I’ve seen The Matrix 3 times now and I still can’t figure out why the Agents and their global VR scheme are evil, in fact I think they’re the only ones in the movie, with the exception of Cyper, who make much sense.
The agents seem benevolent because they provide a completely realistic simulation of a much happier and fitter earth than the real one. They also have tried to build a utopia but it didn’t hold and according to them because of a fault in people, not their programming. They get some “energy” back from people for providing this service. In the meantime people are free to live their lives and only get punished if they leave the Matrix to take it down. Seems like a classic win/win symbiotic relationship.
Morpheus and Neo are doing their best to introduce people to a war torn world of pain, warfare, and general gloom. Cypher’s decision to betray them and get his memory erased seems like the position most people would take, screw reality, put me back into the Matrix.
The ending is pretty ambigious, is Neo trying to show everyone everything isn’t real so they can fly around like him thus producing the utopia that will eventually fall apart or is he trying to pull them out of the Matrix so they can live in Zion. Either way it sounds like a lose/lose situation.
The reason the Matrix is considered evil is because the machine has overtaken the man in the brains race. In the world of the Matrix, the computer is the master and the humans are the unwitting slaves. Humans are given a less-than-perfect world, the Matrix gets energy, and nobody has to live in the ‘real’ apocalypse world. I agree that the Matrix isn’t, by nature, evil, but I’d also want a ‘reality’ that is more like a nanotech-age Universe instead of the rather drab and polluted 20th Century Earth. I mean, if you’re going to create an illusion of reality, at least make it better than the reality it was based on. I know a system as advanced as the Matrix could make a good world without resorting to the disastrous ‘utopian’ scheme.
Well, if you have seen it three times you would remember that the AI was at war with the humans. The humans burned the sky, and the AI enslaved the humans. The humans were given no choice if they wanted to be in the Matrix or not.
I think they picked the late 20th century because it best fitted the human animal, accoding to the movie. It really looks like they’re looking for the best situation for the humans as they are symbiotic partners.
I think red_dragon hit it head on. They weren’t given a choice at all in the matter. The Matrix is evil because it completely takes away another being’s free will. The machines control everything in the human’s lives. The huamns never get a chance to experience what life is really like, just what’s little mor than a dream. People will argue that the humans had it off better because of the horrid way the world was, but I say they should be free to rebuild that world and make their own decisions.
The movie was highly entertaining but conceptually the only role I really “respected” if such can be said of a movie role was the character of the head “Smith” who was trying mightly to complete his job and keep the Matrix functioning. With all due respect to Keanu Reeves “Neo” character the head agent Smith was (to me) by far the most complex and interesting character of the movie. Most of the other characters were just too cool for school to be palatable.
Within the narrow limits of sic fi “reality” the Matrix is based on the incredibly absurd notion that machines spare no expense to keep us around because we make efficient bio-chemical heat “batteries” to power the vast machine complex. This in an age where cold fusion and anti-gravity are commonplace technologies. The question of “what is real” is amusing but sophomoric philosophically. This and the “humans as batteries” silliness was a problem for me in giving the movie any real resonance beyond the really neat atmosphere and dynamite special effects that pervaded the film.
The matrix is “bad” insofar as it enslaves humans…but how many humans would there be in this post apocalypse era if the Matrix did not keep re-producing them. How would (millions/billions?) of humans would survive if dumped out of the Matrix and onto the barren wasteland of earth to survive with only a handful of survivors to assist them?
The whole point of showing the matrix as evil,was for people to say “wow, that is evil” and then the natural question is “why is that evil?” and then no-one can really come up with a good reason. yes, humans are enslaved, but what about them is enslaved?? they don’t have to work, they don’t have to DO anything, just sit there in a little womb and breathe, and then they get to live their lives like anyone else in the 90’s… so they are enslaved in the nineties. so then if that is slavery, then… aren’t we all enslaved!? OOOH! he’s got it, hand the man a cigar THAT is the point of the movie. the whole idea is that we are enslaved to the point that we don’t DECIDE ultimately what happens. whether this is because a complex system of social norms and beliefs and governmental manipulation, or whether it is becuase of high powered post-apocalyptic artificial intelligence placing us into a computerised matrix, the effect is that we are still being made to believe in our own free will when it doesn’t actually exist. that is why the concept is so confronting. beyond this illusory world there exists a barren wasteland, but also a land that is ‘real’… where we are free both physically and spiritually to evolve as humans. the terrible thing about the matrix is that it has ended the evolutionary trail of the human and place them in a state of inanimation, to be stuck in the late nineties til the end of time. AND WHO THE HELL WANTS TO BE STUCK IN THE LATE 90’S FOR THE REST OF TIME??? i mean, really people, come ON! so that is why the matrix is portrayed as evil. the movie has some really brilliant concepts, yet is wrapped in the cloak of a traditional trashy action film to bring it all to the masses.
When I was taking an Intro-level Philosophy course, the intstructor started off our discussion of The Republic by Plato (a work which I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned yet) with a question: “If you could be made perfectly happy by being lied to, would you want to do it?” When phrased like that, only a couple of people in the class (myself included) answered Yes. Most people abhored the idea. Since then, I’ve been careful not to presume that people don’t value their free will, even if it means giving up happiness.
Concerning the idea of humans as batteries. This seemed so silly, and so unrealistic as far as entropy was concerned, that I sent them an alternate explanation for Matrix II&III. I doubt they’ll use it though.
The matrix is in fact a giant computer network run on a combination of silicon for speed and human neurons for complexity/self-repair. This basic fact is hidden from the freedom fighters so they will not know how vulnerable the AI are - the AI live in the human brains, it is their hardware platform. This is the reason for the agent’s ability to posess people in the matrix.
Ok, it has a few problems, but makes more sense then the idea of feeding dead humans to humans in order to have a source of power…
I shall not get into the believability of The Matrix.
The following is written generically and will include the masculine pronouns as I am the one writing it. It does not necessarily apply to males only.
Man as a general rule values what he sees as his ability to make choices and live his own life. Sure there are factors that control a number of his decisions (gov’t, family, work, etc.) however, he can choose to break away from these contraints. He can leave his job, his family, even leave his country and search for a life that he makes all his own choices. Free will. This is the most important aspect of being a human. We can do as we dang well please. We may have to pay the consequences, but it is still our choice.
In the Matrix the people inside the matrix did not have this choice. They were conceived for the purpose of providing for the computers.
Let’s take it from a slightly different perspective. Let us say that Bill Gates made you an offer. He said, live in my house, you never have to work. I will take complete care of you. The only thing is you can never choose to do anything. I will tell you when you can do things and what you can do. I will tell you when you can eat and what you can eat. I will tell you who to marry and when to have children. I will never tell you to do anything bad or painful. I will never harm you. You just cannot choose what you will do. I promise to feed you good food and give you a beautiful spouse. You will have the best of everything.
Would you do it? You are in effect a slave. You can do nothing without Bill’s permission. He will treat you like a king, but you just cannot choose for yourself. Would you choose to live this life? Is this truly living?
What is living? What about the children born of this life? They are given no choice. It is all they have ever known. If they are taught that they cannot make choices that only Bill is wise enough to make choices. Then even if they were given a choice at say 18 to leave, could they. All they have ever known is this life and Bill as the one to make choices.
Sure maybe the Earth that was left was not really suitable for a good life. So what? America was built by people who were not afraid to take chances and not afraid to leave behind the good life, why because they knew they would have more control over their lives in this new land than they would from where they came from.
The Matrix is bad, because it takes away that most basic of human needs, the need to choose one’s own way.
WTF?!?! WTF??? Keanu Reeves has the acting finesse of a burning bag of shit. The ‘due respect’ is NADA.
Welcome to our planet, Astro Man! Please join me in my commonplace atomic-powered Lamborghini Diablo as I travel to my commonplace vacation spot on the sun. Oh, look, Astro Man From Some Other Planet! Say ‘Hello’ to the commonplace Elvis walking by. Hold on one minute, Astro Man – the commonplace government chip in my brain is instructing me to join you in your commonplace alien abductionmobile. Look, Astro Man! My commonplace cup of cold fusion is floating about again!
The Matrix: Good or Evil? As with everything else, it depends on your perspective. It can have a lot to do with what is presented to you as acceptable, and how ideas are drilled (how loud, how often, etc.) into your head, and how impressionable you are. The Matrix may be a huge improvement for some.
Two helpful hints for less embarassing online interaction:
1: Don’t drink Jolt Cola with every meal
2: Read more slooowly next time
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Welcome to our planet, Astro Man! Please join me in my commonplace atomic-powered Lamborghini Diablo as I travel to my commonplace vacation spot on the sun. Oh, look, Astro Man From Some Other Planet! Say ‘Hello’ to the commonplace Elvis walking by. Hold on one minute, Astro Man – the commonplace government chip in my brain is instructing me to join you in your commonplace alien abductionmobile. Look, Astro Man! My commonplace cup of cold fusion is floating about again!
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Actually, Neil Gaiman also came up with that alternate theory (which I like a lot) as well. He wrote a short story based in the Matrix world on the Matrix site, and used that theory.
The agents were evil because that Agent Smith was so damned alien! Man, he was freaky.
You know, I think I posted my theory on the matrix site ages ago! Almost the very day after I walked out of the theatre! I wonder if it’s still in their message board logs.
Wow. It’d be so cool if Neil Gaiman used one of my ideas…
I saw the movie but I don’t remember much of it. One thing I do remember about it was that the bad guy agents were lacking an explanation about their “badness” - particularly the main one. What was up with that? Why were they so darn evil? It seemed that the main bad guy took pleasure in getting the good guys (yawn). If I remember correctly, they were just programs. Why couldn’t they just be cold and efficient? I thought that was stupid, and kind of ruined an otherwise unimaginative, but fun to watch movie.
Interesting how perspectives vary. What you thought was stupid I thought was one of the most interesting parts of the film and made up for some of the “battery” foolishness. The main “Smith” character was a computer program but he was also sentient (more sentient than most of the “humans” IMO) and to a degree had a perspective and “personality” that was not entirely in line with the requirements of his job. He was angry and tired and disgusted of being a “zoo” keeper for a bunch of biped “viruses” and wanted out and crushing the remnants of human resistance was his ticket to the exit. What lay outside the Matrix for him is open to question but he clearly viewed being an Agent in the Matrix as the equivalent of being posted in Siberia (or worse).
