Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema | Page 6

- there can be no Utopia. In H.G. Wells' book "The
Time Machine", the hero wanders off to the third millennium only to
come across a peaceful Utopia. Its members are immortal, don't have to
work, or think in order to survive. Sophisticated machines take care of
all their needs. No one forbids them to make choices. There simply is
no need to make them. So the Utopia is fake and indeed ends badly.
Finally, the "Truman Show" encapsulates the most virulent attack on
capitalism in a long time. Greedy, thoughtless money machines in the
form of billionaire tycoon-producers exploit Truman's life shamelessly
and remorselessly in the ugliest display of human vices possible. The
Director indulges in his control-mania. The producers indulge in their
monetary obsession. The viewers (on both sides of the silver screen)
indulge in voyeurism. The actors vie and compete in the compulsive
activity of furthering their petty careers. It is a repulsive canvas of a
disintegrating world. Perhaps Christoff is right after al when he warns
Truman about the true nature of the world. But Truman chooses. He
chooses the exit door leading to the outer darkness over the false

sunlight in the Utopia that he leaves behind.
The Matrix
By: Sam Vaknin
It is easy to confuse the concepts of "virtual reality" and a
"computerized model of reality (simulation)". The former is a
self-contained Universe, replete with its "laws of physics" and "logic".
It can bear resemblance to the real world or not. It can be consistent or
not. It can interact with the real world or not. In short, it is an arbitrary
environment. In contrast, a model of reality must have a direct and
strong relationship to the world. It must obey the rules of physics and
of logic. The absence of such a relationship renders it meaningless. A
flight simulator is not much good in a world without aeroplanes or if it
ignores the laws of nature. A technical analysis program is useless
without a stock exchange or if its mathematically erroneous.
Yet, the two concepts are often confused because they are both
mediated by and reside on computers. The computer is a self-contained
(though not closed) Universe. It incorporates the hardware, the data and
the instructions for the manipulation of the data (software). It is,
therefore, by definition, a virtual reality. It is versatile and can correlate
its reality with the world outside. But it can also refrain from doing so.
This is the ominous "what if" in artificial intelligence (AI). What if a
computer were to refuse to correlate its internal (virtual) reality with the
reality of its makers? What if it were to impose its own reality on us
and make it the privileged one?
In the visually tantalizing movie, "The Matrix", a breed of AI
computers takes over the world. It harvests human embryos in
laboratories called "fields". It then feeds them through grim looking
tubes and keeps them immersed in gelatinous liquid in cocoons. This
new "machine species" derives its energy needs from the electricity
produced by the billions of human bodies thus preserved. A
sophisticated, all-pervasive, computer program called "The Matrix"
generates a "world" inhabited by the consciousness of the unfortunate
human batteries. Ensconced in their shells, they see themselves walking,
talking, working and making love. This is a tangible and olfactory
phantasm masterfully created by the Matrix. Its computing power is
mind boggling. It generates the minutest details and reams of data in a
spectacularly successful effort to maintain the illusion.

A group of human miscreants succeeds to learn the secret of the Matrix.
They form an underground and live aboard a ship, loosely
communicating with a halcyon city called "Zion", the last bastion of
resistance. In one of the scenes, Cypher, one of the rebels defects. Over
a glass of (illusory) rubicund wine and (spectral) juicy steak, he poses
the main dilemma of the movie. Is it better to live happily in a perfectly
detailed delusion - or to survive unhappily but free of its hold?
The Matrix controls the minds of all the humans in the world. It is a
bridge between them, they inter-connected through it. It makes them
share the same sights, smells and textures. They remember. They
compete. They make decisions.
The Matrix is sufficiently complex to allow for this apparent lack of
determinism and ubiquity of free will. The root question is: is there any
difference between making decisions and feeling certain of making
them (not having made them)? If one is unaware of the existence of the
Matrix, the answer is no. From the inside, as a part of the Matrix,
making decisions and appearing to be making them are identical states.
Only an outside observer - one who in possession of full information
regarding both the Matrix and the