The program is not working correctly
The program is not functioning properly. We’ve talked a lot about The Matrix over the years, which makes sense as it’s a sci-fi film dealing with the relationship between technology and capitalism inspired by ancient Greek philosophy and 20th century French Theory and also Keanu. While we thought we’d said all that we needed to about the film, things are feeling a little bit different these days, so we wanted to do a quick revisit to some of the film’s themes.
Now, one of the Matrix’s key questions - would it be better to live in an ideal simulation or a dystopian reality - is now way more poignant with advancements in Technologies like AI, digital media and Zuckerberg’s life mission to make us all live in his weird beige VR World. While Neo’s virtual reality was basically office space except not funny, ours seems like it could be way better.
But even with all of these advances, when asked most people still say they’d opt for a mediocre meat life over a digital life of Wonder. Now, In fairness, they’re being asked this by grad students giving surveys and not dudes that look like Lawrence Fishburn with pills in their hands, but even if people say they want to remain unplugged, their actions paint a different picture. We’re spending more and more time in digital and virtual spaces and way less time raw dogging reality.
So do we really value authenticity over pleasure and comfort? Is VR slowly becoming better than reality? And can philosophy help us figure it all out? Let’s find out in this Wisecrack Edition on virtual reality - would we all choose the Matrix today?
But before we get into it, I want to talk about websites and, in particular, websites that want to hurt me. In particular, I don’t do a lot of weird stuff on the internet, but I do spend a lot of time looking for PDFs of obscure books and occasionally I end up on a website that is more faux than friends. I think I’m downloading a hard to find book when in fact I’m downloading a piece of malware, which is why I’m glad to now be protected by Guardio, a browser extension that’s your own personal digital security keeping you safe from phishing scams, malware, information leaks, dangerous downloads and annoying and harmful pop-up ads. It makes me feel way more relaxed and confident as I waste my life opening tabs then I’ll never return to.
Guardio blocks a hundred times more harmful websites than its competitor and 10 times more malicious downloads than any other security tool. To show you how well it works, I’m going to open a link from my spam folder in my email that I know is bad. There you go and as you see, Guardio knows it - it knew this was a stupid and bad link that I shouldn’t be clicking. You know it knew that I shouldn’t, so it wouldn’t let me. Thank you, Guardio.
Now, because you likely use way more than one device in a given day, they also have you covered across platform and if you’ve ever had to talk your mother out of getting scammed (which I have multiple times), you’ll love the fact that you can use your Guardio account to cover five family members at no additional cost. Because let’s be honest, mums they’re already dwindling inheritance to end up in the hands of scammers.
So join the more than one million users currently keeping their data safe and secure with Guardio, and if you use the link below you’ll get 20% off your monthly subscription. You can scan your browser for threats for free by visiting guard.io/wisecrack and you’ll get a seven day free trial to the premium features such as real-time threat remover. Again, just go to guard.io/wisecrack or click the link in the description and check out their affordable Premium plan for full protection. Seriously, do it - you’ll love it.
But for now, back to the show. When The Matrix premiered in 1999, its central question was is it better to live in the machine ruled real world or stay plugged into the Matrix, an illusory computer-generated reality. I know this stick doesn’t exist, I know that when I put it in my mouth, The Matrix is telling my brain that it is. the experience machine telling us something about the importance of reality or is it just that we’re scared of change
According to Vox writer Emily St James, the 1999 film, The Matrix, captured a growing sense that nothing was real and everything was manipulated on some level. This sense has only grown in the 24 years since the movie came out. In her essay, she argues that The Matrix is probably the most famous film out of a micro generation of movies she likes to call “End of History movies”. These films pointed to the idea that maybe the end of history in Liberal democracy were built upon some shaky foundations.
Philosopher Robert Nozick came up with a thought experiment called The Experience machine in his 1974 book Anarchy State and Utopia which offers another take on The Matrix debate. He describes it as a machine that would give you any experience you desired, stimulating your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel or making a friend.
Nozick’s experiment sounds matrixy, but has some crucial differences. First, the virtual reality in the film isn’t designed for pleasure, but to keep human brains distracted while they’re hooked up to tubes fueling their robot overlords. Second, it’s forced upon individuals without their consent. In the Experience machine, it is maintained by benevolent neuroscientists and entered into voluntarily.
In a survey, 84 percent of the participants refused the offer of the Experience machine. This means that for many people, there must be something, perhaps reality itself, that is valuable in addition to the fields of experiences.
As we head towards a more digital existence every day, it’s seemingly more of a death by a thousand cuts situation than a samurai sword to our analog existence. Are the survey results indicating that we don’t want to jump into the Experience machine telling us something about the importance of reality, or is it just that we’re scared of change?