Matrix Intimations

Over the holiday break (and yes, I actually unplugged and took a holiday this year) Jerry and I watched all three Matrix films in a single sitting. Watching the films this way exposed ideas and themes that I didn't see in earlier viewings. The films have stayed with me a bit longer this time than I imagined they would. I continue to be amazed by how the imaginative and fantastic world of the Matrix is so much like our own.

I suppose that given my background and work it's no wonder that I'm as fascinated as I am by the series. I studied many of the theories that underpin the films while working on my English degree at Auburn. And now, I make my living with computers. I find myself a student of both humanity and machine — not to put too dramatic a spin on it — and there is a lot that the study of one can reveal about the other.

I especially love the juxtaposition of postmodern theories (of perception, what is the "real", etc.) versus the absolutism of a binary machine. Postmodernism, or more accurately post-structuralism, would say that a word has meaning only in its context — what is "True" is a construct of a given time, place, culture, etc. The computer says, there is only 0 or 1, False or True, Off or On. Postmodernism objects to binary distinctions, but in the machine there can only be binary distinctions. Keep in mind that it's we indeterminate humans that created the binary-fixed computer.

So here's a question to "bake your noodle," to borrow from the Oracle: Is the world somehow naturally represented in binary? Or, in creating computers, did humanity simply recreate its own cultural hegemony in electronic form?

Posted by deryck on January 12, 2006

Post a comment

Comments temporarily closed.