Ok here goes Matrix Fans

Ok here's one for you, each person tell me or the message board for that matter LOL, what they think The Matrix is, what the red pill means and what the Blue Pill means. I'm pretty certain I know what it really is, just wanted to see what others thought. Do you think The Matrix relates to real life, yes or no? Tell the second lifers your thoughts.

The Matrix is a movie which provokes the viewer into trying to think deep and hard about hidden messages and forces people to make crazy out of whack connections between things that the Wachowski brothers may or may not have put in there on purpose.

What else would it be?

The Matrix is a set of numbers arranged in a two dimensional grid with each side being of size 1 or greater. Used in math and especially graphics (where the matrix is usually a 4 * 4 set of numbers representing a transformation of a virtual 3d object etc.).

I like tacos.

I, as well, like tacos..

The Matrix has you, end of story..

and Mr. Zeeman.. i love the office space icon. x=)

Scuba.

The Matrix is a six-letter word. Any more, and I would have to kill you.

oo A chance to tell my tale..

Upon further disscussion after the movie and having seen the second one. One of my friends, who is a pilosipher Mind you, and I have deicded that within the films "The Matrix" holds the meaning of life.

What is this amazing discovery you say? Well, the meaning of life is not the movie itself, but something the movie is solely based on.

Choice.

Everything we do is based off of some choice that was made along the way. It can be the smallest desicion in the world or it can be the largest. Every choice we make has some sort of effect on the world around us. It is my belief that we are here to make one choice, on big choice that will affect the world in some profound way. That my friends is the meaning of life, the reason for living.


Ok well now that I scared everyone....
errrr...
ummm....
Look over there a hippo!
*Runs Away*

*giggle* hehehehe *snicker* hehehehe

And here I thought the meaning of life was procreation (contunuance of the species and whatnot). hmmm... that gives me some more to think about though...

I highly doubt the sub texts the Matrix provokes were intentional. If anything, the sequels prove it as it lays a heavy hand on the concept and uses it almost as a gimmick.
(The Animatrix being quite the opposite and building upon the themes of the Matrix)

Now "What is the Matrix"? Like Skippy said, the Matrix is choice.

...or the lack there of.
It is my interpetation that Neo is not alive at all, and is a construct of the machines, a Bio-Computer if you will. Just aswell, Zion might not exist. It is just another layer of control to the Matrix. If so, then Neo's percieved "choices" are faceless.
The next question would be "What is consciousness, and is it relevant?".

If everything can be desovled into numbers, what is the magic of life? Or the value of understanding that you are alive? What did your "choice" really mean? Or was it really a choice?
If we can deconstruct machines, and machines can deconstruct us, (being able to define each other and predict the outcomes of our thoughts), what is the purpose of our soul?

Alternatively, the Matrix can be taken from a religous view, as Neo is awakened from the corruption of the "Material world", the Matrix. He fights with his beliefs and liberates his bretheren by opening their eyes to the works of the spirtual (real) world.

Chaos Theory anyone? Makes me think of that Ray Bradbury time machine butterfly crushing story. I know someone will remember the name

No you are correct Dio the meaning of life is to procreate, but as humans with bigger brains than we can handle some people like to think we aren't animals and that there is a more important meaning of life. I on the other hand am perfectly happy to just procreate

JV Resident Hippo that just wants to procreate

Wow that "Thunder" story was awesome. Thanks Wednesday!

Btw, Jonathan, you may inisist that your existance has a higher reasoning all you want. I chose to accept that procreating is a noble goal.

Everything else is a delusion in order to manifest the means of doing so.

Well now i'm confused, perhaps you need to reread what I wrote?? I said that as humans we THINK that there is a higher meaning, but that I believe it is just procreation.

So you say your disagreeing with me but you are saying the same thing as me?

i'm confused HELP!!!

JV confused Hippo

Aaarg! Logic, we meet again!

Sorry bout that, I should be a little more careful next time

Wednesday - I LOVE RAY BRADBURY, Ferenheit 451 anyone?

In reference to the procreation comment? Is it not ones choice to Procreate?

Of course its your choice Skippy but that does not change the fact that it is the meaning of life

JV

When asked in an interview how much symbolism was intended and how much wasn't, the Wachowskis answered "All the symbolism you see is intentional."

When asked if there is any symbolism that hasn't been found yet, the answer was "More than you will ever know."

So, actually, all sub texts were intentional.

I'm not sure if the original question was serious or not, but I really liked the Matrix movies (at least the first one) so here goes:

I took the first movie pretty much at face value. The world in which Neo started as a cubicle dwelling office worker was nothing more than a computer simulation. So the first meeting he had with Morpheus, was, like everything else, just part of the simulation. As with any computer simulation there are rules (just like there are rules about what can and can't happen in SL). But also, with any (or lets just say the vast majority of) computer program there are bugs, back-doors, viruses, and other things which can cause those rules to be broken in some way. So, with the world one big simulation, and each of the people in it "agents", assuming the programmer allowed the agents to generate themselves more or less randomly (a typical approach in simulations) it is conceivable that one or more of the agents would develop properties (or abilities) that the original programmer never conceived of. In fact, some computer programs have been written to do this intentionally, for example, they have written computer programs to simulate human eyesight and object recognition by a trial and error process and ended up with code that nobody could figure out (but it worked very well!)

I agree the blue pill / red pill scene was about choice. If you were generating programs to perform a function and it performed pretty well, but had a fatal flaw, you wouldn't want to waste a lot of time trying to perfect it. If Neo had no DESIRE to see the world as it really was, that would have certainly been a fatal flaw, so there would have been no point in going any further. As could be seen when they went to see The Oracle for the first time, there were lots of candidates for "The One". The blue pill / red pill choice was just the easiest way to represent that most important selection criteria: desire (choice).

I didn't like the second movie as much. I can tell when my wallet is being milked for another $8. The only important new information in that movie came in the last 5 minutes or so. I expected much more. I won't mention what I thought was significant about it since many people may not have seen it yet.

Finally, in case you think pondering such things as life being a simulation run on a computer. There is a lot of real work going on that bear striking resemblance to this notion. One is in the area of Mathematics, and was discussed in a recent book by the author of the program called Mathematica (although I can't remember his name or the name of his book at the moment). The book is about 8 inches thick, and I've heard it's rather boring, so I passed up a chance to buy a copy. Do a Google search if your are interested... find the Mathematica web site for starters.

Another "real world" thing going on that might remind you of "The Matrix" is called Brane Theory (no, I didn't misspell that). It's more physics than math, and is an attempt to come up with something that will fix the gaps between quantum mechanics and the Theory of Relativity. I'll just pass on a couple of links for anyone interested:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/bigbang_alternative_010413-1.html

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v411/n6841/full/411986a0_r.html

Have fun!

yeah Mac, i agree the first movie was really it. the second was mostly filler. good action tho

about this whole, "what is real?" question, i think the interesting thing about the relationship between mathematics and physics, and the question of "what is?", is the idea that the universe (everything that is, was and ever will be, to paraphrase Carl Sagan) exists logically. Everything that is real must be observable, and follow some discernable 'rule'. This is to say that, 'everything must make sense'.

When we try to make sense of things (er, study physics), we find that there are many fundamental numbers or constants, that seem to guide the way that the universe works. If these numbers were to be changed, even slightly, it could result in a drasticly different universe, one that may never have given rise to life forms capable of asking "Do I exist?".

Einstein said something like: 'the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible'. This thought sums it up for me. Its like saying: we exist because this is the only universe, or set of physical laws, that we(whatever we are) could have existed in.

In a sense, 'the universe is, therefore i think, therefore i am'. So in reference to the matrix: this may be a simulation, but this is the only simulation that we could live in. In this regard, we have no choice.

Just one way to see it.

Clap clap clap, Skippy is 100% correct. The world to me however is just a closed book that noone is interesting in reading all the way through. Some get about a quarter of the way through it, some get half, some 3/4's. But when it comes right down to it the only thing people need is enough perception to make a choice to finish reading the book. The fact that the book closes somewhere along the way shows that some force has control over them and they feel as if they are powerless against that force.

That force is what's called mysticsm, or a nice public smokescreen, that noone can smell, see or hear. An invisible barrier that everyone puts up, to keep out the ones who are ready to finish the book. Sounds dumb, of course it does, but that's because noone can broden their view of it as a whole. What the Matrix movies did or do is they make people realize, without people even realizing it is you have a choice to be part of the ongoing problem or join in on the solution.

I would mself be part of the solution and never just accpet things at face value. Anyone who says differently is not fully in charge of their lives. Agendas are what keep us from achieving anything we as Americans and world citizens from doing. Would unity be enough to overpower those agendas? Yes it would, but that would take a whole lotta convincing.

YEY A Suppoter...

*thinks*
Or, he lost his mind... I'll go with the first one!

To bump the link and to thank WG for the reference (you rock man)

--Bino