The idea that provoked me the most, and I'm sure many others, is the idea of whether or not the Matrix itself is even possible. On the surface, it's easy to say yes. We could be in the Matrix right now and have no idea. It's also easy to say no, because that is completely ridiculous and highly improbable. But, by being the devil's advocate, we can come back and say just because it's improbable doesn't mean it's impossible.
I began believing that yes, the Matrix is indeed possible. It could have just been the paranoia in me leading to this conclusion, but I did take this idea into consideration. We could never know, unless approached by Morpheus, whether or not we were in the Matrix. Isn't that the whole idea? To believe so thoroughly in it that it becomes your reality? That idea is what freaks me out. What if everything I believe to be real right now really isn't?
But that brings me to the side of the Matrix being impossible. It's difficult to comprehend the idea that everything you have learned and experienced is just a figment of your imagination. Or, rather, being fed into your imagination through a machine. We all put so much trust into our memories and experiences, fully believing in everything, that it would be almost impossible for us to turn around and realize that no, it wasn't real.
But let's say for a second that the Matrix is real (as in we are inside the Matrix right now). Does that mean that all of our experiences and memories aren't real? What makes a memory real? A memory or experience is created by the brain, and even though our memories would've been given to us, wouldn't they still be stored away in the same way and place that every other real memory would be put? If the Matrix were to be real, and we were all inside of it, I do not believe that it would undermine every experience we have lived through. Just because we haven't seen it or touched it with our actual body, our mind is still given the electric impulses it would've been given if it had seen or touched this thing. So doesn't that make it as real as anything else?
In the end, I do not believe that we are in the Matrix. It's extremely difficult to believe, so much so that I find it so improbable that it's most likely not true (see I'm not saying impossible). But, if we just so happened to be in the Matrix right now, I do not think that my life, or anyone else's, would be considered a lie. Sure, we didn't experience anything with our full consciousness, but our brain treated everything as if we did. And that is what controls our memories, thoughts, experiences, everything; the brain. So if the brain believes it, so do we.
Nikki's excellently written blog post discusses reasons why the Matrix, the actual entity, the is and isn't probable. She also gets down on a very metacognitive level and hypothesizes about what about our "reality" might actually change, if anything at all, if we were living in the Matrix. Lastly, she also discusses an important theme that was mentioned in the follow-up essays on The Matrix which we read: the difference between impossibility and improbability--the only two words which we can use to make claims about something with an existence that we question and that has potential to live inside and outside of our minds.
ReplyDeleteNikki,
I would first like to compliment you on how well you encapsulated what we did in class and secondly on how well you articulated some of the things we couldn't quite make the reach as a class to propose. Well done!
In response to the way in which you thought about the Matrix outside of our class discussion, especially when contemplating the possibility and probability of its existence, I completely agree. Since viewing the movie, I have thought about the implications which such an entity would have both on the world around me and myself. Your thoughts about how it would affect memory are a good summation of how it would impact our existence:--it wouldn't really because that's all we ever really would have known.
There was one sentence from your blog that really struck me and really got to the root of how vulnerable we really are and how the Matrix is designed to capitalize on those weaknesses. Here it is:
"We all put so much trust into our memories and experiences, fully believing in everything, that it would be almost impossible for us to turn around and realize that no, it wasn't real." Yes. That's exactly right! It's correct in the sense that it rationalizes the existence of such a thing we know as the Matrix, playing off of our paranoia after seeing the movie, but it is also a really good lesson for us. It's important for us to confide in our memory because I feel that it often keeps me sane in times of distress, but we also need to know when to step back into the present and open our mind to what's around us (be careful!) so as not to become so ingrained in our patterns--what the Matrix thrives off of.
-Aaron
P.S. This blog was very Nikki--I could really sense your voice coming through. It was quite refreshing.