The Matrix and Virtual Space

The Matrix brings up many philosophical questions of being and existing and does it in a way that is entertaining and keeps your eyes fixed on the screen. The film discusses issues of an ontological nature in that everything in the matrix is a dream and the “omnipotent deceiver,” the machines, is leading on humans. Descartes’ quote, “I think, therefore I am,” can be applied to Neo’s (and the rest of the farmed humans) concept of reality before he was “freed” as well as his abilities after. Once you are aware of the matrix, your concept of what is physically possible within the reality of the matrix becomes almost infinite.

Since Plato’s time, humans have continued to develop new ways to create virtual spaces within the real world. Some of the first that come to mind are the 360 degree murals in the 1600s which captivated audiences and made them believe that they were actually at a location. At circuses and carnivals in the 1800-1900s, theme rooms traveled the country and made you feel like you were visiting a different place. Then Disney Land was created and introduced animatronic technologies to make figures even more convincing. But these don’t bring up serious emotional feelings like Plato’s cave or the Matrix do. I believe that a very influential virtual world is the one created by the stories told in popular books. Advances in technology in the early 1800s allowed books to be mass produced and reach a much wider audience. With such a large readership across the country, this meant that many fans were living the same story within an alternate reality, their minds. It’s not like Plato’s cave or the Matrix in the sense that it’s an reality we are tricked into believing but it is significant because for the first time, masses of people were imagining the same story collectively.

Another, more modern example of virtual space being created within our own mind is Orson Welles’ reading of The War of the Worlds on the radio in 1938. Many people believed that his broadcast was real and freaked out thinking that aliens were invading. For a brief time, those who believed what they heard were living in a different world, not because of actual events taking place but because they all believed that those things were happening. Welles can almost be compared to the puppeteers in Plato’s cave, or the machines in The Matrix. He was changing his audience’s perception of reality by playing with their minds.