Drawing on the worldview of the movie The Matrix, this course explores the meaning of human free will and choice as the boundaries between virtual reality and reality become blurred. It raises philosophical questions about whether virtual reality can replace reality and whether humans can find true satisfaction in it, and compares the superiority of the real and virtual worlds.
In the movie The Matrix, the protagonist Neo is faced with a choice between a blue pill and a red pill. Neo, who has been questioning the boundaries between reality and the virtual world through his hacking, fatefully chooses the red pill, even though he finds Morpheus’ suggestion hard to believe. In doing so, Neo realizes that he is living a false life in the virtual world of the Matrix and embarks on a fight to save the humans trapped in the incubator.
The conditions in the incubators are horrific. Huge mechanical systems use human bioenergy as a source of energy and inject them with virtual reality to keep them from realizing it. As a result, they don’t even realize that they’re lying in a room that’s barely more than a square meter.
This matrix setting is horrifying to us as moviegoers. It’s the possibility that the world we live in is a virtual reality that has been programmed by someone else, that is, intentionally manipulated. We believe we have the freedom to make our own choices, but the idea that our fate might be preordained is unsettling. It makes human free will meaningless.
The world of The Matrix is not something from the distant future. Today, we already experience virtual reality through internet games. Just as the “architects” of the Matrix control the entire virtual world, game developers control the world within the game. Just as the humans in the Matrix accept virtual reality as reality, gamers sometimes mistake their avatars in games for themselves. So the story of the Matrix isn’t entirely fiction.
So, can virtual reality replace the real thing? And if not, why not? Let’s think about this.
Virtual reality fundamentally exists because reality exists. The very meaning of virtual reality is a fake reflection of the real world, so it can only be a replica or a variation of reality. Even if you live in a fancy house, eat delicious food, and have happy relationships with virtual people, it’s still just a reflection of what many people in the real world wish they had. In other words, virtual reality is a reflection of what people in the real world want.
We can’t say that virtual reality is necessarily better than real life. If you’ve never experienced reality since you were born and have only lived in virtual reality, how can you tell which is better, unless you look at it from an absolute perspective? It would be impossible to make a judgment unless we had a concrete criterion for a better life.
For these two reasons, we need to equate virtual and real life. If you live the same life in both worlds, why would you choose virtual reality? What is more valuable, a life in the real world or a life in a computerized virtual world?
To answer this question, let’s consider a simple example. Suppose you are a self-made man who has achieved great wealth and is respected for giving back to society. Is it better that the honor and wealth you have earned are the result of your own efforts, or is it better that they are just signals processed by a computer? No one wants to believe that their achievements are due to external manipulation. Even if there was no outside intervention, there would be a great sense of emptiness if you realized that your achievements were not real, but virtual.
Conversely, if you ruined your life by gambling and drinking, would you feel better if it happened in a virtual reality or in real life? In the real world, you would have the opportunity to realize your mistakes and fix them. But if it’s virtual, you’re more likely to be pessimistic, thinking the situation is rigged, or you’ll feel the urge to deny the situation and leave the virtual reality.
As you can see from the two examples above, if we realize that we are living in a virtual reality, we are likely to feel very frustrated that this is not the life we would have chosen for ourselves. For humans, the “I” is the center of the world, and that center is being disrupted.
Of course, one could argue that if virtual reality is indistinguishable from reality, then there is no difference between the two. If the signals perceived by the five senses and the signals generated by the computer are perceived the same, then virtual reality is no different from reality for me. This argument is somewhat valid in that humans perceive the world based on signals from the outside.
However, there is a problem with this argument. If you realized that you were living in a virtual reality, like in The Matrix, and realized its true nature, would you still be satisfied with it? Would I be satisfied to see myself as a passive person, reacting only to the signals the computer gives me? It will never be easy to turn away from the truth at a moment of choice.
In the end, the choice between reality and virtual reality is a personal decision. But it’s hard to deny that reality has the upper hand, because it’s directly visible to us, and we can act on it. This is in line with Neo’s choice in The Matrix to abandon the manipulated virtual reality after seeing the horrors of reality.
