hole the pit of skepticism. A little philosophical analysis leads us to doubts about those things we typically take for granted, and the more we analyze, the more we come to doubt. As we try to claw our way out of the pit, it seems that we just dig ourselves deeper and deeper. And we are still falling.
As the Matrix films illustrate, there are even worse possibilities than simply living in a dream. Instead, your whole life could be an intentional deception – “a world pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” Surprisingly enough, Descartes explored this possibility as well. As he pushed his methodical doubt to its logical limits, he posited an evil demon, supremely powerful and cunning, who expends every effort to deceive him:
I will say that sky, air, earth, color, shape, sound, and other external things are just dreamed illusions which the demon uses to ensnare my judgment. I will regard myself as not having hands, eyes, flesh, blood, and senses – but as having the false belief that I have all these things. [I]f I do not really have the ability to know the truth, I will at least withhold assent from what is false and from what a deceiver may try to put over on me, however powerful and cunning he may be.4
The computer‐simulated dreamworld of The Matrix Trilogy is a technological version of Descartes's evil demon. In essence it represents the idea of a mind (the Architect) more powerful than our own that is intent on deceiving us whenever, and however, it sees fit. In fact, the premise of a computer‐run deception is all the more troubling. Before The Matrix, people would often dismiss Descartes's evil demon as unrealistic. It is hard to get yourself too worked up about a supremely powerful demon possibly deceiving you if you have never in your life encountered a demon. (Though this may be a sign of just how cunning the demon really is.) But over the past few decades we have seen the emergence of virtual‐reality programming. If our technology continues to progress, it seems likely that we will one day be able to stimulate the brain to “perceive” whatever we program it to perceive. So, the idea of a technological deception strikes most people today as much more plausible than a demon.
Such a deception could be the work of sentient machines, as it is in The Matrix, but there are other possibilities as well. For instance, your “real self” (in the year 2199) could have signed you up for a 20‐year “historical hallucination” against the backdrop of the world as it was at the start of the twenty‐first century. Perhaps you designed your adventure to begin on New Year's Eve of the year 2000, complete with a set of false memories about your twentieth‐century childhood.5 Or, maybe your friends and family committed you to this delusion after your mental collapse. “Real life” in the year 2199 may have been just too hard for you to bear.
How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go?
Feeling a Bit Like Alice?
– Morpheus†
Is there any limit to the extent that such a demon or programmer could deceive us? While certainly the machines were seriously messing with Neo's mind, it appears that they were not nearly as malicious as they might have been. They gave Neo many “privileges” within the deception. For instance:
Neo was not deceived about his body
Despite being deceived about his baldness, Neo wasn't radically deceived about his body. He wasn't programmed to think that he was of a different gender or race, or that he was only four feet tall. And interestingly enough, he was not made to think that he was a sentient machine.6
His personality was not distorted
Neo can be grateful that his personality was essentially the same both in and out of the Matrix. For instance, when in the Matrix he was not turned into a cowardly wimp by having feelings of fear pumped into his mind whenever he confronted a dangerous situation.
His memory was not tampered with
When something would happen within the Matrix Neo would remember it, and if he remembered it, then it most likely happened.7
Neo was not alone
Many people, thousands, or perhaps even millions, are plugged into the Matrix, providing Neo with plenty of company.
His decisions were not controlled
Neo makes his own choices – they are not “programmed” for him by the machines.
His reasoning ability was not obscured
Neo bases his decisions on reasons. He is able to make inferences about how his world works and use these inferences to achieve his goals.
In theory, there is no reason why the machines had to cut Neo any of these breaks. Imagine the following sort of case:
Neo's worst nightmare
The computers exterminate the entire human race with the exception of Neo. He is then plugged into the Matrix at the age of 25, and his brain is stimulated in such a way as to simulate his “birth.” But his birth is not a human birth, rather, he sees himself on a production line as a computer whose sentience chip has just been “switched on.” While he is surprised at this course of events, he cannot really question them, because all his memories of being human have been wiped away. His personality is now changed. His human desires for companionship, adventure, food, etc. have been replaced with an all‐consuming desire to mop the entire factory floor. However, his brain is manipulated in such a way as to occasionally cause him to forget where he started, so that despite the fact that he has mopped every inch of the floor 1000 times over, he will never believe that he has completed his task.8
A Matrix‐type deception could definitely be pursued to torturous limits. And while we cannot be sure that we are not in a Matrix ourselves, we can rest assured that we are not in that Matrix – at least not yet. What more is it possible to know? Is there anything positive that you can assert with absolute certainty? Morpheus seemed to think so. He claimed to offer “the Truth – and nothing more.” But does Morpheus really know the Truth? According to Morpheus, the Truth is that Neo is a slave, but he can be freed from this captivity, and thereby experience the real world. The desert of the real is, of course, the charred remains of human civilization, with its dark, scorched sky, and the underground world of Zion and its hovercraft fleet. But does Morpheus really know that life in Zion is “real”? Can he be absolutely certain that he is free from the Matrix himself?
Of course, when we watch the Matrix story unfold on film, we are supposed to regard Morpheus as awake. In any scene in which Morpheus is on the Nebuchadnezzar or on Zion he is in the real world. And while he regularly enters the Matrix, he is not like the deceived masses of humanity, slumbering away in their cocoons. Despite the fact that his eyes are closed when he jacks in, he remains fully awake to the fact that the world of the Matrix is just a high‐tech illusion. He knows that his muscles have no effect on what he can do in this place.9 But what I am suggesting now, is that we think beyond the limits of this particular story. If there are more possibilities to Morpheus's reality than we are explicitly shown in the film, can he really be absolutely certain that he is awake? I contend that he cannot. Morpheus is trapped in the pit of skepticism just like the rest of us.
Consider this “alternative reality,” which is consistent with the central ideas of the Matrix trilogy, but which is not part of the story depicted in the films: