A Matrix Reloaded and Philosophy

The Matrix Reloaded Blog A few weeks back the movie The Matrix Reloaded came up during our class discussion of Democritus. The opportunity was given to watch the movie and write a blog post about it. I actually found it to be a very interesting movie—ill defined fighting parameters and decade-old special effects aside. There were some clear tie-ins to Democritus, but also some very interesting revalations from a character called the Oracle on free will. In the matrix, people’s senses grossly deceive them as to the underlying nature of reality. They feel that they are living in the late 90’s in America, whereas they are really being fed out of test tubes years and years later. Consistent with Democritus, sensory perception gives very little indication of the true state of reality. However, the movie allows the person to step quite readily outside of the matrix (take the blue pill style). I do not feel that Democritus saw in humans such ability. Not only can humans come outside and know the matrix, but near the end of this second movie Neo, the protagonist, finds the source of the matrix. In other words he finds the fundamental nature of the world. I find this also inconsistent the Democritus. At one point, a character called the oracle tells the main character that she knows a decision that he will make. Nero responds with an answer that effectively asks if he is then making a decision at all. She responds that he has already made the decision. This leads to a number of interesting observations. One, this could lead to a system where everyone truly makes all decisions before they play out. Thus they have really made a decision and someone—namely God—could still know what they have chosen before they act out that decision. Also, the oracle says that the point of living out the decision is to find out why you made that decision, not to make the decision itself. This could lend an interesting answer to a free-will advocate.