The Matrix of Today: Influences and References Explained

what is real how do you define real the matrix meditates on the question what's real and how can we know when the tools we use to perceive reality our senses and our brains can be deceived if you're talking about what you can feel what you can smell you can taste and see then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain this question has fascinated philosophers for the centuries and if we dig into the 1999 film's many influences and references it becomes clear that the computer simulation enslaving human minds is really a social critique of an increasingly spectacle driven unreal capitalist culture you don't realize it but you are being programmed the first movie in the Wachowski trilogy told viewers to wake up and question where civilization was heading and this leads us to ask if the matrix posited that society at the turn of the millennium was losing touch with reality 20 years later are we straight up living in the matrix what's happened is that cyberspace has colonized the real world they've drilled a hole in the back of our head and now they've injected the virus and now we walk around searching for feedback using social media and they want this video is brought to you by Nord VPN the best Virtual Private Network out there right now our viewers get a very special deal click the link in the description below Nord VPN comm slashed the take to get 75% off a three year plan and enter the code that take to get an extra month of Nord VPN for free The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world the possibility that we could be living in an illusion or simulation which obscures our true reality has appeared through the ages in a diverse array of thought experiments and religious writings the Hindu religion has the idea that the phenomenal world is an illusion called Maya separate from the eternal reality which is God Buddhism has a similar concept of elusive reality samsara and it sees the goal of enlightenment as freeing ourselves from the suffering of attachment to this plane of life the Taoist story Jiang Zi dreamed he was a butterfly features a dreamer who doesn't know he's himself and not a butterfly have you ever had a dream neo that she was so sure was real Gnosticism has the idea of a Demiurge a kind of demigod who created the flawed system in which we find ourselves while a higher truth exists beyond that structure the Gnostics also emphasized knowledge as the key to spirituality and paint ignorant as humankind's major obstacle early try to realize the truth the philosophy is also shaped by Immanuel Kant's discussion of how the way that we filter reality through tools like language leads to self deceit and a blindness to the truth I think it's a sort of straightforward extrapolation of the sort of stuff we're getting Kent on the idea that the world is in some way or other construction of what's going on in my mind philosopher Rene Descartes imagined the concept of an evil demon who's intentionally deceiving him a 20th century update to this the brain-in-a-vat thought scenario imagines a brain connected to a supercomputer that simulates reality in other words it's pretty much the premise of the matrix how would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world the movie is also a perfect illustration of Plato's famous allegory of the cave in which people are chained inside a cave watching shadows against the wall thinking that's all there is when the philosopher manages to get free facing the light of the Sun outside the cave is blinding and painful you've never used them meanwhile the people imprisoned in the cave will distrust this freed man and fight to protect this shadow show they believed to be reality as disease people are not ready to be unblocked and many of them are so nerd' so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it in Plato's allegory it's only the rarest soul that manages to escape most believe the highest possible achievement is to be one of the artists in charge of projecting the puppet shows on the wall for the masses and no one be rich mm someone important like an actor the deepest point of all these thought exercises is to teach us to be skeptical to distrust our senses born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch and to consider that there could be deeper truths and values of the utmost importance which aren't readily apparent in our sensual materialist surface reality so why did the matrix are just to doubt there's something wrong with the world 1999 was the year of y2k when people feared the year 2000 would bring a crippling crash of computers around the globe the matrix reckons with humankind's growing dependence on computers and the threat of true AI issues that have grown far more central to our consciousness since AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization at the dawn of the new millennium this movie and others seemed unsettled by the increasingly tech driven image-conscious consumerist direction modern society was moving in consumers we have byproducts of a lifestyle obsession the matrix and its peers questioned if perhaps we had lost something important without thinking critically enough about what we were signing up for we're going to climb poverty to sink what concerns me celebrity magazines television with 500 channels some guys name on my underwear a neo's first scene he retrieves floppy disks with illegal software from a hollowed-out book simulacra and simulation a postmodern 1981 treatise by jean baudrillard which was required reading for this movie's main cast and crew a simulacrum is a likeness of an original anna Baudrillard wrote of simulacra which are increasingly divorced from the original or which never had any original to begin with a state he called hyper-reality he appears to hold that reality has disappeared baudrillard compared our media-driven capitalist urbanized civilization to living in a map while the territory the map is supposed to chart fades out of existence in boatyards fable reality exists only as rotting shreds that are attached to the map only small vestiges of reality remain in what he called the desert of the real our culture is interacting with empty images and symbols we've gotten so far away from reality we wouldn't know it even if we saw it and if some fragment of the real does exist most of us probably don't even care it real has become irrelevant if undefinable another book that the Wachowski is gave reeves to read was Kevin Kelly's out of control which looked at how the future of society could increasingly see the artificial replacing the natural Beaudry arts ideas are also indebted to guida boards 1967 texts the Society of the spectacle which describes a beastly spectacle that sounds a lot like the matrix quote the spectacle is not a collection of images but a social relation among people mediated by images we become more and more on the treadmill to the number of likes or or or feedback we get basically from social media and start tying our own approval our own self-worth to how much attention we get from other people he says the spectacle is the nightmare of imprisoned modern society which ultimately expresses nothing more than its desire to sleep I go back to sleep and when I wake up I don't remember goddamn thing the power of the matrix is in taking these social critiques and making them incredibly literal I have these memories from my life Neos feelings of dissatisfaction alienation and unreality are exactly the responses that these theorists describe plaguing citizens of modern spectacular society you ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming and if all this felt very relevant in 1999 in 2019 it's more convincing than ever to argue we are living in a matrix of our own making a collective dream world in which the reality behind the simulation holds less and less weight because we get rewarded in these short-term signals hearts likes thumbs up and we conflate that with value and week inflate it with truth the social media post means more than the private experience I already got 17 likes on my latest Instagram all my peeps are buggin out cuz now they know what my new look like and intangible corporations have as many or more rights than people there are certain judges who are alleging that somehow corporations have the same rights citizens of advanced hyper capitalist societies are disconnected from who's growing our food or making our clothes the word of the no bun development on the shared fictions of digits on screens determine the futures of societies people ride around on bikes sponsored by banks the Internet's more important than real life welcome to the Future yet as far as we know this isn't some trick computer simulation even if you on muscat disagrees the odds that we're in face reality is 1 in billions it's a state of affairs that step-by-step our culture has openly chosen people are following you so we should count them and then we should put that count right on your profile page and obviously people care about that so we should make it big we're well aware we live in a world in which people care less than ever about the truth alternative facts are not facts they're falsehoods ciphers storyline about desiring to go back to the matrix even though he knows it's an illusion give my body back in a power plant reinsert me into the matrix closely resembles Robert Nozick's 1974 thought experiment the experience machine it imagines a machine that simulates pleasurable experiences I know this state doesn't exist and asks whether people would trade their actual lives to plug into this machine I know that when I put it in my mouth the matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious as material comforts get ever more seductive and unreal images ever more dazzling the sensory experience you can enjoy in a wealthy Western society today is hyper real arguably better than reality reality's not gonna be enough for them now so cipher might say what's the problem ignorance is bliss why cling to that old dying desert you once called the real I choose the matrix Nosek argued we shouldn't plug into his pleasure machine why because it matters to really do things not just think you have to be a certain kind of person and not to limit ourselves to only those realities our rational minds or the computers we've invented can you contrive for us Nozick says this is just one of our fundamental concerns that not just that we live happy life but that we live a real life that we be in touch with the truth so stepping back for a minute from our matrix-like world today we have to ask if we aren't all making ciphers mistake being so seduced by the taste of a juicy steak that we throw away the best things we have our human values and our freedom their goals of engaging us the most by having us care about likes become our goals we actually wake up in the morning as sovereign human beings and we start caring about the number of likes we got as if that's our goal in life The Matrix is a war of ideas and what's at stake is the soul of our modern society the age-old dualities of Western culture battle it out emotion versus logic chaos versus order spirituality versus science freewill versus destiny the machines are the cold materialistic determinists striving to control the irrational nature of humans represented by the resistance before neo is freed from the matrix he's presented with a series of choices that contain the same duality freedom through truth or slavery through ignorance his very last line in the movie again highlights choice is a choice I leave to you this focus on freedom and choice is so relevant because systems of power like the machines in the matrix benefit from making us believe freedom is not an option either you choose to be at your desk on time from this day forth or you choose to find yourself another job when we meet neo he's living in room 101 the number alludes to his nature as the one and in binary is the number 5 foreshadowing the discovery of that neo will be the sixth incarnation of the one but most strikingly it's a reference to the torture room in George Orwell's dystopia in 1984 used to make citizens conformed by subjecting them to their worst fear thing that is in room 101 the worst thing in the world the fact that neo lives in this room symbolizes that his mind is a prisoner inside the matrix and perhaps also that his greatest dread is mental captivity a prison for your mind the matrix paints waking up to the truth as a confrontational act you have a problem with authority and standards because the powers that be are invested in keeping the wool pulled over your eyes it is the world that has been pulled over your eyes and the on nihilism chapter neo opens to baudrillard calls himself a terrorist just as the agents refer to Morpheus all that we're asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known terrorist to justice the matrix is summarized for us as a system of control what is the matrix control it distracts people's minds so it can exploit and enslave their bodies in order to change a human being into this metaphorically this is already true our human beings in our society not also exploited for their labor if the matrix is portrait is accurate if this grand spectacle is a subtle nearly invisible means of control that sense that I was sort of losing control over my own choices over my own attention over who I was becoming then we have to ask ourselves in world's matrix who profits look at the Koch brothers that's what they do they have built a network of influence based on capital their worldview is propagated into the world at an unbelievably aggressive rate that has been compounding for decades the first movies emphasis on freedom sends the message that even if it feels like you don't have any choice you believe that you're special that somehow the rules do not apply to you obviously you are mistaken this is an illusion you have more power than you know because the one thing you have total control over is your mind never had a camera in my head thoughts are free which is exactly why the matrix tries so very hard to conquer our thoughts advertising has us chasing cars and clothes working jobs we hate [ __ ] we don't need though ignorance seems like bliss it's only with our eyes wide open that we have any chance of solving the world's big problems and ensuring the continued freedom of the human race we can start basing things on human values we can change from time spent to time well-spent it's crucial for neo to believe he's in control of his life do you believe in fate you know why not because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life the irony is that when he says this he's still plugged into the matrix he doesn't even know what is real so it's impossible for him to make real decisions not understanding reality makes us like babies incapable of agency or consent we accept the reality of the world with which we're presenting The Matrix uses references to Alice and wonderland to capture Neos feeling of being a scared naive youth who's unsure what's real as he encounters a strange new world I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice at the beginning Trinity tells neo to follow the White Rabbit and when he spots this tattoo on a woman's shoulder he follows the sign and begins his journey in pursuit of the truth the later red pill blue pill choice who took the red pill you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes is similar to Alice encountering a cake labelled eat me and a bottle labeled drink me which she has to consume in order to change physically before she can go further and when he sticks his finger into the mirror this captures the feeling of going through the looking-glass into an alternate plane that discards conventional logic neo is also compared to another unsuspecting aunjanue whose world is turned inside out Dorothea of The Wizard of Oz it means buckle your seat belt Dorothy because Kansas is going bye-bye in addition to a number of John Woo and other Hong Kong action films that influence the fight scenes The Matrix channels the vibe of the cyberpunk genre especially William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer which also centers on hackers and features a computer network called the matrix the matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games said the voiceover a term that can also be traced back to the 1969 novel the white room another cyberpunk staple ghost in the shell' has a clear impact on the visuals of the matrix and also tells the story of uncovering a world shattering truth about oneself what if a cyber brain could possibly generate its own ghosts create a soul all by itself and if it did just what would be the importance of being human then science fiction writer philip k dick is another big influence on the matrix's thought we are in a computer programmed reality and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed deja vu is usually a glitch in the matrix it happens when they change something in the years since the matrix though which house keys both came out as trans women and this has also inspired many to read the story as a parable of gender dysphoria like a splinter in your mind driving you mad there are plenty more film and literary references that can be seen Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Aldous Huxley's the doors of perception it's called mescaline the only way to fly metropolis 2001 a Space Odyssey alien men in black Karate Kid The Terminator strange days Dark City the TV shows welcome to paradox the technology we developed confronts us and Doctor Who I deny this reality the reality is a computation matrix in our other matrix video we also discussed the allusions to the Christ narrative as well as references to Nebuchadnezzar and the god of dreams a clear pattern emerges and the ideas fueling this story people need a push to think more deeply and seek the truth you don't plug man and if you aren't paying attention to any of this that probably means you're asleep at the wheel sweet dreams it's notable that the machines controlling the matrix determined that the film's year of release 1999 was the peak of your civilization by framing its own current time as a theoretical golden age after which things would go downhill the matrix challenged our expectation of progress what if the things we assumed to be improvements are in fact the opposite the short-term dopamine driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works we might think that it sounds nice to free our minds in all but how can we do that when we've got social and financial responsibilities The Matrix is everywhere when you go to work when you go to church when you pay your taxes to find out how exactly the movie unpacks what it means to free you or you can watch our other Matrix video a guide to freeing your mind but if all this talk of radical unplugging sounds a little extreme or overwhelming one very manageable and reasonable step we can all take is simply to step back from our image driven money center daily existences and ask ourselves am i listening to my own intuition and my own inner voice as I go about my life or am i letting myself be subtly told what to focus on and what to pursue with my time you're being subtly manipulated by algorithms that are watching everything you do constantly and then sending you changes in your media feed in your diets you adjust you slightly to the liking of some unseen advertiser if the thinkers who inspired the matrix wanted us to doubt our senses another way of saying that is to stop taking hues from what's external and pay attention to what's internal what does that mean the matrix cannot tell you who you are the more you are driven by extrinsic values the more your intrinsic values are starved the more likely you are to become depressed and anxious by quite significant amount where overwhelms a lot of the time with stimuli dazzling ads soundbites catastrophic news panic fear-mongering distractions all clamoring for our attention how do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible but from time to time it's worth shutting out all of this noise and saving your attention for answers that come from within you know something what you know you can't explain what you feel it they're trying to maximize attention but we have to ask a much deeper question which is what do we want in our lives and what is our self-worth actually tied to ask yourself what would neo do I came here to tell you how it's going to begin this video is brought to you by Nord VPN the best VPN out there it lets you stream your favorite content anywhere and if you ever use public Wi-Fi then you have no protection to your online privacy so you need Nord VPN your security is their number one priority they have a no 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Views: 2,510,172

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Keywords: the matrix, the matrix philosophy, keanu reeves, matrix neo, matrix trinity, matrix morpheus, nordvpn, vpn, the matrix explained, the matrix analysis, the matrix today, are we living in the matrix, the matrix 4, the matrix reloaded, the matrix revolutions, Wachowskis, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving

Id: bYO413hHwgk

Length: 24min 37sec (1477 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 09 2019