The Matrix Is A System, Neo

By putting on a VR headset, you transport yourself into a different world. Your brain is tricked into seeing things, into believing that the sights and sounds inside the experience are authentic. At any point you can remove the headset to stop the projections. But can you be sure that you’re returning to the real world?

“What if the reality I’ve returned to isn’t real but just another, more finely realised simulation? What if the thing our senses – so easily fooled by the headset – tell us is real life are in fact an elaborate creation, every bit as illusory as that I’d experienced on the precarious pathway built out of pixels,” asks Andrew Anthony, the author of The Guardian’s article.

Sounds like The Matrix, doesn’t it? In the Wachowskis’ movie, instead of the real world, humans live in a simulated reality created by machines, which plugged the minds of their human batteries into a massive computer.

“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. (…) It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth,” explains Morpheus, one of the main characters of the movie.

The Guardian explores how advancements in virtual reality technology help popularize a philosophical theory, also apparent in The Matrix film series, that the outside world is itself a simulation. It is a gripping read, definitely not to be missed, and impossible to summarize in the space available here. Plus, as Morpheus said, “no one can be told what the Matrix is - you have to see it for yourself”.