Blog 4: "The Metaphysics of the Matrix"

      Gracia and Sanford feel that it is important to distinguish the fundamental categories of The Matrix. First, there are two worlds, the real world in which artificial intelligence or the machines enslave humans for energy, and the unreal or virtual world in which humans believe they are living their lives in freedom. From this we can say that whatever is real (the world where machines enslave humans) is not unreal, and what is unreal (the Matrix) is not real. Gracia and Sanford give us two ways to distinguish between the real and the unreal world. One way is the source for the existence of things in the two worlds. The other concerns the ontological status of the real and unreal worlds, or the way things exist in the two worlds. What are the causes of the real world? From the movie we know that man made the machines. Gracia and Sanford feel that there are questions of metaphysics no answer is given. But we can determine the causes of the unreal world. We know that machines made the matrix. So what we are left with is that whatever the causes of the real world, they have nothing to do with the unreal world and the unreal world is completely depend on the real world. To determine the ontological status of the real and unreal world we must look at the two worlds closely. We know that the unreal world is completely dependent on artificial intelligence. As long as electrical impulses keep being sent to the enslaved humans in the pods of pink goop there will continue to be Matrix. Contrary to this the real world seems to be dependent on nothing. However, if the real world were dependent on something or someone, the unreal world would remain weaker since it would be further down the ontological chain. I agree with Gracia and Sanford that in order to distinguish between the two worlds of The Matrix that it is important to determine categories of both. After this is done we can determine what characteristics, if any share. it is possible to come to see that the Matrix depends on the real world and that no known causes are given for the real world.