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Philosophy, Reality and The Matrix
securitas writes "The NYT discusses The Matrix as a reflection of American society, the 'war on terror', political allegory and the impact of The Matrix on contemporary philosophy. NPR provides streaming audio conversations with Matrix thinkers, including Jake Horsley, author of 'Matrix Warrior: Being the One'; Prof. Frances Flannery Dailey on violence in the Matrix; and Prof. Greg Garrett, co-author of 'The Gospels Reloaded' and why he doesn't like the kind of hero that Neo has become. Finally, the CSM follows up its The Gospel According to Neo with an online chat transcript with Josh Burek, the author of the essay."
As if that's not enough Matrix Philosophy, Here's more
and Still more. And just a warning, clicking on any of those links might spoil the movie for you.
Here is the link :)
I am a mini oracle & here is my prediction for the future: At some point I bet NYtimes will start testing the referrer and block sites other than google. Then we will counter by copy pasting the link.
Siggy Say, Siggy Do
Remind me again... we evolved from a clam?
Read Corporate Mofo's take and be corrected.
Next.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Tha article is marginally about Matrix Reloaded. Frank Rich's main focus is on media control of American culture and information. He compares the hype of the film to the media coverage of the war. The consolidation of control of our information sources, and the lack of competition between media moguls is his primary concern. The current situation is bad enough, but in a few weeks the FCC will probably remove even more restrictions allowing even greater consolidation.
The most interesting thing about the article (IMHO) was Barry Diller's comment that most execs don't care about the films their studios make. They are distanced from the creative side of the film and only care about the profits and marketing possibilities. I hadn't considered that much, but it's interesting to note how far we've come from the days when David O. Selznick and Alfred Hitchcock battled daily over "Rebecca".
The Matrix Reloaded took in $135 million in four days, and 230 million people voted for the finals of American Idol. That is the state of American culture today....draw your own conclusions.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
The multitude of screens displaying Neo in the Architect's room could be taken as an explanation of future prediction in the movie: the computers can model human reactions well enough to do a Monte Carlo simulation and (based on the number of the simulated people who react in each way) estimate probabilities of certain events happening. Some of those events turn out to be so likely that they can even be called "prophecies".
This only explains the Oracle's future prediction and not Neo's, but "How can Neo predict the future?" is going to have to get in line behind "How can Neo affect machines in what we think is real life" on my list of stuff I want explanations for.
The Matrix was never intended to be original. Add to your reading list Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard. That postmodernist philosophy heavily influenced the Wachowskis.
What the Matrix did for philosophy is not so much get people into it as to demonstrate it. The truth is, most people do not have the time to devote to a thorough understanding of the subject, and if they get into it, it will be temporary and on a "ohhh are we really dreaming...!" level. But the Matrix series has taken philosophy and demonstrated some of its classic quandraries in a compelling, believable (to a modern audience of the Information Age) scenario. Whether it gets people into philosophy or not, it should still be lauded for its creative approach to demonstrating philosophical ideas.
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It appears that thread was pulled from that site by the moderators. For a discussion (from apparently a Filipino view), see here.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.