What is the Matrix?

I must admit that I am a bit behind times. Matrix--the video is sitting on the shelf. Everybody who has watched it must have been a bit shy to recommend it to this old geezer;though by some eavesdropping I did hear the oohs & aahs.

I`ll watch it prompto and THEN I`ll read this article. From the cursory reading & ensuing replies it seems I am missing out on a great contemporary metaphor.

And a great budding talent--Irfan.

P.S: www.yahyaharoon.com anyone?

Azure & 87msa

I think the very definition of Matrix eludes you both.

Allow me to explain:

In real world humans and a machines have a symbiotic relationship - both support each other - where man try to improve machines and in turn machines try to provide better service. Man does the creative thinking and machine aids in processing data to be more creative. In real world man has absolute control over machine to pull its plug.

In fictional world humans and machines also have a symbiotic relationship - both support each other. But in this world machines have total control over man. Machine depend on man`s creative thinking and in return man is rewarded with a life that he percieves only through the electrical impulses that machines generate. Man is grown in fileds like crops (an anology with production of machines on the assembly lines) and upon birth man is plugged to the machines. While man`s actual physical self lies in a ``pod-farm`` along with other human beings, only his brain is kept alive by machines by giving electrical signals to his brain. The concept is brilliant. Our brain processes info in the form of electrical signals. Thus if a signal resembling the taste of an apple is intrudoced to a man`s brain the brain would translate it as actually having consumed an apple. Thus the machines weave a tangled web where human beings are tied at its lattice feeding machines with their creativity while machines give them a life that they want in form of electrical signals. Machines have absolute control to pull any man`s plug as it deems fit. This web and its sybiotic relationship with the machines is the MATRIX.

Everybody is happy with this arrangement, except the people of zion who have understood the true meaning of freedom. This freedom is not by virtue of living inside the Matrix, relying on the happiness that Matrix provides in the form of electrical signals, but the true happiness is in living outside the matrix where perception of reality is through our own free senses. So the main idea is not only the freedom i.e. freedom to think but also that of having the control over machines - the control to pull the plug.

Keeping this in mind now we come to the real life again and see the point that Irfan is unwittingly trying to make. The Matrix that he refers to is not a Matrix between man and machine but it is a matrix between man and man. This is a matrix between usurpur and the disposesed; this is a matrix between weak and strong; this is a matrix between rich and poor. Unlike fictional man-machine matrix this matrix does not establish a symbiotic relationship, instead it forms a parasitic or viral relationship. This matrix survive on the blood of disposesd to give a new life to a usurper; this matrix feeds off the flesh of weak to make strong even stronger; this matrix seeks to destroy defenseless so that rich and strong thrive. The richer, stronger, and usurper part of the matrix do not reward weaker and disposesd with better life but seeks to destroy it just like parasite destroy its host when it has comletely drained the host. The world that this matrix has created obeys only the law of jungle; the law of might is right; where stronger nations make laws when laws benefit them and break laws when laws benefit them; where stronger nations define something one when it favors them but when same thing is applied to weaker nations the very definition changes.

The weak, the disposesd, and poor struggles to break free from this matrix but matrix tells him to obey the rules - the rules to maintain the status quo by sending agents and promoting agents like Terressa and Edhi telling its subjects that either accept this as the zenith of freedom or accept the rules of the jungle - get destroyed.

But it is not in the nature of man to accept the tyrranny of other.

Yes Osama is the first to break free of the Matrix but is he the ONE. But he is just a symbol of protest against the status quo. The ONE will be the one who will tell all disposesd, the weak, the hungary, the tired, and the down trodden how to be self-aware; how to find his ``khuddi``. And when man will find his khuddi the Matrix will self-destruct.

Thanks all!

Urstruly & 87msa:

Mother Teresa and Edhi are a part of the Matrix too, not doubt about it... but they`re like antibodies, fighting what is wrong and trying their best to fix everything. It is basically poverty, hunger, misery that the entire world is fighting for... either to stay away from it or to eradicate it. So any agent that might bring about a good change is positive.

We can confuse the concept of the Matrix and make it unmaginably complex. There can be multiple meanings of a single concept. This very article is a product of the Matrix.. and so are many other things. I guess we really have to be a Superman to break out of the system.

ballukhan, I deliberately kept Religion out of it, although it has a considerable effect on the working of the Matrix.

Thanks a lot ZahraJ, I fully agree with your thoughts... have read your message in the bio... will try my best! :-)


- M.F

Azure,

Hello. Points well brought up! Points well taken!

[You want to do something, you have the potential to help and to work for the benefit of the innocent, to bring everyone above the poverty line and to give women their due rights, you even talk about it during discussions... but sadly you`re never able to implement your ideas.]

In order to implement your own ideas, you need to form a strong support group and have people with the same level of conviction and belief. Also, eliminating the ones who do not believe in the constructive line of thought you possess, will be a great step towards getting rid of another kind of matrix.

[We dream of freedom, of nirvana and coming closer to the ultimate Creator without knowing that we are still inside this net, chained and gagged.]

This is very well put!

Reminded me of something very subtle that I observed recently amongst those who were chanting the lyrics of Gibran`s Prophet. I feel nauseated to even see human beings chanting what Almitra said to the rest of the world when the world continues to only appreciate the lyrics, the flow, the depth....but they are not capable of practising what`s stated so clearly. It`s just appreciation for the surface value. Going down a step or two will make humans cry in pain since it will mean letting go of things, liberating others and yourself of any attachments, standing on their own, realizing that they come alone and leave alone...I do not think that it`s fine to read Gibran`s school of thought to comfort one`s ego. Culturally, adopting that school of thought will mean something else.....Probably, that may mean getting a life for some :) ...

Good work!

Do read the little note I posted under your bio!

Bye Bye...

I have a similar thesis- could not work on it due to other preoccupations-

Religion is the biggest creator of these matrices- Religion is like a Geist which seeks possession of the human bodies- it replicates itself in the human bodies- it wants to keep itself and its memories alive in the form of rituals of collective histories of the bodies it possessed- it wants to brand the human bodies with its icons and marks such as tonsering, circumcision, plucking of hair from body parts- the Geist seeks control over the bodies - why?? because it seeks immortality (but only God is!!) - quite like the creature from the Alien movies- it tries to reproduce by taking the body as its host- and dis-posses these bodies of its own control.
Dispossessing the Geist from the bodies is the way to get out of the matrices.

farhan

wonderful work, incredible writing. Leep it up. Made my day

farhan

wonderful work, incredible writing. Leep it up. Made my day

Good work Farhan! Makes us think some other way.

I proud of you man. :)

Nice article, Farhan. The use of the Matrix as an analogy of Greed as some sort of evil force created by human beings is a bit farfetched for me personally. I think both love and greed are human emotions, feelings. Osama bin Laden, Edhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Gandhi etc. They did not break away and escape your Matrix. They had the guts to stay within it, fight for love and face the consequences.
There is also a problem with the use of good and evil as adjectives. Isn`t that falling into the trap of the matrix. Some of the machines that form the most powerful components of your matrix are using good vs. evil arguments to further their own objectives.
And remember, Neo can only do that ``superman thing`` in the Matrix.

Excellent piece of writing. The juxtapositioning of facts over fiction are true to its core. However, I do not think that Edhi and Teressa are a very good example of breaking free from the Matrix. They are just another program - the lady in red - which Matrix wants us to see (or be). If one wants to break free of the matrix, soar high, and do the ``superman thing`` like Neo, he has to destroy the Matrix. What is superman thing? Nothing but ``khuddi ka sir-e-nihaaN, La ilaha il-Allah``.

Long live resistance.

this is actually quite wonderful. Seems like the fundos and the capies are really geting it bad here at chowk.