Topics Existence

Question To what extent is the virtual world in "The Matrix" not real? Those who live in the Matrix without knowledge of its true nature go through life identically to those who live in our presumably "real" world today, without any difference at all, meaningful or not. So why isn't the Matrix real? Why aren't virtual worlds, to some primitive degree, also real? Or could they be so, and if so, what would they need to do to become reality?

Accepted:
July 15, 2011

Comments

Very good question. Most people just assume that Matrix worlds aren't real. But that assumption derives in part from our perspective--we take our world to be real and, relative to our world, the Matrix world is a replica created by computers in our world. But what reason do we have to believe our world is not a creation of intelligences (e.g., gods) in another world? And would our world be an illusion if that were the case? The creators of The Matrix blew a chance to make the sequels more philosophical (and less goofy) by raising the question of whether the "real" world Neo enters might be another Matrix. Of course, that possibility should seem even more likely to someone like Neo who has discovered that the world they thought was real was not, though he never seems to ask that question. But now I'm talking as if matrix worlds are not real, and I'm not convinced that's the way to talk.

What does "hand" refer to in the matrix? One plausible answer is that "hand" refers to the "projections" people perceive and use in the matrix, rather than the lump of flesh that sits in the "human battery" field somewhere. If so, then why aren't the matrix hands real? After all, the entities to which people are referring and are using (the "projections") are just what people are referring to and using. And the same seems true of matrix people's friends and jobs, toasters and colors, sadness and triumphs. In what sense are those not real in the matrix? To the extent the matrix world has consistent properties to which its inhabitants consistently refer and with which they consistently interact, those properties are arguably real, and they belong to real objects and entities.

One might visualize this way of thinking about the matrix by wondering what Neo would think (should think) if after taking the red pill, he emerged into a world which had few, if any, of the properties of the matrix world. He is a blob that experiences bizarrely different things in bizarrely different ways (I can't describe them in our language). Would he think that world was real? That body was real?

There's much more to be said here, including lots of arguments on the other side (for the claim that the matrix world is not real). But I'll leave you with Morpheus' quote: "Free your mind" ... from assuming that our perspective on the matrix world is the truth.

Or Dumbledore (in the last Harry Potter movie): "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should thatmean that it is not real?"

David Chalmers has a nice paper on these issues here.