
Ask HN: How close to real life is 'The Matrix' in your opinion? - rblion
Wake up, Neo...
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db48x
The laws of physics don't rule out the simulation hypothesis, but they do rule
out using humans as batteries, and those neat anti-gravity ships. Clearly then
the story of the Matrix is just level two of the simulation, there to satisfy
those few people who do figure out that the simulation is imperfect. Because
they think that they've escaped, they don't notice that they haven't.

~~~
navjack27
Yes the matrix has multi level stimulation going on.

Inside the matrix.

Inside the matrix in Zion.

We honestly don't even know the true state of Earth at any point in the movies
or in the animatrix. All we and most of the characters are aware of is
simulation.

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wahern
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation)

~~~
wahern
FWIW, a more approachable, more concrete conceptual model that explains how
much of "reality" is a shared fiction is Benedict Anderson's Imagined
Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_Communities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_Communities)).

I've never read Baudrillard's works directly, perhaps because having read
Anderson's famous book all that would be left of something like Simulacra and
Simulation is a tedious, overwrought philosophy, without any of the "ah ha!"
moments. I think that could be said for much of mid-century French philosophy
(e.g. Structuralism), but maybe I'm just excusing my laziness....

~~~
wahern
Oh, and for good measure every should read Dawkin's The Selfish Gene. In one
of the last chapters he introduces the concept of a meme. It's doesn't take
much effort to see how a meme would relate to a sea of self-reinforcing, self-
perpetuating ideas to which humans and human society are but a substrate.
Except The Selfish Gene explains the rules by which these reified ideas would
operate.

My point being, the conceit of The Matrix is less far fetched when you explore
these less abstract concepts more firmly grounded in scientific thinking. In
many ways they're far more fascinating because the reality is both more
intricate and relatable.

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pmdulaney
I am not a philosopher -- or even a big reader -- but it seems to me that a
sufficiently detailed simulation is indistinguishable from "reality". Indeed,
even as a conservative Christian I would not be surprised to learn that from
God's perspective, there is no difference.

