The Matrix: Accounting for Existence

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The 1999 movie, The Matrix, brings the concept of civilization being a simulated universe onto the screen, compelling audiences to question their very reality. It makes one wonder whether the movie is just a fascinating science fiction or a harrowed look into our own future. 

The movie draws its ideas from Plato’s Cave Allegory, where prisoners are born and brought up in a cave, with the projection of shadows from objects carried by passing travelers forming their only perception of the real world. This is comparable to how humans are grown and harvested in the movie, submerged in a womb-like structure for the entirety of their lives, the simulation of the Matrix forming their only concept of reality. Just like the prisoner who frees himself from his chains and ventures outside the cave, Neo escapes from the Matrix by choosing the red pill. In doing so, his perception of reality becomes distorted, similar to the situation of the escaped prisoner.

How do we account for our existence? With the advancements in recent technology, it is not far-fetched to consider the concept of a stimulated universe. As the concept of time can also be manipulated within such a stimulation, who is to say that we are not living inside one right now? However, this movie offers me with fascination, not because of its dystopic themes, but because of the different scientific possibilities that are prevalent throughout the film. It brings into consideration the philosophical aspects of consciousness and reality while dealing with futuristic technologies, putting forward a hypothesis to define our existence. The projected ideas presented here sparked the embers of my curiosity into a burning flame of need to explore these areas of thought.

 Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly one of humanity’s greatest technological accomplishments. With prospects of quantum computers on the near horizon, the possibilities of creating artificial consciousness and incorporating sentience into machines is becoming more and more consolidated. Quantum computers will be the next phase in our development as the human race, as they are expected to solve mathematical paradoxes, uncover the mysteries of the universe and help unlock its secrets through the exploitation of the peculiar behavior of particles on the atomic level. Quantum computers also hold the key to producing perfectly stimulated universes; as nature is quantum, therefore if we want to stimulate it, we need computers functioning on quantum concepts.

This movie transcends from the screen into the scientific community and impacted my yearning to explore and form an understanding of the world of artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics, while actively causing me to venture onto a philosophical journey of questioning one’s existence and position in the universe. Although I can acknowledge the possibility of the answers to my questions not being produced during my lifetime, I can still play my role by being a part of the journey by keeping my mind rife with developments in these issues and keeping it open towards new concepts which can bombard my comprehension of the universe.

one of my favorite scenes from the trilogy 


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