We are always trying to discover the
authenticity of ideas that surround us. What we perceive to be real is truth.
As humans, we try to find authenticity and we need this authenticity because if
we cannot have it or cannot find it, everything is a lie and we feel uneasy. The
idea of the Matrix is that there are two realities, one is a simulation and the
other is “real”. However, which one is the correct one? David Weberman in his
essay “The Matrix Simulation and the Postmodern Age”, claims that any reality
that we are able to experience experience with all of our senses is an
authentic reality. Therefore, because everything in the Matrix is tangible, it
is also real. Technology is like the Matrix. It surrounds us. We are constantly
immersed in whatever technology has to offer us such as virtual social
interaction and more. However, with this overwhelming use of technology, we are
no longer able to differentiate the authenticity between simulation and reality
because we are too comfortable with what technology provides us with.
Weberman starts his essay by describing
how media and technology has changed our society and our way of thinking. He
states that after the introduction of television “the widespread proliferation
of cable, video, fax machines, pharmaceutical mood enhancers, computers, cell
phones and the Internet” came into everyone’s lives and began to impact our
lives in different ways (Weberman 226). Technology has impacted our lives
because it surrounds us all the time. It is there twenty-four hours a day, from
when we get up to when we go to bed. It also has changed our lives; we retain
information differently and we think different. The Matrix is a metaphor is the
technology we surround ourselves with. If we were to relate technology today to
the Matrix, we are doing the same exact thing as the people living in the
Matrix. We are constantly allowing ourselves to be surrounded and consumed by
technology from smartphones to the Internet.
In
Andy and Lana Wachowski’s 1999 film The
Matrix, the people in the Matrix are not only consumed by technology they
are literally consuming it as well. A notable scene that highlights this is
when Cypher is handed a nice steak. He decides to consume the steak,
essentially showing how we would rather consume the Matrix or technology because
it gives us good feelings. Matrix is like a wonderland; there are nightclubs, good
food, and beautiful women, everything a man would be looking for in life to
entertain, feed, and pleasure him. This way of life surrounds the people in
much the same way that technology surrounds us in our world. Because there is
the world of the Matrix, there is also the “real” world. This film questions
the idea of what is the real world; can we consider “cyberspace” to be the real
world or does a real world have to exist in tangible “space”. The world of
“cyberspace” can include games, cell phones and especially the Internet. Technology
is like the Matrix because we can fulfill our desires and wishes and find
whatever we need usually via the Internet.
The
Internet is a different world altogether. People can be anyone they want. In The Matrix, Morpheus presents Neo with
the extensive power of the Matrix. The Matrix is like the Internet in that we
can choose to be someone totally different: “According to The Matrix, more powerful than the computer is the mind that
engages with it” (Weberman 232). The perfect example that explores people
forming new identities is the show Catfish
on MTV. In this show, people message the host, Nev Schulman and tell him
their story; their stories usually have to do with them being in love with
someone they have only met through the internet and wish to finally meet face
to face. This usually results in many lies being unfolded such as false jobs,
appearances, and other aspects the people present as truths. Sometimes these
people are devastatingly disappointed. However, how come these people are
continuing with something that will most likely end up in heartbreak? Why are
they so keen on believing what they see and hear on the Internet?
The
people in Catfish are choosing to
believe that the people they are meeting online are real; the relationships
that they have are real. These people have so much desire to have a connection
with other person that they will chose any way possible to feel that
connection. Although this online relationship is a kind of reality, it does not
come close to the “real-life” relationships that can be experienced. The world
of social networking is a simulation, which is defined by Weberman as “a means
of representing, in a life-like manner, objectives processes ad subjective
experiences that may or may not have existed before” (Weberman 230).
Simulations are usually found in computers with computer games and the
Internet. These are realities are chosen and given to us to play along with.
Simulations play a role in our lives
Another
film that discusses the role of technology in everyone’s life is Jean-Luc
Godard’s 1965 science fiction film Alphaville.
In the film, Lemmy Caution travels from other society to investigate the
city called Alphaville. He discovers
that super computer called Alpha 60 is controlling the people. Because he is
from “the outside”, this super computer does not affect him. Alpha 60 is
controlling everyone by outlawing anything related to humanity: poetry, love,
and freethinking. In result of this control, these people are becoming even
more robotic and are subjects to the ideas of a super computer.
This
is effective in Alphaville as well as
in The Matrix because the “super
computers” have captured the citizens in a controlled reality. In both films,
these citizens are unaware of their situation and fate because it is a reality
that has been ingrained in their way of life. We are becoming like these people
of both societies. We are slowly losing ourselves and are becoming slaves to
the culture of technology and believing anything that is presented to us via
the Internet. Those who catfish others are puppeteers of this culture; they are
the masters of words and realize that the people that they catfish are looking
for something more in technology than they should. In the end of Alphaville when the super computer Alpha
60 is outwitted and destroyed by Caution, everyone in the city is affected by
it as well; they become lifeless dolls. This representation shows that if we
did lose access to our different forms of technology, we would suffer the same
fate as the citizens of Alphaville.
Anything can be a reality. There is
realness in the words people say; the way people say things, and the ideas that
float in and out of us every day. Humans can choose their own reality; that is
what makes us different from our primate counterparts. We can choose what we
want to believe. Humans can chose what is the undeniable Truth or what is their
personal truth. Either way these truths become reality and a way of life. In
all these examples, the people are subject to the realities presented to them. They
could get out of their respective realities, but they have become too
comfortable with “having it all”. In The
Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo when he presents the red and blue pills that all
his life he had the feeling that there was something more to life and this was
his chance.
This scene shows that humans need
choice. We need choice because we need to see what is truly authentic like Neo
choosing “the path going further down the rabbit hole”. However at the end does
authenticity even matter in “cyberspace”? There is no law that tells users of
“cyberspace” that it is illegal to lack any kind of authenticity. Catfish proves that authenticity does
not matter and that simulations like social networking websites are just
“enhancements of reality” (Weberman 233). In the show, authenticity only
matters when face-to-face interactions occur. We see people meet for the first
time face to face, one full of joy and the other full of grief. Because
“cyberspace” is a relatively new medium in our lives, we still revert back to
the real world as a base to what is authentic. But without technology we are
lost. We are losing what we consider authentic without even realizing it
because without technology we are unable to function in “real” life. We have
relied on technology so much that we are no longer able to choose our reality.
The idea coming from Weberman is
that we cannot choose our reality. We are so surrounded by the culture of
technology that we are slowly lacking the ability to distinguish between
“cyber” and “real”. The world of Facebook is so real to the people who have
online relationships. The simulated world of the Matrix is so real to the
people plugged into it. What the city of Alphaville stands for is so real to
the citizens. Like all these people, we do not realize that we have accepted
what technology has provided us as reality. Social networking sites, blogs,
Twitter accounts and more allow people to chose reality; they can chose the
person they want to be and become. As humans we need authenticity. We need
something that is “real” to rely on. But if we are relying so much on a world
that is presented to us, we are setting ourselves up for failure and
disappointment.
Cheers,
Claire
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