The Matrix: A Dystopian Reality Made by Artificially Controlling of Human Perceptions

Marius Dumitrescu ()
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Marius Dumitrescu: Professor PhD., Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza†University of Iasi, Romania

Revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala - Journal for Multidimensional Education, 2025, vol. 17, issue 3, 348-377

Abstract: This study takes a look at the film The Matrix(1999)in order to identify how it was possible to bring into the light some metaphysical conceptions belonging to modern philosophy that are recalling from the work of René Descartes (1596 – 1650) and George Berkeley (1685 – 1753).Thus, the purpose of this paper will be to analyse Meditationes de prima philosophia (Meditations on First Philosophy), especially the Sixth Meditation, where Descartes argues in favour of the reality of the sensible world, in order to ascertain to what extent the ideas regarding the rehabilitation of the objectivity of the material world are still supported in this fictional universe of the Matrix, where what we identify as reality could have been created entirely by Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the film The Matrix, the role of a creator of perceptions on a universal scale is taken over by AI, which however builds an entirely falsified universe, reminiscent of the suspicions that René Descartes had in the First Meditation. The Matrix combines Cartesian-Berkeleyan visions from a perspective more adapted to the 21st century. AI, as imagined by the Wachowski brothers, who conceived this film project, becomes capable of creating a reality by artificially controlling of all human perceptions, as the brains of the people in the Matrix are connected to some filaments that transmit electrical impulses similar to the real-world stimulations, they experienced in the year 1999. Starting from here, however, we will also try to demonstrate that, despite the fact that the film The Matrix presents a futuristic conception, it does not, however, move towards an atheistic vision of the world because it has many references and parallels to religious texts, and can be well framed in a neo-Gothic style, in which man, possessor of a deified soul,actually struggles with the darkness of his own creations.

Keywords: the matrix; meditations on first philosophy; artificial intelligence; virtual reality; truth. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lum:rev1rl:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:348-377

DOI: 10.18662/rrem/17.3/1026

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