The Matrix, Plato, and Descartes are all controlled by different means. Neo is controlled by the computer system, Plato’s cave by the mankind and Descartes by his perceptions of evil demons. These three have multiple similarities as well as differences. They all question the reality in which they are currently living, whether it’s real or controlled by someone else. They all wanted to leave what they believed was reality and follow their senses which seemed to be the true reality. The Matrix has different realities in a time frame of 2 hours. Neo( the main character) was a software engineer (Thomas Anderson), but he sensed that there was an alternate reality about which he was completely unaware. Morpheus (the computer simulation head) has known about Neo and wants to bring him to his world as he thinks “Neo is the one”. He offers Neo two pills, a blue one which would allow him to continue living his life, ignorant of the truth and a blue one which would reveal the truth to him and allow him to not be deceived further. Neo goes into this false reality(computer simulation) without believing he is the chosen one only to be surprised by how he was “the one” and that was where he belonged. His doubt about dodging bullets came into reality in the last scene. Instead of just dodging them, he could just stop them mid way and wins against the agents who were the rivals and wanted to end their world.
Plato’s “allegory of the cave,” tells about how a man is trapped in the cave and the only reality that exists for him is the shadow that he can see because of the fire and statues.
Both characters, i.e., Neo and prisoners of the cave have been presented with their current reality by birth and they have only learned to live in that. They think that cave is the real world and continue to live in it, just like we think our world is the reality because we see and live through it. Whereas Neo is chained to a massive wall where machines use his body heat to power themselves, the prisoners are chained in a virtual state where they are mentally bound, giving them a false hope of being free. Both characters are like slaves, one is helpless and is taken to a different world, the prisoners are imprisoned and they have accepted that as a reality. Morpheus even tells Neo, “ You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind”.
The difference between Neo and prisoners is that men are set free by the people controlling them and when they see the real reality they are surprised and take time to adjust to it. Neo himself begins to question his own reality without even knowing there was an alternate reality. He chooses the true reality and returns to help those who have been deceived like him since childhood.
On the other hand, Descartes evil demon is vividly realized in the Matrix films as the artificial intelligence that forces a virtual reality on humans. Both begin to question the current reality, for Descartes, the sensations in his dreams were vivid enough to convince him the dreams were real, the humans who are pulled into the Matrix have no idea that their sensations are false, created artificially instead of arising from actual experiences. They are both plagued by a dream state reality. For Neo, it was controlled by a super computer and for Descartes by his perception of evil demons. But in both the cases, their current sense cannot be trusted. Descartes stated, “perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep”. This statement matches with what Neo felt since he could not differentiate between dream and reality. There is a point where he asks Morpheus if what he’s dreaming is the same as the reality he is living in. The major contrast is that Neo was ultimately able to find his true reality where as desecrates was never able to find it, as he began to question his own reason.
In the end, all of these stories makes us doubt the world we know. Are we actually aware of the world or it’s a false reality that we have been thrown into? The text tells us that there is a possibility that we are seeing things from a general eye and makes us question our existence. The movie is a practical implementation of the text where a fellow human has the same question in mind and he goes all the way to find out the answer(which he does).
I am not sure if we are ready to face an alternate reality because I believe that the reality I perceive is true. I do hold on to my belief but I won’t be able to put them into reason other than “I know it’s true”. A question I am left with after going through the text and the movie is that “do we really know our world”. I hope just like Neo, someday I would be able to answer it!