Didn't the machines design The Matrix in the series of the same name after 1997 or so because it was seen as the 'pinnacle of your civilisation' or something?
What's most interesting is that the beginning of that movie, Neo's life is portrayed as being horrific drudgery.
Yet modern youths look at it today and find it aspirational.
"Wait, so I have a steady income writing code, have a cool apartment, and get to go to awesome underground raves at night? What's the problem exactly?"
That was the end of the 90's in a nutshell. It was the best time in history to be alive, but noone thought it at the time.
People were BORED that the Cold War ended, the world was at peace, and economic conditions worldwide were improving without any slowdown.
It's funny because the movie even addressed that right before:
> Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.
People just didn't realize the end of the '90s was relatively perfect compared to so much of the 20th century.
yes, except it was 1999, and that was the same year the first movie was released.
it's interesting to look back on the significance of 1999 20+ years later, but obviously they didn't understand what we would think about it at the time.
Sadly, sometimes I suspect they had a point.