In the movie, “The Matrix”, Keanu Reeves plays a character called Mr. Anderson. He is a computer programmer by day but goes by his alias Neo, a hacker, that he becomes after hours. He is looking for a man by the name of Morpheus, a fugitive of the law, who has the answer to the question, “What is the Matrix”.
The dream jump cuts and action chase sequences have us wondering if what we are seeing is real. The interrogation scene when we see Neo’s mouth seals up and an implant inserts itself into his stomach really make us wonder what is going on. The movie is structured exquisitely and breaks the cardinal “15-minute rule”. The audience must know what is going on by the first 15 minutes, but the payoff is worth the wait.
In the pivotal point in the movie, Neo meets Morpheus and is given the choice of the red or blue pill. Morpheus says “You take the blue pill… the story ends, you wake up 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.”
Neo chooses the red pill because as Morpheus says, “ You have a look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up”. Neo is asked if he believes in fate. Neo replies, “No”. When asked why he responds, “ Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life”. Neo appears to be engulfed in silver after touching a mirror and passes out. Dream or reality? It is here, after almost a half-hour into the movie where we find out what the matrix is.
Neo wakes and he realizes he is
hard-lined in a city full of cocoons. As Morpheus later explains, the
matrix is a computer simulation that humans are grown into. A prison
of the mind, that you can’t see, or touch, used for control, to
harness humankind as an energy source for the machines. AI has taken
over and won. As Keanu might say, “Whoa!”
Ok, let’s
step back for a minute. We are increasingly becoming more dependent
on technology and less dependent on face-to-face interaction. How
many young people seem more comfortable on their phone texting rather
than having an in-person conversation? The pandemic has not helped at
all either, forcing us to be more virtual, with social media making
it seem easy to be connected.
What about facts versus
fiction? Just because something is on the internet does not make it
true. Social media was created to share ideas and opinions and unlike
established reputable news institutions, sources and content don’t
have to be vetted. What we found out from Frances Haugen, the
Facebook whistleblower, is that “the machine-learning models that
maximize engagement also favor controversy, misinformation, and
extremism: put simply, people just like outrageous stuff.”
If
you are fed a steady diet of social media without questioning some of
the things you see, you are in trouble. Tik Tok challenge anyone?
What happened to plain old common sense. “You take the blue pill…
the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want
to believe.
While we haven’t become the power source yet for an all-encompassing AI, it seems that the machine learning algorithms of some social media platforms are doing a pretty good job keeping us in our own isolated bubble of information, more likely negative for longer engagement times, hence profit.
The good thing for
us older folks is that we were around before technology had made such
a major impact. We need to let the younger folks know it’s better
to have an open mind, question what you read/see and do some legwork
to find out the truth of things.
Focus more on our commonalities and less on divisive differences. Put down the Oculus goggles, get out of the matrix, talk and get to know each other with less technology, and remember there is only one race; the human race.
