The year was 1999 when a single cinematic picture shook the world of philosophy; this films name was The Matrix. This science-fiction film follows a computer hacker named Thomas “Neo” Anderson on his journey out of an artificial reality called the matrix. In the film, humans were held unconscious and against their will in vats hooked up to machines giving the machines infinite energy (“The Matrix”). While the humans were alive in an artificial reality, having no clue what is really happening to them. Philosophers everywhere struggled to find an accurate answer on how to debunk the one very popular question that arose from The Matrix, which is could humans be living in an artificial reality without knowing? But, philosophers began to notice that The Matrix reminded them of another philosophical work penned
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While there are various similarities between The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, there are also quite a few differences amongst the works. Whereas one thing is for certain, which is humans cannot ethically be brain-in-vat.
Both The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave share quite a few common themes. One of the major parallels between the works would be how both Neo in The Matrix and the prisoner in the Allegory of the Cave realized what they believed to be reality was in all actuality an illusion. Neo discovered his reality was an illusion when Morpheus told him that he “has always been a slave and offers to reveal the Matrix to him” (“Plot Overview”). Morpheus then gave Neo an option to either consume a blue pill that erased Neo’s memory of being told about the Matrix or Neo could consume a red pill that would allow Neo to see the truth. Neo chose the red pill, in which shortly after consuming it he “wakes up naked and hairless in a vat of jelly, with plugs connecting him to the vat” (“Plot Overview”). This is the scene where Neo realizes the reality that he had
While there are various similarities between The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, there are also quite a few differences amongst the works. Whereas one thing is for certain, which is humans cannot ethically be brain-in-vat.
Both The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave share quite a few common themes. One of the major parallels between the works would be how both Neo in The Matrix and the prisoner in the Allegory of the Cave realized what they believed to be reality was in all actuality an illusion. Neo discovered his reality was an illusion when Morpheus told him that he “has always been a slave and offers to reveal the Matrix to him” (“Plot Overview”). Morpheus then gave Neo an option to either consume a blue pill that erased Neo’s memory of being told about the Matrix or Neo could consume a red pill that would allow Neo to see the truth. Neo chose the red pill, in which shortly after consuming it he “wakes up naked and hairless in a vat of jelly, with plugs connecting him to the vat” (“Plot Overview”). This is the scene where Neo realizes the reality that he had