• PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Neo was powerful. I wonder if he could have gained the same abilities, without the help of Morpheus, throughout his time in the matrix. Were he able to do so, he could have lived a nice life inside. I guess Neo felt a higher calling to free mankind or something, so he left… or maybe Morpheus just didn’t tell him the whole picture before offering the pill. Morpheus probably needed a powerful warrior and just rolled the dice on Neo, deciding to not exactly paint the whole picture.
    Anyway… had I known the whole picture, I’d have stayed inside.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        Morpheus says that line to Neo from within the Matrix. I think he’s basically saying to Neo that if he just used words to explain it, Neo would never fully understand or believe it. Aside from his encounter with the agents, Neo has never apparently questioned whether he’s actually living in reality or in a simulation.

        Keep in mind that this is 1999 when the peak of computer graphics is Quake 3, Unreal Tournament and Crazy Taxi.

        • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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          4 days ago

          On the other hand, Neo is a skilled hacker, deep in geek culture, and he feels the Matrix like a splinter in his mind, driving him mad.

          Maybe Neo would have understood, but the audience wouldn’t.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            Yeah, so even if the simulated world has steak instead of goop and gives you a cushy office job, Neo is the kind of person who can’t just accept not knowing.

            It’s not that he’ll enjoy life in the real world more. It’s that he can only truly understand if he gives up all these comforts to know the truth.

            That also goes to the criticism that people (sometimes jokingly) have of The Matrix. That in 1999 Gen X was so spoiled that a steady, well-paying office job with a cubicle was so terrible that Neo tried to escape it. The reality was that in a sense his fatal character flaw was curiosity. His actions as a hacker drew the attention of the agents. When Morpheus gave him a choice, he gave up the comforts of good food, an easy and boring job, not being on the run all the time, etc. so that he could know the truth, because he just couldn’t accept this simulated reality.

              • merc@sh.itjust.works
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                4 days ago

                In the end it turns out to be. But, it’s what prevents him from living a quiet, pleasant life like Cypher wants to do.

                • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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                  3 days ago

                  I think Cypher’s desire for ignorance is his fatal flaw. In the end he dies because of it and accomplishes nothing of value with his life.

    • ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Its a metaphor for a real philosophical movement that parallels the trans experience, and decision the writer/directors did make themselves.

      • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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        4 days ago

        The gender binary literally rewrites our perceptions, causing us to perceive nonbinary people as male or female, unless we go through the effort to deprogram ourselves and take agency over our perceptions.

        The Matrix wasn’t a metaphor.

    • plutopos@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      for me, it’s the opposite. I don’t mind living in a simulation if everyone else is a real thinking person, but I would’ve felt compelled to help give everyone the option to leave