STUDENTS DISCUSS the Matrix movie:

an introduction to the Principle of Uncertainty

July 12, 2003

James: The Matrix has you. You are in a virtual world and in the movie it's got the robots against the human race. And the human race has been enslaved by the robots. The whole point of the movie is that to the people in that world, the matrix was real. It was perceived as real. I draw a direct analogy to existence in that this physical reality we experience are just as valid. There are other realities that are just as valid. But none is any less real than any other.

Peter: So you would say that the one you were describing was about defining reality for you?

James: Yes.

Lassiter: I see the Matrix as a metaphor that is directly applicable to the illusion we live in, the illusion we've constructed for ourselves. In the Matrix the machines have constructed the illusion, but the people have bought in to the illusion whether they know it or not they are cooperating in the creation of that illusion. Just like we cooperate in the creation of the reality that we live in. One of the interesting points to me was the machine says, "This isn't the first matrix and we tried creating one where everyone was happy but it didn't work."

James: In the movie they said, "Whole crops were lost."

Lassiter: I think that speaks to our need for challenges to keep ourselves occupied with the illusion. If there are hurtles to overcome and stress, then maybe we have not yet learned how to create a world were the positive aspects are fulfilling. I came out of the movie feeling very powerful. Like, if I could just reorient something in my brain somehow then I could collapse the matrix and fly out. Or that I could learn how to use the rules of this reality to bend it. If I could become really familiar with rules of creation, then I could bend the rules enough to fly and manipulate the matrix good. For me it would be for good and for helping people.

Harris: What if instead of knowing the rules so you could bend them, there weren't any rules. If the matrix is the box and the people who think outside the box are "the one" then there is no box. The matrix is the box that we think inside of in a cause and effect world. And without the matrix, without the box, there are no rules. Everything is possible.

Peter: Or using dimensionality as the constant, one could say as the gentleman said earlier, when we made it one-dimensional, humans were not happy. When we made it dimensional they were happy to an extent. But when they realized they are multi-mensional, then what happens? As Harris said, they have stepped outside it and the recognize it is a representation, not the full expression. Then what do they do?

Lassiter: I liked the idea of being outside of the box and being able to step in to different boxes when I want to.

Peter: There are as many holograms as you can imagine, and then some.

Harris: Of course, we have the presence of "the One" and the presence of "the Oracle." In the second movie, we meet the God of the matrix. The so-called creator who could not make a pure creation.

Peter: And we are slowly getting to Heisenberg. Keep talking.

Harris: 99.999% … but there was the anomaly that had to be there. It couldn't be programmed out. The anomaly was the oracle and the one. The oracle was a plant that needed the anomaly to exist, but was part of the creator's package. The One was the pure anomaly that was uncontrolled by the Matrix.

Sage: What was the creator a construct of?

Harris: That was the ultimate computer programmer.

Lassiter: I thought it was a machine.

Harris: Nope. He was human. He was the one who built it all. He was the God. Because he was aging and constructs didn't age.

Peter: Lassiter may have some information for you, Harris, on God. [referring to a video taping we did on God two days prior].

Harris: Yes, I am aware of the meeting on Thursday.

Lassiter: He said he had created several matrices and that nth variable that couldn't be controlled was the One. But the One had become stronger and was the seed for the next matrix. And the choice he made once he discovered the Creator. In the movie we saw it was the choice that was different, not predictable, from the choice that all of the others made. That decision brought more chaos into the system.

Harris: There are so many tilts in the metaphor in that. Neo is one in a different manifestation of the Trinity. As Kay said, she could see why the religious right was so opposed to the movie. The religious symbolism is all through it. They take it as negative in the way it is portrayed.

Lassiter: The Moslems don't like it either.

Harris: There are numerous objections outside the U.S.

Peter: Did any of you notice that the basic construct of the matrix is the three energies? Hope and Faith and Love are the "truths" humans are being AWAKENED to, are they not? Could the magic of these be the "salvation" of humanity?

Harris: The final decision of Neo was based on Love.

Peter: Interesting. It is one of those provocative and, at the same time, informative representations of possible ways to symbolize, to display a way of thinking that is very much upon all of you.

So let us look at the Principle of Uncertainty….