Let’s imagine you are approached as Thomas Anderson was in the first, relatively unsucky Matrix film. You learn, just as he did, that your life – in fact, all of human existence – is a simulation, and that the few persons free of said illusion live in a society like unto…um…whatever the hell the name of that city in the second & third flicks was. Assume that you are given a more sensible rationalization than the silly humans-as-batteries explanation, and assume further that the majority of Earth is a desolate wasteland.
Do you take the red pill that allows you permanent freedom from the Matrix, or the blue pill that sends you back into it, with the illusion so reinforced that you don’t even recall making the choice?
The question is eminently, predominantly stupid. So. You get offered this red pill or blue pill. He doesn’t get told the full meaning of what the Matrix is until he takes the pill, IIRC. In your scenario, after everything, I would take the blue pill and not live in a horrible hellish world. I understand Cipher, even though I don’t agree with his murders (though I understand why he committed them).
In his scenario I believe the pills were offered without much knowledge of what it would really entail. So human curiosity - and I can be as curious as a cat - would compel me to take the red pill and go down the rabbit hole…much to my chagrin when I found out what was really happening.
Why is the question stupid, exactly? I too would take the blue pill because “coward” is on my resume, but I can understand why some persons would rather die than live in an illusion.
Red pill. Largely because I’m an idiot. Partially because I’d likely be too freaked out by the idea of someone messing with my memories. And a tiny part because I think, like any kind of red-blooded geek, that I’d like to save the world. But yeah. Red pill, followed by a lot of swearing.
Let me rephrase and say, the question is not stupid, the timing is. I think most humans would choose to know before they choose, but once they know, they might make a different choice.
ETA: And I don’t necessarily see it as cowardice to take the blue pill. Only a small percentage of those who take the red pill wake up sane. I don’t think I’d be one of them. I have strength of character but probably not that much.
I am a coward sometimes but more importantly I am a hedonist. Not completely, I understand things have to be sacrificed sometimes, but my #1 goal in life is to enjoy myself as possible. Why not? I only go around once. So I take the blue pill and eat steak and live my life.
I think part of what made Cypher bitter was that he was not emotionally prepared for what “reality” outside the Matrix was like. The decision, as portrayed in the film, was based on incomplete info. Possibly deliberately.
If I was given the same exact setup that Mr. Anderson was, I would probably have picked the red pill, because of my independant streak. If Morpheus had given all the relevant info about what the real world and life in Zion were like, the decision becomes tougher.
I suspect Morpheus deliberately withheld that info. He needs operatives. A sustainable population level. The risk he takes entering the Matrix to try and recruit people is also something to be considered. If his recruiting sucess rate was only 25% when he told the “marks” everything, and 85% when he omits stuff, I bet he starts omitting stuff.
I agree that Morpheus deliberately withheld info, but not because of a need for operatives in general. Zion (whose name I just recalled) exists, after all, and people are ovbiously making the beast with two backs there. Morpheus ios looking for the One, and persons like Cypher and that comely blonde whose name I never knew are just collateral damage.
I am not convinced that the entire population of Zion are Trinity/Cypher level Matrix Operatives.
We don’t see Zion in the first movie, and since your OP denies the existence of the following two films, you’ve prevented me from be able to prove that point.
Morpheus is a Oracle-prophesy fundie, but he does mention that there are other ships like his “Nebuchadnezzar” (there was no way I was going to spell that one correctly without looking it up). They must also be recruiting folks from the system for more secular reasons.
I voted the closest option available to “none of the above” (though seeing Trinity naked wouldn’t be a bad thing, anyway). I take neither pill, since I have no reason to trust the guy who’s offering them to me. I ask him for more information, and then when I have as much information I can get from him, I start looking for my own way out of the Matrix. Once I’ve managed to make my own red pill, then I might make contact with Zion and tell them to send a ship to pick up my body.
It’s my impression that there was no way to connect directly from the Matrix to Zion digitally.
In the first film, Morphues commands the pilot to “take us [the ship] up”, or something like that, to find a spot where they can enter the Matrix. It’s possible that they are required to enter the Matrix from random locations so that Zion cannot be pinpointed, but there only so many random spots a human can pick before a pattern emerges.
I have always felt that physical distance from the machine city helps isolate Zion, as well as a lack of communication paths (whether they are hard lines or radio), but again, we don’t actually get to see Zion until the second film.
The OP doesn’t deny the existence of the second two films. In fact it grants the existence of Zion; I just didn’t remember its name until later.
They could just slip pills into people’s coffee.
Chronos, in this scenario, you’re dealing with someone [del]more honest[/del] [del]stupider[/del] other than Morpheus, who has told you the bad about the situation as well as the good. And presumably you’ve already noticed the glitches in the Matrix. Maybe a white guy from Texas has been succeeded by a black guy from Hawaii as president, and the latter proceeds to enact a foreign policy just like his precedessors.
Remind me, is there some reason that I should believe Morpheus? How do I know that it isn’t the red pill that leads to deception? What basis is there for trusting any term of the ostensible choice?
I would totally take the blue pill. I spend most of my life living in a fantasy world anyway. I think I the existence of a real Star Trek holodeck would be very dangerous for me.
You’ve already noticed the glitches in the Matrix. Events have repeated themselves, you saw an agent take over a human, Lindsay Lohan has won an Oscar for her portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the SW prequels; pick one. The person recruiting you tells you a story with as much bad in it as good, rather than pulling an Obi-Wan.
Blue pill. Frankly, I’m not persuaded that the distinction between the “real world” and the Matrix is a meaningful one. Unless one is actively fighting the Matrix, people seem to live their lives in the “illusory” world with complete autonomy. They work, play, meet spouses, age and have children. Goods must be manufactured, criminals must be captured and tried - wars are fought, in which people really die.
Folks really do live in the Matrix, with all the joys and horrors that entails. One can lead a meaningful life in the Matrix, as a lawyer or cop or doctor or what have you. One can do that in Zion as well, of course - but your chances of happiness seem significantly lower, and you’ll be constantly threatened with war from the Machines.
I see nothing ignoble or cowardly in taking the blue pill, and I don’t see how a world based upon an arrangement of electrons in silicon is any less “real” than a world based upon a wider variety of elements.
Of course, Trinity is hot. But I’m willing to bet that I find someone else nearly as hot who doesn’t want me to live a post-apocalyptic nightmare.
