The new “Matrix” film, which was released this holiday season, is a disaster, but it succeeds in one surprising measure: having something cogent to say about our relationship with technology. While it fails on the action, characters, pacing, visuals, and most other measures, it succeeds on one surprising measure: having something cogent to say about our relationship with technology. (“Spoilers for “The Matrix: Resurrection” coming, although kind of came out spoiled.) The notion of the first “Matrix” was not unique, but its profound sci-fi takes on it — a “Terminator”-style robocalypse employing a simulation to subdue the populace — was captivating and masterfully done.
People had not yet acquired the healthy dread of technology that we witness on a daily basis: cellphones did not exist (and thus could not explain our unhealthy dependency on them), robots were primitive, AI was still science fiction, and social media meant ICQ and chat rooms. Oh, the joys of ignorance, this meant that the concerns and threats were only outwardly technological: computers had yoked the human race into living batteries, but the paranoia was fundamentally about illuminati hiding the reality of the world from you, which is a centuries-old belief.
“Resurrections” is a unique film. Smartphones, AI, and social media (among other things) have emerged not just as significant technology but as defining characteristics of this period, both in terms of what they enable and new terrors they inflict, in the two decades after “The Matrix” was released.
The basic threat addressed in “Resurrections” is targeted misinformation, which is possibly the clearest and immediate risk of our day. The answer recommended is to live authentically and humanely, in peace and communication with others, rather than just piercing the veil, which, as demonstrated in earlier films, is only a partial one.
The conditions in which the main protagonists — such as they are — find themselves at the start of the film reflect various traps into which we may fall. The initially fascinating and meta recasting of the original trilogy as a series of games is a half-truth more persuasive than a lie; Neo lauded but professionally and creatively stuck, is in therapy to cure his pathological view of the games as reality. As the road of least resistance, Trinity has enjoyed a nice habit. In addition, (new) Morpheus is trapped in an echo chamber.
It is not difficult to relate these concepts to social media’s most serious dangers: self-delusion, room scrolling, and radicalism. The machines are influence machines, making their thoughts appear to be one’s own. It has no longer so much that “this isn’t the actual world,” though it certainly is not, but rather that “my ideas aren’t my genuine thoughts.” So, if it is not yours, who’s it? You will find your oppressor if you answer that question.
We can discover unsuccessful attempts of thinking for one elsewhere. Humanity has come to a halt in the actual world. In the face of cataclysmic peril, the revolutionary original Morpheus is gone, and the new leadership is hampered by risk aversion. There are echoes of ineffective governance here, unwilling to take the big steps necessary to move forward.
