Blog 3: Reality?

"What is real?" is what Morpheus asks when he starts explaining the Matrix to Neo. "real" is thrown around in the movie a lot. The word "real" like Cypher says is just another 4 letter word. It's a word used to describe what we believe we see as reality. And that comes to our problem with another word "believe". When we believe what we think is real, we do not exactly know it's real. Which is a big problem because, how will we know what is and what isn't reality?

What if we are in the Matrix? Real?

The book "The Matrix And Philosophy" says that anything real as well as valuable can only be real if it isn't in the matrix. And another argument suggests that what is real is anything that gives a very pleasurable experience. The first argument is really hard to find out what exactly is real unless we know there is an actual "Matrix" but the second one we can identify with quite easily. But in my opinion the second one does not make sense. Although the experience can be in fact pleasurable, such as eating some delicious cake. You can say you know the cakes tastes good but that's because you know what a fake simulated cake tastes like in a fake reality that you know you believe is real. Basically the cake is a lie. The first argument is much more agreeable because of the fact that if you get disconnected from the Matrix then it's got to be all real.

The allegory of the cave suggests that "real" is what we come to believe as "real" like the people trapped in the cave. Like us they were raised only knowing the environment around them and they have come to believe that this is their reality and all that they will ever know. So if we are like those people ion the cave then the only thing we know is real is what we see hear and feel smell and taste around us. Unless one of us were taken outside of the cave or unplugged then we would see the actual truth for ourselves.

The book and the allegory both say that in order to truly know the real reality, it has to be with our senses. With our eyes and ears and our touch. the book explains the senses while the allegory says; what if we didn't like the real world like Cypher did and would rather go back, but since we know the truth wouldn't it drive us crazy? What if the truth and the actually reality sucked like the matrix? Then the fake reality would seem like a better place to go back to but on the other hand we know its all fake and theirs no point in going back. Unless we could forget it all then it would be an impossible situation.

So to conclude my blog, what if this reality we live in is actually the best one we've got? Would it be really worth it to risk it all and find out the truth(good or bad)? Anything "real" is what we've come to believe as real but once you discover the question "Is it actually real?" then you start to recognize the idea that what you believe to be real doesn't mean it actually is.

When you start saying a certain word it starts to stop making sense. A good example is the use of the word "real" in my blog. Once that happens it just becomes a word, then 4 letters, then symbols and then its just some weird pattern of lines put together. Words can't exactly explain what is and what isn't and explaination sometimes doesn't get you completely convinced. So the best way would be with your eyes and ears. Now someone with a whole lot of philosophy in his head wearing sunglasses has to come to you offering a red or blue pill offering the truth. Since that's pretty much the only way you can find out the actual "real"