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Ask HN: How close to real life is 'The Matrix' in your opinion?
Wake up, Neo...
- wahern 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation
- wahern 8y agoFWIW, a more approachable, more concrete conceptual model that explains how much of "reality" is a shared fiction is Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_Communities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_Communities). I've never read Baudrillard's works directly, perhaps because having read Anderson's famous book all that would be left of something like Simulacra and Simulation is a tedious, overwrought philosophy, without any of the "ah ha!" moments. I think that could be said for much of mid-century French philosophy (e.g. Structuralism), but maybe I'm just excusing my laziness....
- wahern 8y agoOh, and for good measure every should read Dawkin's The Selfish Gene. In one of the last chapters he introduces the concept of a meme. It's doesn't take much effort to see how a meme would relate to a sea of self-reinforcing, self-perpetuating ideas to which humans and human society are but a substrate. Except The Selfish Gene explains the rules by which these reified ideas would operate. My point being, the conceit of The Matrix is less far fetched when you explore these less abstract concepts more firmly grounded in scientific thinking. In many ways they're far more fascinating because the reality is both more intricate and relatable.
- db48x 8y agoThe laws of physics don't rule out the simulation hypothesis, but they do rule out using humans as batteries, and those neat anti-gravity ships. Clearly then the story of the Matrix is just level two of the simulation, there to satisfy those few people who do figure out that the simulation is imperfect. Because they think that they've escaped, they don't notice that they haven't.
- navjack27 8y agoYes the matrix has multi level stimulation going on. Inside the matrix. Inside the matrix in Zion. We honestly don't even know the true state of Earth at any point in the movies or in the animatrix. All we and most of the characters are aware of is simulation.
- pmdulaney 8y agoI am not a philosopher -- or even a big reader -- but it seems to me that a sufficiently detailed simulation is indistinguishable from "reality". Indeed, even as a conservative Christian I would not be surprised to learn that from God's perspective, there is no difference.