Chapter: Chapter 9
↓ Transcript
(They are back in the living room.)
Dee: Anyway, here's something that didn't really come up in those movies: presumably the world in the Matrix is the same as our real world, right? Including impoverished people, and starvation, and slavery? Because that would mean a lot of people would have a much easier choice. And yet the heroes hang around lucky old America.
Emily (shrugging): It's an American movie, you ignore that sort of thing.
Dee: I'm just putting it out there. If they rescued the people who had nothing to go back to, as well as probably making those people's lives better, they wouldn't have traitors who preferred the Matrix stabbing them in the back.
Emily: That's really not the point of the movie. The choice was between a sucky reality and a good dream. A sucky dream would always lose to any kind of reality.
Dee: But if the Matrix was real, you shouldn't waste time thinking about whether reality's better than an illusion, you should just go save people from oppression and all that. This is what I was saying before - morality is more important than whether you're awake or dreaming.
Emily: Here's why the question of reality matters: if nothing is real, why should you care how ethically you live your life? You could just do whatever, because it doesn't matter and doesn't affect anybody. If it's a dream, you'll wake up. It won't make a difference.
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Alt text: (none)
Dee: Anyway, here's something that didn't really come up in those movies: presumably the world in the Matrix is the same as our real world, right? Including impoverished people, and starvation, and slavery? Because that would mean a lot of people would have a much easier choice. And yet the heroes hang around lucky old America.
Emily (shrugging): It's an American movie, you ignore that sort of thing.
Dee: I'm just putting it out there. If they rescued the people who had nothing to go back to, as well as probably making those people's lives better, they wouldn't have traitors who preferred the Matrix stabbing them in the back.
Emily: That's really not the point of the movie. The choice was between a sucky reality and a good dream. A sucky dream would always lose to any kind of reality.
Dee: But if the Matrix was real, you shouldn't waste time thinking about whether reality's better than an illusion, you should just go save people from oppression and all that. This is what I was saying before - morality is more important than whether you're awake or dreaming.
Emily: Here's why the question of reality matters: if nothing is real, why should you care how ethically you live your life? You could just do whatever, because it doesn't matter and doesn't affect anybody. If it's a dream, you'll wake up. It won't make a difference.
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Alt text: (none)