Plato and "The Matrix"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the Wachowski brother's science fiction film "The Matrix" presents a world of illusion, where nothing is as it seems and how it is world created by computers, run by artificial intelligence. It evaluates how the film draws strongly on Platonic theory by showing that only when this fake world is looked at from the outside, from an objective viewpoint, can it be understood and only when this world of imitation is understood can it be overcome. It draws parallels between the film and Plato's "Republic", for example, Plato's Underworld is compared to "The Matrix"'s world of artificial intelligence and Neo, the protagonist, is "The Matrix's" version of Plato's man enlightened.

From the Paper:

"The next step for Plato is to explain the role of the imitators, the "stagehands" who are presenting a false version of reality to the captives. The dummies being carried by the actors back and forth are mere simulacra of the real, the essence. They resemble the real in appearance only, and have a most subversive effect, because they are giving the captives an entirely false version of reality. Now, if we look at "The Matrix," it's clear that the "stagehands" are the robot race, who are controlling The Matrix, the world of copies, which is all that the captives are given as a basis of reality. So the Matrix is the dummies, the simulacra."

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