Light Eye
12-07-2004, 12:27 PM
Dear Friends,
http://www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven.htm
Be Well, Be Love.
David
THE REAL MATRIX, PART 1
By Steven Yates
December 7, 2004
NewsWithViews.com
The Matrix, easily the most thought-provoking film in a generation, tells the
story of a computer hacker going by the alias Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) who
discovers that the world he has taken for granted his entire life is an
illusion. The ?Matrix? is a virtual-reality simulation created by a powerful
artificial intelligence. Since birth Neo has been wired directly into an immense
computer system that can project a panorama of sensory information directly into
his brain and central nervous system. This creates the illusion of his living in
a world where by day he is Thomas A. Anderson, a programmer for a software
giant. One of the working premises of the film is that the majority of human
beings are born, live out their lives, and die inhabiting cocoon-like
structures, plugged into this system, never suspecting the truth. Their
life-experiences are fabricated, while their life-energies sustain the ruling
entity.
Neo has long suspected that something is amiss without being able to put his
finger on it. It was this something that drew him into hacking and into the
world of computers generally. His presence became known to Morpheus (Laurence
Fishburne), leader of a band of rebels fighting to free the human race from
bondage to the artificial intelligence. Of course, Neo?s nocturnal computer
explorations have also become known to the ?agents,? living programs who service
the artificial intelligence. The first half-hour or so of the film is a race to
see which side can get to him first.
One of the rebels, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), hacks into his computer and lures
him to a Gothic nightclub. There she confronts him with his unease:
?I know why you?re here, Neo. I know what you?ve been doing. I know why you
hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your
computer. You?re looking for him. I know, because I was once looking for the
same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn?t really looking for him. I
was looking for an answer. It?s the question that drives us, Neo. It?s the
question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did.?
Neo: ?What is the Matrix??
Trinity: ?The answer is out there, Neo. It?s looking for you. And it will find
you, if you want it to.?
The pivotal scene occurs when she introduces Neo to Morpheus. With a
thunderstorm in the background, some gripping dialogue ensues:
Morpheus: I imagine that right now you?re feeling a little like Alice, tumbling
down the rabbit-hole?I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who
accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not
far from the truth?Let me tell you why you are here. You?re here because you
know something. What you know, you can?t explain. But you feel it. You?ve felt
it your entire life. That there?s something wrong with the world. You don?t know
what it is, but it?s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is
this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I?m talking about?
Neo: The Matrix?
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: (nods)
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now, in this very
room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your
television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when you go to church, or
when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to
blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into
bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison
for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to
see it for yourself. (Produces a box containing two colored pills, one blue and
one red.) This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You
take the blue pill, the story ends, you awake in your bed and believe whatever
you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show
you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Pause. Neo reaches for the red pill.)
Remember: all I?m offering is the truth, nothing more. (Neo swallows the red
pill with a glass of water.)
After that, things happen pretty quickly. Neo is jerked free of the artificial
intelligence and finds himself in the ?desert of the real,? with Morpheus,
Trinity and the others on board the Nebuchadnezzar who are struggling to free
the human race from control by the artificial intelligence, while simultaneously
battling superhuman ?agents? and monstrous mechanical ?sentinels? sent to
destroy them.
Science fiction, right?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
http://www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven.htm
Be Well, Be Love.
David
THE REAL MATRIX, PART 1
By Steven Yates
December 7, 2004
NewsWithViews.com
The Matrix, easily the most thought-provoking film in a generation, tells the
story of a computer hacker going by the alias Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) who
discovers that the world he has taken for granted his entire life is an
illusion. The ?Matrix? is a virtual-reality simulation created by a powerful
artificial intelligence. Since birth Neo has been wired directly into an immense
computer system that can project a panorama of sensory information directly into
his brain and central nervous system. This creates the illusion of his living in
a world where by day he is Thomas A. Anderson, a programmer for a software
giant. One of the working premises of the film is that the majority of human
beings are born, live out their lives, and die inhabiting cocoon-like
structures, plugged into this system, never suspecting the truth. Their
life-experiences are fabricated, while their life-energies sustain the ruling
entity.
Neo has long suspected that something is amiss without being able to put his
finger on it. It was this something that drew him into hacking and into the
world of computers generally. His presence became known to Morpheus (Laurence
Fishburne), leader of a band of rebels fighting to free the human race from
bondage to the artificial intelligence. Of course, Neo?s nocturnal computer
explorations have also become known to the ?agents,? living programs who service
the artificial intelligence. The first half-hour or so of the film is a race to
see which side can get to him first.
One of the rebels, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), hacks into his computer and lures
him to a Gothic nightclub. There she confronts him with his unease:
?I know why you?re here, Neo. I know what you?ve been doing. I know why you
hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your
computer. You?re looking for him. I know, because I was once looking for the
same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn?t really looking for him. I
was looking for an answer. It?s the question that drives us, Neo. It?s the
question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did.?
Neo: ?What is the Matrix??
Trinity: ?The answer is out there, Neo. It?s looking for you. And it will find
you, if you want it to.?
The pivotal scene occurs when she introduces Neo to Morpheus. With a
thunderstorm in the background, some gripping dialogue ensues:
Morpheus: I imagine that right now you?re feeling a little like Alice, tumbling
down the rabbit-hole?I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who
accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not
far from the truth?Let me tell you why you are here. You?re here because you
know something. What you know, you can?t explain. But you feel it. You?ve felt
it your entire life. That there?s something wrong with the world. You don?t know
what it is, but it?s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is
this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I?m talking about?
Neo: The Matrix?
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: (nods)
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now, in this very
room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your
television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when you go to church, or
when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to
blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into
bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison
for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to
see it for yourself. (Produces a box containing two colored pills, one blue and
one red.) This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You
take the blue pill, the story ends, you awake in your bed and believe whatever
you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show
you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Pause. Neo reaches for the red pill.)
Remember: all I?m offering is the truth, nothing more. (Neo swallows the red
pill with a glass of water.)
After that, things happen pretty quickly. Neo is jerked free of the artificial
intelligence and finds himself in the ?desert of the real,? with Morpheus,
Trinity and the others on board the Nebuchadnezzar who are struggling to free
the human race from control by the artificial intelligence, while simultaneously
battling superhuman ?agents? and monstrous mechanical ?sentinels? sent to
destroy them.
Science fiction, right?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]