily for me, my partner has invited me to a game of golf. Thank you all for coming, I'll see you next week."
    He then proceeded to leave the entire lecture theatre of students, mouths wide open, a minute and a half after coming in.

    Half of us went striaght over to the cinemas and saw The Matrix! :)
  4. the oracle scene is my favorite by SEAL · · Score: 5
    Disclaimer 1: don't read this post if you haven't seen The Matrix.

    Disclaimer 2: this stuff may seem obvious to people who have watched The Matrix more than once or twice. Sorry if I'm boring you :)

    The scene where Neo is taken to the Oracle is quite interesting. I think it could cover a large portion of philosophy course. After seeing the movie a couple times, this scene really interested me.

    Why? Well, as the movie progresses past that scene, it seems at first glance that the Oracle lied to Neo. Yeah everyone says "duh" he's the hero - of course he's The One. Morpheus later tells Neo "she told you exactly what you needed to hear", implying that the Oracle would lie if it lead Neo down the correct path.

    But, at least in my interpretation, everything the Oracle told Neo was the truth. Morpheus himself did not completely understand the Oracle - he was in disbelief when he saw Neo die.

    The Oracle however, knew this was one path that could happen. She told Neo that he would have to make a choice and that he or Morpheus WOULD die. She also told him that he's not The One. I think that he wasn't The One at that time. Notice how she also says "seems like you're waiting for something - maybe the next life - who knows?". Neo did die (flatlined), and then regained his life. At that point he had become The One. He didn't need to dodge bullets (as Morpheus had mentioned at the end of the agent training simulation).

    And of course there are some religious parallels but I won't go there on this forum.

    All in all, the Oracle scene was very well done, and linked in beautifully with the rest of the movie IMO.

    Best regards,

    SEAL