The Truman Show

This movie is surprisingly similar to the matrix film but maybe it's because both are based off the same idea from Plato's allegory. But at the end of the movie Truman finally is free from his fake life and gets to go out into the real world and experience it. If I was in his position I would have probably done the same thing too.

If I had a choice to live in a place with "nothing to fear" and going out into a world with me knowing very little about it, It would have to depend on the situation. If i was in a world where there was nothnig to fear but people were watching me 24/7 then i'd rather go into that other one i have no idea about. Because I would rather not be watched forever until i turn old and die and i would suspect that the outside world would be much better since there are people out there after all. If it was something like the matrix then I would rather stay int he matrix. Christof says that we accept the environment that is given to us and therefore we wouldn't know whether to leave or not since we've become so accustomed to where we grew up in. The matrix world is more sophisticated and much more very real, no one in there is an actor or some one who is "in on it" other than the unplugged humans and the machines. Maybe it's also because the matrix world is so much alike to the world we live in, and that's probably why i would choose it over the real world.

We Live With Choices

It's not easy to make decisions sometimes but it's the choices you make that determine the rest of your life. It's all about the decisions we make that

We live our lives on the choices we make and that is free will. But when it leads to an inevitable event, that is fate. But the discussion between Fate and free will is always going to be a big issue. Free will and fate never seem to go together.

Or do they?

I believe that the lives we live are based on free will. There is no such thing as fate. What is free will? Free will is making the choices that you want to make without anyone else's say in it. Basically a control-free choice, a decision that you can make without being stopped. Fate is when you don't have to do anything and it's going to happen.

Now, lets talk about fate. You've probably heard by now all those fictional stories about people who have gotten "prophecies" or the "telling of their future". These stories make it look like that fate is one giant unstoppable force that is unescapable but the book says otherwise. The book says that the oracle(like many many other stories before) tell people their future and it eventually comes true. But that is only because she shapes the future (and doesn't predict it) to those who hear it and they BELIEVE it will come true. The book also mentions Alexander the Great who hunted down the oracle to see his own fortune and she told him that he is invincible. He becomes a great conqueror later on and why? Because he believed it so.

Now lets move onto free will (I have a lot to say but i'll keep it short). In the movie Neo consults with the Oracle and she tells him that he isn't The One. But later he turns out that he is because he believed it so. He made the choice to become the One despite the oracle's "fortune telling". So he had the freedom to be whatever he wanted. He didn't have to be the one but he did anyways. And I guess if he didn't then the oracle would be right...

It's these choices we make that will affect many things. If you've ever watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, it shows a great example of choice and fate and free will altogether. There is this one scene in the movie that shows a string of events and choices that lead to one final event of where a taxi driver ends up running over one of the characters and ending her dance career. Benjamin in the story says that if one of these choices in the string of events ended differently, she would still be dancing.

We're all connected is what most metaphysicists say and I believe what they say about it is true. Whatever choices we make can lead to good and bad occurences. And we might not know it. So we have the freedom to choose what we want to do and become but the side effects of them are things we can't exactly control.

Choice is free will and the outcome is fate.

Metaphysics

When I first read this part of the book, I had totally no idea what they were talking about. Metaphysics and a metaphysics are apparently two different subjects.

What?

And I got completely lost when they said you need to know metaphysics to develop a metaphysics. Well the book starts off by explaining this in a manner where it seems like they want your brain to simply explode. But I took that risk and found out that they are in fact explaining that in order to know a metaphysics you need to start with metaphysics with no “a” in front of it. We can call “a” metaphysics truth and metaphysics understanding truth.

They book starts off by explaining the differences between the sciences and metaphysics and it eventually comes to a point where it mentions something called ontological statuses of real and unreal. Then they mentions sources. The book says that we know the source of things such as electrical impulses or where cars are made or where and how babies are made but what we do not know is the main source. Basically where did it all begin? It’s kind of like that chicken or the egg question except where did either come from?

Ontology is the study of existence (dictionary.com). The book explains that there is a distinct difference between the matrix and the real world because the real world has sources that are different from the matrix. In the matrix, everything is pretty much a program and in the real world the sources are real. But the main source we don’t know exactly but there is one is what the book suggests. I think in the real world from the matrix it’s the architect and he is mentioned at some point in the movie.