The Matrix - A Perspective
This not just a mere review of Matrix, the film. A sociological perspective is interspersed with the narrative. Here it goes....
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Before delving into the discussion, it would be better if we understand what "Matrix" actually is. According to Morpheus (one of the main protagonists of the movie) "Matrix is a computer generated program. It’s a world that has been pulled over the eyes to blind the people from the truth. It’s the truth that all the people (well most of them) are in a prison, a prison of mind, where they don’t know what they see, what they feel or what they think." In the sociological sense we can think Matrix as a cyberspace where people live without knowing that it’s a virtual simulated world controlled by someone else.
The main plot of the movie revolves around the self-discovery of one Thomas Anderson aka Neo aka The One. He leads a double life as a computer programmer at a reputable firm and a hacker. He doesn’t believe in fate because he doesn’t like the fact that he cannot control his life. He knows that there is something wrong with the world but he doesn’t exactly understand what. His routine life takes a turn on a fateful morning when he wakes up to see his computer talking to him. It tells him to follow the White Rabbit and when he does so, he meets Trinity. She tells him that people are watching him and she knows why he is there. Though Neo is initially confused and intimidated by all the strange things happening around him, he decides to meet Morpheus to know The Truth. Face to face with Morpheus, he embarks on a journey to know the truth the about himself, the world and the Matrix. Morpheus tells him that one can’t be explained about Matrix but it has to be known by oneself. He offers him a choice of Red Pill and the Blue Pill. If one selects Blue Pill they can forget everything about the Matrix and just wake up and live life as they have lived till now. Taking the Red Pill on the other hand, takes them into a new world where the reality of the world is revealed. Without any hesitation Neo accepts the Red Pill and thus the wheel of events is set into motion.
In the first of his training programs, Neo is taken inside a computer program along with Morpheus. There is an interesting dialogue between these two protagonists during this simulation. Neo asks Morpheus “Is this Real?” for which he explains “What is Real? If reality is simply what we feel, what we touch or what we see then reality is simply electrical signals interpreted by the brain.” He further explains that the world that people are living is just a dream world, a simulated environment. Some time during the end of 21st century mankind has united to celebrate the true birth of AI, where machines had a single consciousness. Man had been dependent on the machines from the beginning but fate it seems doesn’t exist without a touch of irony. Initially the machines were dependent on solar energy for their working. Later on they realized the potential of human energy and started “Fields” where human growth combined with fusion technique was developed as a perennial energy resource. So, humans were no longer born but they were grown.
In this process, the machines have gained supremacy over the human beings and so they have been relegated to a place in the underground. At present there is a small population of Real People living in a place called Zion hoping to gain back control from the machines. Morpheus, Trinity and other crew members of the ship where Neo is taken are a group of fighters from this world who are trying to sneak into Matrix and gain control. Morpheus believes that Neo is The One who can do this daunting task of fighting the Matrix and getting back the power to the real people. Of course for this to happen, Neo has to first believe in himself. He has to believe that he is The One and that he is capable of doing it. The entire theme of this movie centers on this realization of Neo.
Deviating slightly from the context of the movie, it would be interesting if we try to visualize a world as depicted or rather prophesized in the movie. Can Artificial Intelligence reach to such levels where the machines can actually overpower the human beings in every walk of life? Will a time come where the machines can actually think for themselves? This of course is an eternal debate and there is really no clear answer. Rather than fighting over the issue of whether machines can think or not it would be interesting if we can divert our attention to the issue of whether we would like it that way? To answer this we have to revert back to the main idea behind the invention of the machines. The concept of machines has been shaped by man to reduce his work load. Machines were expected to do the jobs in an efficient manner in less time than a human being. Probably the man of the industrial age hasn’t thought about the modern concepts of artificial intelligence and virtual world during that time. So, machines started literally as slaves to human beings and slowly developed into a state where they can be autonomous systems now. However, we have to be cautious regarding the independence of the machines from the man. Are they really independent? Any autonomous system, even today, relies on a basic code which has to be coded down by man. There is still not a system which can write that basic code for itself. Even in AI, the machines are fed with a basic set of rules. The
beauty of AI lies in the behavior of the system in new environments. Though the response to the basic rules is known, it’s difficult to predict the behavior of the system as whole when a new environment is encountered. The same is the case with Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and such. Hence, for time being we can be assured that man has still an upper hand to the machine.
Coming back to the point of discussion here, The Matrix, another important beings in the Matrix are the “Agents”. They are the gatekeepers of the system. They can move in and out of any software potentially hardwired to the Matrix. Agents are sentient programs and every person who is not unplugged is a potential agent. Since agents are the guards that hold keys to all the doors of the Matrix sooner or later they have to be dealt with. All the people who have so far tried to defeat them have failed because they are guarded by the rules of the Matrix. Only when a person breaks those rules can he fight the agents. Morpheus tells Neo that, he believes that Neo can succeed where others failed just because he can break those rules. At this point Neo asks whether he can dodge bullets when Morpheus tells him that when he is actually ready he doesn’t need to! Agent Smith is the main agent in the Matrix. He is the anti-hero and is always on the look out for keeping the enemies of the Matrix at bay.
Oracle is like the prophet of the Matrix. She knows enough about the machinations of the Matrix and makes prophecies which never went wrong. She tells Morpheus that he will find The One and Trinity that she will fall in love with him. The confrontation between Neo and Oracle is one of the remarkable sequences of the film. When Neo confesses to her that he honestly doesn’t know whether he is The One, she tells him that being The One is like being in love. One just knows it through and through, bones to bones. She also prophesizes that there will come a time when he has to make a choice between his life and Morpheus’s because only one of them is going to live.
For the sake of the movie, we have to discuss two other things, the squids and Cypher. Squids are the machines designed to do just one thing, Search and Destroy. To keep them from attacking the ship, the crew uses EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse). On the other hand, Cypher is the rat among the crew members. He is foolish enough to believe in the material pleasures of the Matrix and is ready to leave the reality and get back into the Matrix. Agent Smith capitalizes on his weakness and tries to destroy the crew members.
One of the fascinating things in this movie is the transportation technique used by Morpheus and his crew to enter into the Matrix. They use a kind of tele-transportation where by plugging them into a networked system they can enter the Matrix. We can visualize this as a kind of back door to the Matrix. We will again take liberty to stray out of the current topic here to discuss about transportation. Do we have any analogous techniques in today’s world for this technique? The answer is yes. Take for example the virtual reality (VR) embedded computer games. By strapping the player to a machine and connecting him to sensors the user is taken into a virtual world where everything seems so real. The sensors are used to give the feel to the user as if the things he touch and see are real. The flight simulators used in pilot training programs are also a good example for VR. So what happens in The Matrix is also a similar phenomenon. Since it’s a VR world, the crew members are transported into and out of that world.
Back to the movie, after meeting Oracle Neo is apprehensive about his real identity. Whether he is The One or not? He is almost convinced by Oracle that he is not because he himself is not sure. On their way back to the telephone, which is their means of transportation back to the ship, the agents attack the crew members. Some of the members are killed by Cypher by unplugging them from the ship. Morpheus is caught by the agents while Neo and Trinity get back to the ship. But Neo wants to get back to the Matrix because he thinks he is not The One and that Morpheus is unnecessarily sacrificing his life for him. So he finally convinces the remaining crew and he along with Trinity go back into the Matrix. After a typical fighting sequence, both Trinity and Morpheus are back into the ship whereas Neo is trapped in the Matrix.
Into the climax of the movie, Agent Smith shoots down Neo. He is about to die when he wakes up again to face Smith. At this juncture, he understands his true destiny. He realizes that his identity is The One. This is shown in the movie in an amazing way where bullets sprayed by the agents stop in their tracks in front of Neo. We can recall Morpheus’s words earlier that once he is ready he no longer needs to dodge the bullets. Neo is faster than the bullets now, he can break the rules. Bullets can no longer damage him. He is the ultimate, the hero, The One. In a sociological perspective, we can discuss about the question of Identity of Neo. We can draw parallel to his identity to the identity of any being in the cyberspace. What is an identification of a person communicating in cyberspace? We know that a single person can have multiple identities at the same time easily in cyberspace. In that case, how can we pin point a person based on his cyber-identity? I believe that as long as there is no restriction on the online identity that a person can use, for example like SSN, it’s very difficult to identify a cybernetic user.
For digging deeper into the aspects of Matrix and the identity of Neo, discussing about the next parts of the sequel (Reloaded and Revolutions) is mandatory. Without those two the story is incomplete and we are, to say in Morpheus words, “Like Alice… tumbling down the rabbit hole”.
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Before delving into the discussion, it would be better if we understand what "Matrix" actually is. According to Morpheus (one of the main protagonists of the movie) "Matrix is a computer generated program. It’s a world that has been pulled over the eyes to blind the people from the truth. It’s the truth that all the people (well most of them) are in a prison, a prison of mind, where they don’t know what they see, what they feel or what they think." In the sociological sense we can think Matrix as a cyberspace where people live without knowing that it’s a virtual simulated world controlled by someone else.
The main plot of the movie revolves around the self-discovery of one Thomas Anderson aka Neo aka The One. He leads a double life as a computer programmer at a reputable firm and a hacker. He doesn’t believe in fate because he doesn’t like the fact that he cannot control his life. He knows that there is something wrong with the world but he doesn’t exactly understand what. His routine life takes a turn on a fateful morning when he wakes up to see his computer talking to him. It tells him to follow the White Rabbit and when he does so, he meets Trinity. She tells him that people are watching him and she knows why he is there. Though Neo is initially confused and intimidated by all the strange things happening around him, he decides to meet Morpheus to know The Truth. Face to face with Morpheus, he embarks on a journey to know the truth the about himself, the world and the Matrix. Morpheus tells him that one can’t be explained about Matrix but it has to be known by oneself. He offers him a choice of Red Pill and the Blue Pill. If one selects Blue Pill they can forget everything about the Matrix and just wake up and live life as they have lived till now. Taking the Red Pill on the other hand, takes them into a new world where the reality of the world is revealed. Without any hesitation Neo accepts the Red Pill and thus the wheel of events is set into motion.
In the first of his training programs, Neo is taken inside a computer program along with Morpheus. There is an interesting dialogue between these two protagonists during this simulation. Neo asks Morpheus “Is this Real?” for which he explains “What is Real? If reality is simply what we feel, what we touch or what we see then reality is simply electrical signals interpreted by the brain.” He further explains that the world that people are living is just a dream world, a simulated environment. Some time during the end of 21st century mankind has united to celebrate the true birth of AI, where machines had a single consciousness. Man had been dependent on the machines from the beginning but fate it seems doesn’t exist without a touch of irony. Initially the machines were dependent on solar energy for their working. Later on they realized the potential of human energy and started “Fields” where human growth combined with fusion technique was developed as a perennial energy resource. So, humans were no longer born but they were grown.
In this process, the machines have gained supremacy over the human beings and so they have been relegated to a place in the underground. At present there is a small population of Real People living in a place called Zion hoping to gain back control from the machines. Morpheus, Trinity and other crew members of the ship where Neo is taken are a group of fighters from this world who are trying to sneak into Matrix and gain control. Morpheus believes that Neo is The One who can do this daunting task of fighting the Matrix and getting back the power to the real people. Of course for this to happen, Neo has to first believe in himself. He has to believe that he is The One and that he is capable of doing it. The entire theme of this movie centers on this realization of Neo.
Deviating slightly from the context of the movie, it would be interesting if we try to visualize a world as depicted or rather prophesized in the movie. Can Artificial Intelligence reach to such levels where the machines can actually overpower the human beings in every walk of life? Will a time come where the machines can actually think for themselves? This of course is an eternal debate and there is really no clear answer. Rather than fighting over the issue of whether machines can think or not it would be interesting if we can divert our attention to the issue of whether we would like it that way? To answer this we have to revert back to the main idea behind the invention of the machines. The concept of machines has been shaped by man to reduce his work load. Machines were expected to do the jobs in an efficient manner in less time than a human being. Probably the man of the industrial age hasn’t thought about the modern concepts of artificial intelligence and virtual world during that time. So, machines started literally as slaves to human beings and slowly developed into a state where they can be autonomous systems now. However, we have to be cautious regarding the independence of the machines from the man. Are they really independent? Any autonomous system, even today, relies on a basic code which has to be coded down by man. There is still not a system which can write that basic code for itself. Even in AI, the machines are fed with a basic set of rules. The
beauty of AI lies in the behavior of the system in new environments. Though the response to the basic rules is known, it’s difficult to predict the behavior of the system as whole when a new environment is encountered. The same is the case with Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and such. Hence, for time being we can be assured that man has still an upper hand to the machine.
Coming back to the point of discussion here, The Matrix, another important beings in the Matrix are the “Agents”. They are the gatekeepers of the system. They can move in and out of any software potentially hardwired to the Matrix. Agents are sentient programs and every person who is not unplugged is a potential agent. Since agents are the guards that hold keys to all the doors of the Matrix sooner or later they have to be dealt with. All the people who have so far tried to defeat them have failed because they are guarded by the rules of the Matrix. Only when a person breaks those rules can he fight the agents. Morpheus tells Neo that, he believes that Neo can succeed where others failed just because he can break those rules. At this point Neo asks whether he can dodge bullets when Morpheus tells him that when he is actually ready he doesn’t need to! Agent Smith is the main agent in the Matrix. He is the anti-hero and is always on the look out for keeping the enemies of the Matrix at bay.
Oracle is like the prophet of the Matrix. She knows enough about the machinations of the Matrix and makes prophecies which never went wrong. She tells Morpheus that he will find The One and Trinity that she will fall in love with him. The confrontation between Neo and Oracle is one of the remarkable sequences of the film. When Neo confesses to her that he honestly doesn’t know whether he is The One, she tells him that being The One is like being in love. One just knows it through and through, bones to bones. She also prophesizes that there will come a time when he has to make a choice between his life and Morpheus’s because only one of them is going to live.
For the sake of the movie, we have to discuss two other things, the squids and Cypher. Squids are the machines designed to do just one thing, Search and Destroy. To keep them from attacking the ship, the crew uses EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse). On the other hand, Cypher is the rat among the crew members. He is foolish enough to believe in the material pleasures of the Matrix and is ready to leave the reality and get back into the Matrix. Agent Smith capitalizes on his weakness and tries to destroy the crew members.
One of the fascinating things in this movie is the transportation technique used by Morpheus and his crew to enter into the Matrix. They use a kind of tele-transportation where by plugging them into a networked system they can enter the Matrix. We can visualize this as a kind of back door to the Matrix. We will again take liberty to stray out of the current topic here to discuss about transportation. Do we have any analogous techniques in today’s world for this technique? The answer is yes. Take for example the virtual reality (VR) embedded computer games. By strapping the player to a machine and connecting him to sensors the user is taken into a virtual world where everything seems so real. The sensors are used to give the feel to the user as if the things he touch and see are real. The flight simulators used in pilot training programs are also a good example for VR. So what happens in The Matrix is also a similar phenomenon. Since it’s a VR world, the crew members are transported into and out of that world.
Back to the movie, after meeting Oracle Neo is apprehensive about his real identity. Whether he is The One or not? He is almost convinced by Oracle that he is not because he himself is not sure. On their way back to the telephone, which is their means of transportation back to the ship, the agents attack the crew members. Some of the members are killed by Cypher by unplugging them from the ship. Morpheus is caught by the agents while Neo and Trinity get back to the ship. But Neo wants to get back to the Matrix because he thinks he is not The One and that Morpheus is unnecessarily sacrificing his life for him. So he finally convinces the remaining crew and he along with Trinity go back into the Matrix. After a typical fighting sequence, both Trinity and Morpheus are back into the ship whereas Neo is trapped in the Matrix.
Into the climax of the movie, Agent Smith shoots down Neo. He is about to die when he wakes up again to face Smith. At this juncture, he understands his true destiny. He realizes that his identity is The One. This is shown in the movie in an amazing way where bullets sprayed by the agents stop in their tracks in front of Neo. We can recall Morpheus’s words earlier that once he is ready he no longer needs to dodge the bullets. Neo is faster than the bullets now, he can break the rules. Bullets can no longer damage him. He is the ultimate, the hero, The One. In a sociological perspective, we can discuss about the question of Identity of Neo. We can draw parallel to his identity to the identity of any being in the cyberspace. What is an identification of a person communicating in cyberspace? We know that a single person can have multiple identities at the same time easily in cyberspace. In that case, how can we pin point a person based on his cyber-identity? I believe that as long as there is no restriction on the online identity that a person can use, for example like SSN, it’s very difficult to identify a cybernetic user.
For digging deeper into the aspects of Matrix and the identity of Neo, discussing about the next parts of the sequel (Reloaded and Revolutions) is mandatory. Without those two the story is incomplete and we are, to say in Morpheus words, “Like Alice… tumbling down the rabbit hole”.
