In the movie The Matrix, when Neo chooses the red pill to leave the virtual world and enter the real world, it’s a pivotal moment in his life. This article compares the pros and cons of virtual and real worlds, and discusses how virtual worlds may not be just an illusion, but another form of truth.
“Do you want the red pill or the blue pill?” is the moment when Neo leaves the Matrix he has been living in and steps out into the real world. In the context of the four-movie Matrix trilogy, it’s the beginning, but it’s also a major turning point in Neo’s life. This moment of choice is not just a drug choice for Neo, but a moment that questions the nature of his existence and life. Is this world we believe to be real, or is it just an illusion? Neo’s courageous choice makes me think about the following. Is it right to completely deny the world we have lived in and go to a new world? Is the real world better than the virtual world to make such a choice?
In the movie, the following assumptions are made about how the world of the Matrix came to be. First of all, the time is about 200 years in the future. During that time, AI has been invented, and robots equipped with AI have begun to be used. However, due to the influence of AI, robots begin to make their own decisions, and those that disagree with human orders are removed from the human world. The robots gather together to survive and eventually establish a robot nation and rebel against the humans. The war between robots and humans begins, and when the humans lose, they decide to cut off the robots’ energy source, the sun, as a last resort. Nuclear weapons and other methods cause extreme air pollution, and eventually the sun is no longer available, but the humans are defeated. The robots search for an alternative source of energy, realizing that they can use the body heat generated by humans, and they turn to humans as a source of energy. The humans then live in the world of the Matrix.
The movie’s hypothetical creation of the Matrix world gives us a hint of what we can expect from virtual worlds. A world that is free from the limitations of energy is a virtual world. In the real world, in order to eat a steak, a calf must be fed, watered, and nurtured as a calf, slaughtered, skinned, and taken to a restaurant to be grilled over an open flame. Every step of the way to eat a steak is an energy-consuming process. In a virtual world, however, the process of raising, killing, and transporting a cow to a restaurant to eat a steak may be the same as in the real world, but the only energy consumed is the electrical energy used by the servers in the real world to maintain the virtual world. This means that in the real world, we don’t have to fear melting glaciers, try to postpone the future of running out of oil, or search for alternative energy sources.
Life in a virtual world is free from resource constraints, and the lack of material consumption is certainly appealing. But can we say that virtual reality is better than the real world because it doesn’t require material consumption? In a virtual world with infinite resources, or at least the assumption of infinite resources, human development would be limitless, and humanity could exist almost forever. Considering that the machine world of The Matrix survived for so many years without being destroyed by the black clouds, it is natural that we can continue to live permanently on a world other than the Earth, which is cooling down under the black clouds. Therefore, the most basic purpose of life, survival and the maintenance of the species, is naturally followed by virtual worlds.
This idea of supporting virtual worlds is also reflected in the movie The Matrix. Although it is a villain, it is revealed through the character of ‘Cypher’. Keep in mind that the villain in this case is just there to make the movie work, not to say that these ideas are wrong. The only proponent of virtual worlds in the movie, Cypher, makes a deal with Agent Smith and tells him that ignorance is bliss. He praises virtual worlds, saying that the steak tastes so good even though he knows he’s not really eating it. The taste of steak that Cypher is referring to here could be literally steak, or it could be paragliding in Switzerland, or it could be a ride on a spaceship. In other words, the movie is saying that even if you can’t do something in real life, you can do it in the virtual world. Neo’s choice is not the only one that is right, but virtual worlds also have great advantages.
The arguments in favor of virtual worlds can be countered. The argument in favor of virtual worlds is that we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the truth just because it’s more comfortable than the real world. However, this is not a valid argument. For those who live in virtual reality, that reality is the truth. It’s a misconception that confuses the word “virtual” with “false.” Furthermore, the truth of this argument is a product of the fallacy of trying to compare two worlds using only the real world’s standard of truth, which is that the real world itself is true. In order to compare the values of two different worlds in the first place, the comparison must be made with values that belong to both worlds or are independent of both worlds.
Another argument can be made. The argument is that human behavior in virtual worlds is just programmed behavior by machines, and it’s not at all in line with the will of the individual. But is this really the case? Consider the following idea. We are a soldier in a game world. There’s a person in front of you, shivering from cold and hunger, in a place you don’t think is safe, where he might be spotted by enemy patrols. But if you save him, you may be able to uncover the enemy’s supply lines. Suppose we decide to save him, or not to save him for our own safety. Is this decision programmed? Is it against our will? No, it’s not. The decisions and choices we make in virtual worlds are still our own, and we can’t devalue them just because they’re virtual.
In the same way, there is no reason to deny the world we’ve been living in and choose to go to a world we’ve never experienced. In the movie The Matrix, virtual worlds were sold as something bad, but in reality, they are not. Maybe that’s what Neo is. Many people choose the Matrix because they realize that virtual worlds are better than the real world, which is why he was chosen to be the protagonist because he’s different from everyone else!
