the movie The Matrix follows a dystopian
future where the character neo lives an
assimilated universe called The Matrix
the movie's famous for its philosophical
ideas around simulation and references
different writers from whom these ideas
originally but featured most prominently
is the work of Baudrillard simulacra and
simulation which was written in 1981 18
years prior to the film but 20 years
later simulation is as popular as ever
to discuss this is most likely due to us
being surrounded by simulation in our
everyday past lives deGrasse Tyson can
blow the most feeble minds that we might
in fact be living in assimilation quite
easily to reiterate the point of Tyson
here since computers can already
generate simulated worlds in video games
and seeing how vastly computers have
improved just over the span of a decade
comparing that to our time as a species
it doesn't seem all that crazy anymore
to propose the idea that we eventually
could actually simulate a universe so
while putting the perspective of time
around this what's to say we aren't
already being assimilated the odds that
we're in face reality is one in billions
many different philosophers have
pondered over the idea of simulation for
a long time but the most famous example
is Plato's allegory of the cave the
matrix takes its idea from this concept
almost entirely it goes as follows
imagine prisoners being chained inside a
cave ever since birth they are
completely immobilized and can only
perceive the wall in front of them on
this wall shadows are being cast
originating from a roadway behind the
prisoners due to the echo from the wall
the prisoners are under the assumption
that the sounds are coming from the
shadows this simulation of shadows cast
on the wall is the prisoners perception
of reality since it's all they can
perceive one prisoner however eventually
escapes his chains and his perception of
reality then gets distorted just like
neo escaping his reality of the
simulation he finds himself in neo can't
tell that he's living in the matrix not
until at least he famously takes the red
pill in the context of the film and Neos
consciousness the matrix is a hyper
reality which per definition is the
unconscious inability to distinguish
reality for a simulation of reality the
old world is in ruins and forgotten
while neo lives on in the simulacrum
this idea of a simulated universe
becoming reality is in simulacra and
simulation explained by Baudrillard
through an older work of fiction a fable
by jorge luis borges
Borges fable told them an empire whose
cartographers had mastered the map of
its land so much so that the map covered
the size of the Empire and coincided
with it perfectly in the story the
preceding generations didn't see the
value in the study of cartography nor
longer the maps themselves as the empire
crumbled with time so did the maps but
in the west of the Empire where the
deserts could still be perceived
inhabited by beggars and animals the map
of the deserts gets confused for the
original and takes form of simulacra
both the arrow points out that it's the
map that precedes the territory and
while being a model of a real it is no
longer an origin or reality if you want
to be nitpicky Morpheus should have said
this while in the matrix but not the
depiction of reality in the main you
know what no one can according to
Boulder Yard we already live in a hyper
reality which again is our unconscious
inability to distinguish reality for a
simulation of reality so while a
simulation or simulacrum is most
commonly associated with technology
simulation can also take place within a
space beyond our physical limits
something like this already exists for
us money
baudrillard describes simulacra as
something of a copy with no original
money's value used to be bound by a goal
the gold standard until 1970 but when
this was removed money function as its
own reality since it's a copy with no
original thus a simulacrum it's
controlled by our laws but more
importantly our belief money exists
because we believe in it in fact looking
at a simulation with this lens of
baudrillard we see as surrounded by
hyper reality hyper reality can also be
a person taking someone's version of
reality and making it their own YouTube
for example is often perceived as an
authentic platform of creators what they
share is a reflection of their reality
but more often than not this later comes
out to be false if an audience perceive
our reflection of reality as authentic
and then appropriates it to their own
life then their reality then becomes
hyper real so just like Neos reality is
hyper real through the matrix our
reality is hyper real through ourselves
so maybe the question shouldn't be are
we living in reality rather what can we
do to protect our reality even if it's
likely to be unreal
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