Posted for China Hartman
Is the world what we really think it is? Do you ever wonder if the life you are living is a false life? Maybe, the real world is on the other side of preserved reality. Plato thinks about this concept of reality and expresses them in allegory of the cave. I closely relate this allegory of the cave to the movie, The Matrix.
In the allegory of the cave there are prisoners chained by their feet and by their necks to one side of the wall. These people have been chained up all their lives. They don’t know what's on the other side of that wall. All they see are the shadows cast out by the flame the burns behind them. The shadows that are cast out in front of them are the only shapes they see. They see this as their reality. The prisoners do not know any different. Now, one of the prisoners is brought out into the light and what he sees is astonishing to him. He is seeing the light for the first time. This is the true reality and he realizes his perceived reality has been nothing but a lie.
In the movie, The Matrix, the main character, Neo lives in a world he thinks his reality. He lives a normal life. He goes to work every day. He eats and sleeps just as everyone else around him does. Noe does and has always wondered if something else was out there. He thinks to himself on the subject. One day he gets a phone call from someone named Morphis that helps make the questions he ponders more real. Morpheus describes Neo as Alice in wonderland, Because Neo doesn't know what is real. He accepts what he sees because he isn't ready to wake up.
This is Neos perceived reality but Neo is ready to wake up, he is ready to know what this so-called Matrix is. A quote form Morpheus: "What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad." Noes splinter is driving him mad.
This is like when the prisoner in the cave goes out into the light. Neo is ready to step into his light. Morpheus describes the Matrix, he says the Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. (IT IS A PRISON FOR YOUR MIND) Now you can't really be told what the Matrix is you have to experience it for yourself. Like the prisoners they didn’t want to know or be told about the true reality they would have to experience for themselves just like the freed prisoner did.
Morpheus gives Neo an option of either taking the blue pill or the red pill
1: Taking the blue pill will allow him to keep viewing the reality as he perceives it. He will wake up in his bed thinking whatever he wants to. This is similar to the prisoners in the cave.
2: If neo takes the red pill he will view what Morpheus calls the real world. This is similar to the prisoner that is freed and witness the other side of the wall.
Neo decides to take the Red pill this allows him to experience the Matrix himself.
Neo takes the red pill, soon after he starts to experience his new birth. This is him waking up in the real world. The world apart from the one he perceives as real. Quote from movie, Morpheus: "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you seemed so sure it was real? But if were unable to wake up from that dream, how would you tell the difference between the dream world & the real world?
Neo: This can't be.
Morpheus: Be what? Be real?"
The anthology of the cave realties to the scene where Morpheus is talking to Neo about the red and blue pill Because both stories talk about two realities one which is perceived and one that is considered real.
Neos rebirth is spectacular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCcX0KQ9V0 As he rises from some sort of life support system, the system that kept him in the false reality he looks out into this new world with AHHH. Neo sees people in their own pods. These pods are what's keeps everyone else in the perceived reality from waking up. This is just like the prisoners in the cave. The chains around their feet and necks keep them from seeing the true reality.
After Taking this red pill and after Neos new birth Morpheus takes Neo into a computer program where Morpheus explains some of human history, the Artificial Intelligence, what is real and many other things. Neo ask Morpheus if what he is seeing and feeling in the program is real. Morpheus says what is real? If it is what you can see, feel, and taste then what is real are electrical signals determined by the brain. He explains to Neo that what he knew as real is no longer. This real world is one he will have to get used to. This is similar to the prisoner that stepped into the light. His eyes had to adjust to the real. The world that was pulled over their eyes as Morphis describes.
We see in both the movie and the anthology that the concept of reality is a one that sparks interest on many levels. Do you think that the life you live is one that is real or one that is perceived?
Neo and the prisoner escaped their false lives and entered a new one. It opened their eyes to what was reality. They both paid for this new information. Neo had to fight for this new world. The prisoner was beaten by his chain mates. You could ask, was this new information worth the new lives the chose? Maybe, a life of hidden meaning was the way for them to truly be happy or maybe a life of truth was.
You made good use of supportive multimedia with the pictures you used, especially in actually showing a rendition of the cave. The only thing left out is really what you think of the cave allegory itself, and the analysis of the philosophy behind it (though I assume you were planning to do all that in the second installment anyway). Other than that, I'd just recommend adding sources and other interesting links in the second post (like a video that describes the cave allegory, or a synopsis of the Matrix). Just little interesting tidbits here and there for the reader to look through if they want.
ReplyDeleteMorpheus says "what is real are electrical signals determined by the brain," but of course some brains are diseased, deluded, or in other ways out of touch with reality. So, reality must go deeper than "the brain."
ReplyDeleteOne question about the Matrix that always puzzles me: how does Morpheus know what's real? And about Plato's cave: how does the escaped prisoner know the world outside the cave is not also a cave, or a projection, or some other form of appearance?
But, the parallel you draw between cave and matrix as appearances that obscure reality is accurate, IF we can satisfy ourselves that we'll ever discover a reality beyond appearances. What would Kant say?
I really enjoyed reading your post about "The Matrix" and I thought you really provided a lot of good and solid background information. I personally have never watched it, but I was able to understand the plot and follow where you were throughout your post with all of your details. I also really enjoyed seeing all of the pictures in your post.
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