This was a fun assignment to do because The Matrix just happens to be one of my favorite movies! The premise behind the Matrix is pretty ridiculous but I love it anyway. The computer related part of The Matrix isn’t ridiculous but more why the Matrix was created. So the movie takes place sometime in the future where a war has broken out and humans have become enslaved to machines. The machines have rounded up all but a few humans and have put them in incubator type cocoons they have created. The Cocoons are stacked in large towers where their combined heat and electromechanical energy is used to power the machines and their cities, they are basically used like batteries. The machines created an artificial world that all of these bodies are connected into, it makes them feel like they are still living in the world before the war and that everything is ok. Thomas Anderson, also known as Neo is a computer hacker that is contacted by another hacker named Morpheus in The Matrix who wants to show Neo the real world. The only world that Neo knows is the fabricated computer The Matrix, the real world is the one where humans are enslaved and used as batteries. Morpheus shows Neo that because the Matrix isn’t real it can be manipulated. Neo is able to move faster, be stronger and bend and reshape matter within the computer world.
Ok so that is the basic plot of the Matrix, the dumb party is why the machines would ever create the Matrix in the first place, they could have just sedated the humans, plus humans aren't good batteries. But as far as all of the computer stuff and the Matrix itself it is really cool. So the Matrix is this big interactive virtual world. The characters in the movie like Neo and Morpheus can plug into the Matrix or unplug, so they can come and go as they please. There are programs built to hunt down people like this and kill them. If you die in the Matrix, you die in real life, your mind believes you are dead so it shuts down. The question I was asked to answer is if the way computers are used in the Matrix are realistic or ridiculous. Of course technology like this does not exist, but I wouldn’t call it ridiculous. Technology is always evolving and it could be that one day virtual reality will be so good that we could be sedated and plugged into a completely fabricated world. We would be able to feel and think and experience things in that world like it was real. I don’t know if we'll ever get to this point but it seems more viable now than it did ten years ago, that’s for sure. In the Matrix, the world was all connected into one big network, that concept is definitely true, it is just like the internet. We are so connected now it’s almost scary, luckily there are a lot of security protocols that keep us safe.
In the Matrix the characters were able to plug into the matrix and have information uploaded to them, this way they could learn how to fly a military helicopter in just seconds, or learn a martial arts style just by the information by uploaded to their brain. This is a very cool concept for the movie but definitely not something that is based in reality.
We were also asked to address any social or cultural issues raised by the film. That is a difficult question to answer. One thing I would say is that the movie is a bit violent, it features a lot of gunfights and killing of law enforcement. The only thing is that in the movie, the people were just computer programs, but it may have had a negative effect on some younger people that saw that as glamorizing violence and because it was in a virtual world, perhaps it desensitized younger people to it. I feel like this would be a very small group though. The other thing that maybe I might say is if technology does advance enough, lines between virtual worlds and reality may blur. There is already issues in the world with people being sucked into games and virtual environments to the point where it consumes their lives.
Interesting point on how people struggle with the virtual world and reality, I agree that already people draw a fine line between the two. Social media is notorious for proving that people can live and view their lives one way when in fact it isn't that way at all. Great point about video games too, people think because they can play military or combat games that in real life they could do the same thing.
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