Virtual DialecticMaggie Renfro

COMS 465- Project

The Virtual Dialectic“Rethinking The Matrix and Its Significance”

Question asked: Should Neo swallow the blue bill or the red-pill?

Resulting in staying in the computer-generated, not advanced world, with no recollection of what has happened

Resulting in “awakening”, living the virtual world, and into what more advanced virtual world “See the Matrix for what it really is”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frxvwSrertY

The Virtual DialecticTruth vs. Deception

Being vs. Appearance

Artifice vs. Reality

Authenticity vs. Inauthenticity

(Gunkel, Pg. 103)

The Red Pill“The Right Choice”

Completes the film

The “Hero of the Real”

Becomes the “man” of The Matrix “The the face of impossible odds, he takes control

of his life, beats the system, gets the girl, and apparently saves the human race from machinic domination.”

CypherOpposite of Neo

Bad choices In it for himself Betrays his friends and family “If Neo’s interpreted as a Christ-like savior, Cypher

is “the Judas Iscariot of the story”

The Matrix Honesty rather than a life of reassuring lies

The SelectionWilliam Irwin

Editor of the Matrix Obvious choice of the red pill Predictable

Two Reasons The Matrix would not exist

Necessary for Neo to swallow the red pill Drama

Supported by 2,500 year old philosophical matrix

The Selection Cont. Irwin states it is a bold decision from Neo

Conforms “the will to truth”

Neo choosing the Red Pill, will in the end help him find the truth and live within a world of all honesty

Who would choose the Red Pill? Why?

Michael HeimCyberspace

2 books Both explain the world outside of the Matrix and

the importance of honesty The Erotic Ontology of Cyberspace The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality

Released 10 years before the Matrix

Zionists – real world Losing ourselves in the process of cyberspace Experience of reality in the cyberspace experience

ComparisonThe Matrix: Multiple questions and concerns

Real vs. Truth

Truman Show Truman Burbank

Lives life in a television set, where everyone in the movie is acting for the television show.

The end shows that Truman comes to face the reality and the true world

Similar to the Matrix

Why Not the Blue Pill?“Life in the matrix appears to be not only less

attractive but outright disgusting” – (Gunkel, page 111)

Each part of the trilogy shows different parts of the world that when choosing the pill, the outcome is the most important part

David Weberman Blue pill = best quality decision

Better life

The Blue PillKevin Warwick

Included in the Matrix System “Cyborg” or “post human”

Different abilities in the matrix system

Warwick, Weberman Argues that the blue pill is real and true “the blue pill does not lead to something that is

the opposite of true reality, but constitutes the doorway to an alternative and possibly improved reality” (page 114)

Neo-luddite or reality created virtually

Why does it matter which pill?Not a simple decision between colors

Thinking out side of the box Positive and negatives of each situation

Metaphysics: Opposite importance’s

Virtual Reality is a different order of reality How is it important? Why can you get stuck in the virtual world?

Virtual Realityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

dO4k2Rvs94I

What does it do?

Why would we want to use it?

“Our destiny is to become what we think, to have our thoughts become our bodies and our bodies become our mind” –Terence McKenna