If Morpheus offers you a pill, which pill would you take and why?

[TwinBeast]

Agent Smith is talking in the song I'm listening: "It seems that you've been living two lives. One of these lives has a future. The other life..." and now it's something else: "Are you going to save us mister Cole?"

 

Yea, ok, I'll take the red pill.

[ReeseJamPiece]

Red pill

Ignorance is the root of all evil, I try to avoid it as much as possible. If I was to know that the world was simply an illusion then I would leave immediately. To know others suffer while you live in bliss for your own happiness is egotistical and unfair in my opinion. 

[Xcalibur]

the red pill.

 

the Matrix is a classic, but I've always objected to the 'battery' concept. the concept of humans as an energy source doesn't make sense, especially when they could use nuclear power instead. however, that wasn't the original plan. I read somewhere that humans were supposed to be used for processing power, but the execs thought we were too dumb to get that, so they changed us into batteries.

 

humans as CPUs makes far more sense, because human intelligence is very different from machine intelligence. there are things AI can do far better than us, but the reverse is also true. so just as we use computers as useful tools to augment our intelligence, in a machine-dominated world, it makes sense that AI would use human minds as their laptops/smartphones instead. this is a really thought-provoking concept, and it's unfortunate that it didn't make the cut, and was replaced by a nonsensical explanation instead.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Both pills.

If I'm going to die or go insane, might as well go all-out.

[magicsofa]

Red. I'd rather know the truth.

 

2 hours ago, Xcalibur said:

makes sense that AI would use human minds as their laptops/smartphones instead. this is a really thought-provoking concept, and it's unfortunate that it didn't make the cut, and was replaced by a nonsensical explanation instead.

 

Yeah, the battery thing is a bit unrealistic... Using humans for their creativity sounds even more sinister in a way. My brother informs me that they are making Matrix 4, I'm hoping for more exploration of the machine world. Not holding my breath or anything, but the first film is pretty much my favorite action movie of all time so I'll take any scraps I can get

[Doomkid]

7 hours ago, ReeseJamPiece said:

Ignorance is the root of all evil, I try to avoid it as much as possible. If I was to know that the world was simply an illusion then I would leave immediately. To know others suffer while you live in bliss for your own happiness is egotistical and unfair in my opinion. 

A side note to this comment: I'm not convinced the reality we're all supposedly perceiving right now isn't an illusion. I'm not saying this to be Mr. Galaxy Brain either, from ancient religions to modern theories about computer simulation, this possibility has been raised many times.

 

Also, although many are aware of this and thinking about it saddens them, in any even remotely well off country we are living in relative bliss and ignorance while others suffer for our benefit (90-someodd percent of our goods come from 3rd world labour.) While this is blatantly awful and I wish it were not the case, the thought of leaving reality immediately because of this seems like a bridge too far for me. My life is guaranteed to end in just a few decades anyway, unless it's unbearable I may as well stick it out.

[Yandere_Doomer]

well, i dont want to be a battery, so red.

[Gokuma]

I heard there's a French saying that means "Ignorance is a deadly pillow."

[jupiter_ex]

On 12/14/2020 at 1:54 AM, Mr. Freeze said:

Red Pill:

(...)

Blue Pill please. I'd like to shred like Holdsworth on guitar. 

This is something they never comment upon in the Matrix franchise. It's like it is "the truth for the sake of truth" but actually, the real world is infinitely crappy compared to the world in the Matrix. You eat that bullshit paste every day, every form of entertainment is gone, all social class differences are gone (no matter if you were a rich banker who owned 3 houses and 4 boats, everything you worked for is gone outside the Matrix), and there's only a bunch of humans left compared to the population that's inside the Matrix.

You take the pills without knowing and there's no turning back. I think that's unfair. Morpheus could have told you an abridged version of what was ahead to help you choose. ("Nobody can be told what the Matrix is" my ass. It's as simple as saying "the machines have all of us living in a fake virtual reality". Was it that hard Morpheus? :P )

One thing they never portrayed in the movies but I hope they would is: after the ending of Revolutions and the revelation of the Matrix to the human kind I'm quite sure most people would choose to remain in the Matrix. Specially when you don't really lose anything since the machines only use your extra heat to create their power. An entirely different thing would have been if this would have followed the original idea where the machines were taking their processing power from part of our brains, because that would also mean that outside the Matrix you would be way smarter (the old 10% of the brain idea?). Way more interesting.

(another cool idea was that Switch was supposed to be a man in the Matrix but a woman in real life. Shame that one got discarded too)

[magicsofa]

4 hours ago, jupiter_ex said:

("Nobody can be told what the Matrix is" my ass. It's as simple as saying "the machines have all of us living in a fake virtual reality". Was it that hard Morpheus? :P

He did explain it though, in his lines before that. He uses a little poetic flair but it's getting to the point. Besides, it's a movie, the scene is supposed to be dramatic and compelling, not just a bland explanation of the big reveal :P
 

Quote

MORPHEUS: What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life—that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?

NEO: … The Matrix.

MORPHEUS: Do you want to know what it is?

MORPHEUS: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work … when you go to church … when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

NEO: What truth?

MORPHEUS: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.

MORPHEUS: Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.