Just Finished Reading: More Matrix and Philosophy – Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded edited by William Irwin (FP: 2005)

Rather unsurprisingly this is the sequel to The Matrix and Philosophy also edited by Irwin which I read some years ago – pre Blog. The Matrix, it would seem at least, is practically single-handedly responsible for the plethora of many of the pop-culture philosophy books presently cluttering up my book shelves. The Matrix, no matter what it detractors say, is certainly a movie that can be dissected philosophically much more than any other later 20^th Century film – so what about its much debated sequels?

Well, 18 authors (some of who are professional philosophers) attempt just that. As with most things like this, at least in my experience, the quality or at least the interest they generate, varies with the author. Some of the articles I found moderately interesting. Some I found rather pretentious and others I found truly interesting. One aspect of the movies that I hadn’t really thought about prior to reading this volume was the music in the movies. Now I liked the soundtracks and even bought them. The opening credits music still sends a shiver up my spine now but no matter how much I enjoy the music I’d never really thought about it much. Theodore Gracyk made one point which really stopped me in my tracks. He was describing a scene where Neo gets ‘killed’ in the first movie and briefly assumes a Christ crucified pose hinting that he is indeed the new Messiah. Behind it is clearly religious music but why do we recognise it as such. In some countries The Matrix was heavily edited before finally being released. In places the obviously Christian message was edited out – but they left in the music because, it would seem, that even though the religious imagery was clear to them the religious music was not. Playing a Western audience clearly religious music from other ‘unknown’ cultures gets a similar response. We have no idea what we’re listening to! I never really thought of music that way before…. My other favourite article was by Nick Bostrom who brought up the old idea that we might be living in a Matrix ourselves. He actually made a very good case that any sufficiently advanced civilisation would, and could, simulate either previously existing environments (for study or just for fun) and that if the Universe is as old as it appears to be have had plenty of time to do just that. If these simulations have been running long enough, he suggests, they would have created their own simulations inside simulations and so on ad infinitum. The odds suggest that the world we think of as real is really just a Matrix within countless other matrices. The kicker is, of course, that we could never find out if this was true. If a software ‘bug’ became obvious enough for the Sims to discover the truth it would be rolled back or patched in order to correct the mistake and they’d never know it happened. It’s an intriguing if pointless idea!

Overall this was an enjoyable read especially for anyone who enjoyed the trilogy (OK, the first movie kicked ass and the others where…. Shall we say less than they could have been?) as much as I did. Recommended.