# The essential MATRIX question: Do you take the red pill or the blue? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840 "2011-06-17T15:19:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/21 "2011-06-17T17:27:42Z")
Unfortunately there is no male member of that cast I particularly want to see naked. I don’t care about seeing Trinity naked. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/22 "2011-06-17T17:31:36Z")
Heh. We already have a Matrix in our heads. 🙂 We sample the enviornment (imperfectly, for there are significant limits on what we can detect), our brains crunch the input/data, and comes to conclusions about what the world around us is like. Then we attempt to manipulate that enviornment (again, imperfectly) for our own benefit (or what we perceive as benefits). For things as nebulous as morality, and other social “contructs”, we sometimes gauge success on an obviously subjective scale. Why has having a “power tie” for buisness wear necessary? Yet we seem to suceed, according to our perception of the results around us. In a billion years, no trace of our current existance will be around, except for a very few bits of shaped stone (marble, granite). And it will not even matter that it doesn’t. Ug. I need a drink. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/23 "2011-06-17T17:34:47Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > That would be Switch. So Trinity is also Bait? > [@Anaamika](#): > > Unfortunately there is no male member of that cast I particularly want to see naked. I don’t care about seeing Trinity naked. That is not my fault. Nonetheless you are free to stipulate that alt-Morpheus is portrayed by Taye Diggs, Brad Pitt, or Dwayne Johnson. > [@mlees](#): > > Heh. We already have a Matrix in our heads. 🙂 > > We sample the enviornment (imperfectly, for there are significant limits on what we can detect), our brains crunch the input/data, and comes to conclusions about what the world around us is like. > > Then we attempt to manipulate that enviornment (again, imperfectly) for our own benefit (or what we perceive as benefits). > > For things as nebulous as morality, and other social “contructs”, we sometimes gauge success on an obviously subjective scale. Why has having a “power tie” for buisness wear necessary? Because I look so very pretty in one, obviously. Sheesh. > [@](#): > > Ug. I need a drink. I’ve sent one over. Nothing in it. You can trust me. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/24 "2011-06-17T17:35:00Z")
Well let’s turn this question around, as I like to do before answering it. You’re saying that the “real” world is a hellish nightmare, with a desolate wasteland on the surface and small bands of unassimilated people leading desperate, fugitive lives in endless caverns of steel. Right? And I can choose between (a) joining those desperate bands of hellworld roaming fugitives, or (b) being immersed in a virtual world so complete that I can go my entire life without being cognizant of its true nature. Dude… If I found myself in scenario (a) to begin with, I’d be enthusiastically promoting the idea of implementing scenario (b) in the first place as the most practical way out of the hellworld, since fixing the entire damn planet is probably never going to be achieved in my lifetime? Add into the fact that this virtual escape is already implemented (and well done, too), that I’ve been in it for my entire day-to-day life to this point, and that everybody I know, love and care about - are “virtual” and would be left behind… And it’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? Now, what would tempt me would be to take the red pill in order to exit the virtual reality… To gain the ability to re-enter as a superman who knows every form of martial art, can fly and summon objects at will and pop in and out of locations. That’s bad ass. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/25 "2011-06-17T17:43:30Z")
I would probably take the red pill, because what does he say, something about seeing how deep the rabbithole goes? Sure, I’d be down for that, I like exploring. But when I wake up and learn all the stuff Morpheus kept to himself, I’d be seriously pissed off and wouldn’t cooperate with the rebels because they tricked me into a nonreversible situation. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/26 "2011-06-17T17:46:29Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > 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. Right, until these asshole self-styled freedom fighters, or whatever they think they are, come along and kill you for it. That’s the main thing I remember from the movie–that the protagonists killed a bunch of more-or-less ordinary folks who were, within the terms given, just living their lives and doing their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/27 "2011-06-17T17:57:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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. I’m thinking sort of along these same lines, though, mostly that taking the Blue Pill makes no sense to me. If you trust the guy, you ought to take the red pill, if you don’t trust him enough to believe his story, why would you trust him enough to take the blue pill? The only explanation for what it does is that “you will wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe”. I’d think it would be akin to what the agents did to Neo when they bugged him. So, perhaps one would wake up thinking the glitches and that conversation were just a dream, but I don’t think one would stop witnessing the glitches. But, really, it all comes down to how much I believe the guy. Neo implicitly trusted him because he had been looking for him and, well, him taking the blue pill would have made for a very boring movie. It’s a pretty incredible claim and not being able to really see any evidence without taking the pill isn’t convincing at all. If, however, he did manage to sell me that it was true, I’d take the red pill. I’d rather live in an unpleasant truth than a pleasant lie. Slavery, even when conditions are pleasant, is still slavery. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/28 "2011-06-17T18:05:53Z")
Neither. It doesn’t matter as both options are fake realities. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/29 "2011-06-17T18:28:56Z")
Last option makes this the easiest poll in history. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/30 "2011-06-17T18:34:30Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Last option makes this the easiest poll in history. Heh. Your “easiest choice” only got 40% of the vote, as I post this. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/31 "2011-06-17T20:13:53Z")
Quoth **Skald** : > [@](#): > > 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. I still have no particular reason to trust him. If he gave me more thorough information, I’d be grateful for that, but I’d still consider that information to be only provisional. It’d be good for giving me a starting point, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept it blindly. And there may not be any direct data links to Zion, but there are certainly channels through which one might get a simple message across. Find a Zion operative, or a program who regularly liases with them like the Oracle, and tell them to pass along a message. That shouldn’t be too hard, if I’ve figured out enough of the system to be able to Red Pill myself. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/32 "2011-06-17T20:17:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Quoth **Skald** :I still have no particular reason to trust him. If he gave me more thorough information, I’d be grateful for that, but I’d still consider that information to be only provisional. It’d be good for giving me a starting point, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept it blindly. > > And there may not be any direct data links to Zion, but there are certainly channels through which one might get a simple message across. Find a Zion operative, or a program who regularly liases with them like the Oracle, and tell them to pass along a message. That shouldn’t be too hard, if I’ve figured out enough of the system to be able to Red Pill myself. Mayhap. But I suspect that, if you refused to take either the red or the blue pill from Morpheus, he’d murder you out of hand. The movies are my cite. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/33 "2011-06-17T20:44:42Z")
Seriously? I’m the only one who answered, “I’ll take the red pill, but only if I am the One?” I thought it would be the most popular choice! ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/34 "2011-06-17T20:54:37Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Seriously? I’m the only one who answered, “I’ll take the red pill, but only if I am the One?” I thought it would be the most popular choice! I don’t know how Morpheus can guaranty that you would be the One. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/35 "2011-06-18T01:54:26Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > I would down both of those bad boys simultaneously, just to see what happened. That’s how I roll. :p:p:p ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/36 "2011-06-18T04:08:32Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > I would down both of those bad boys simultaneously, just to see what happened. That’s how I roll. [Like this?](http://xkcd.com/566/) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840/37 "2011-06-18T05:24:45Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Unfortunately there is no male member of that cast I particularly want to see naked. I don’t care about seeing Trinity naked. If we had a “I have to see Neo naked first” option, I’d be changing my vote. Yeah, I’d have to take the red pill. You gotta deal with reality, whatever it is. Besides, Zion looked pretty cool. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-matrix-question-do-you-take-the-red-pill-or-the-blue/585840.md?page=1)