"The Matrix: Humanity Reloaded"

From Robo Culture Wiki

Andy Wachowski’s The Matrix (1999) can be regarded as an illustration of the post human condition, an extreme illustration nearing the end of human life. The Matrix has been given considerable academic attention primarily focusing on Lacanian thought. While Matrix viewers are perhaps more interested in virtuality and the Real, the movie articulates significant post humanist concepts surrounding embodiment, human consciousness, and entropy. It is not the purpose of this paper his paper to give an in depth analysis of the film The Matrix as it represents the post human condition but to rather to use The Matrix to help explore the limits of post humanism. When considering what is human, or what constitutes humanness ‘the body’ has been of significance, however, moving into a post-humanism era embodiment has seemed to lose all significance; here the body is likened to a machine. While both the body and the machine are capable of ‘cycling energy into different forms'(Hayles, 1999, p. 101), the body has become simply a manipulatable cavity for post-humans, a mechanical entity that has the ability to reproduce. Equated with machine, the body can no longer be considered an asset for humanist thought, implicating the human consciousness as the only remaining precursor for humanism. Similarly, Hans Moravec (1988) and Norbert Wiener (1954) proposed an idea that human consciousness can be effectively telegraphed or transmitted into a machine (In Hayles, 1999, p. 1). When civilization reaches this stage or, on the other hand, machines acquire the ability to reproduce, the gap between mankind and machine may be completely bridged as machines and humans will become comparatively the same.

Wachowski’s The Matrix (1999) fashions a world where that which is natural (or humankind) has incorporated the technological and the technological has incorporated the natural. What we consider our everyday world is known as ‘the matrix’, a fantasy dream world that is nothing more than a digital space or computer generation referred to in the film as a “neural interactive simulation.” Predating the creation of ‘the matrix’ mankind celebrated the creation of artificial intelligence that spawned the creation of an entire race of machines capable of reproduction. This set machines and humankind in opposition, in a battle of survival of the fittest. After humankind blocked out the sun in an attempt to destroy the machines major source of power, the human race is consequently positioned as the chief energy source for machines, like living batteries, their bodies become farmed for fuel and their minds sent to ‘the matrix’ to keep their bodies docile.

In ‘the matrix’ an individual’s body represents a “residual self image” or a “mental projection of their digital self.” This residual self corresponds to Moravec and Wiener’s transmission of human consciousness. Machines, maintaining control in the Real world, are capable of downloading human minds to the computer program that is ‘the matrix’. Wachowski’s residual self is comparative to the post human. In both cases the body is reduced to insignificance and materiality. The body is reduced to a product of the past; it is a consequence of entropy, or random elements colliding to determine the future.

The post human in The Matrix can be identified as the downloaded personalities going about their daily lives in a fantasy world, while their Real bodies are being harvested and drained of energy in gewy pod-like structures. The bodies they know to be part of their identity, are manifestations of their own thought processes. From this examination alone, the mind embodies all that is human; the answer to what is human lies in the information of the mind. What an individual perceives to be their physical identity or body is still an image created in within the confines of their consciousness. Once the mind is transmitted into ‘the matrix’ it is the residual self that houses the human consciousness and by association with this residual self the consciousness holds the possibility of becoming physically damaged along with its new respective body. If a residual self is shot in ‘the matrix’ upon the consciousness’ return to the Real world, the subject shot suffers the wound, furthering the importance of the human consciousness over the body.

Hayles (1999) states that once information loses its body it becomes very easy to equate humans and computers. This notion seems to be an underpinning for The Matrix. Those who exist within ‘the matrix’ are all computer generations, even those from the Real world must hack into ‘the matrix’ in order to project themselves within the system. Once in ‘the matrix’ the character’s residual self-image is an identical image of themselves only dressed in shiny leather. This blurs the line between the human and the computer generation as the information is transmitted from one to the other. The similarity between the residual image and the real image however, marks a key inconsistency with post humanism. While the body is reduced to an artificial entity in the post human, the residual self-image from ‘the matrix’ refuses to let go of that entity. There is a human resistance unwilling to let go of the body as part of the human identity. Within post humanism, the body is considered an original prosthesis, an artificial entity that one constantly engages in a process of manipulation, beginning even before birth (p. 3). Objects can be taken and added to the body such as a cane or breast implants. As post humans, Neo and his crew have an astounding ability to manipulate their bodies within ‘the matrix’. Not only do they have the ability to manipulate their bodies, dodging bullets, and nearly flying, they also have the ability to manipulate the way their residual selves are affected within ‘the matrix’.

Returning again to Wiener’s (1954) discussion of entropy, he stresses the implications of a society where machines maintain dominance. The dominance of the machine is accompanied with the presumption that society has reached the end of entropy. No longer are probabilities for difference frequent or even possible (p. 105). Wiener postulates that when differences among human individuals become so infrequent life will ‘expire’ (1954, p. 181). Unlike those within The Matrix, Wiener suggests that we have not yet reached this stage. The growing materiality of the body accompanied with the fear in general of technology has fueled a genre of popular texts including both films and novels. The popularity of films like The Matrix strengthens the relevance of the fear of technology and post humanism.

The Matrix in its illustration of the Real world depicts a state of complete machine dominance, where the majority of humankind is relatively indistinguishable from one another, all confined to system draining their energy, all pale, naked, hairless bodies representing human singularity under the control of machines. It is this first scene in The Matrix that depicts the Real world where one sees crops of human bodies growing that one can identify that universal homogeneity has prevailed. Similarly, when given a glimpse into the world of the Matrix, homogeneity seems not too far around the corner. Neo files himself into the norm at the beginning of the film by confining himself to one of numerous identical cubicles at his workplace, wearing the black suit and tie identical to his boss and many of those around him. It is only the resistance population in the Real world that demonstrates any kind of individuality or diversity. In this respect it seems as though The Matrix functions as a critique of the capitalist system. It is the capitalist system that is forcing the human population into homogeneity and post humanism and the capitalist system thrives on the use and sales of technology.

The plot of The Matrix is most concerned with the battle against entropy and post humanism. The constant battle is fought to both preserve and destroy the informational pattern that underpins the body. The preservation will save humans from extinction while the destruction will mark the transition of what it means to be human, erasing the physical body as significant, which will eventually lead to enslavement or extinction. In this battle there are strategists and noise. The strategists are those like Neo and his crew who attempt to preserve the body as an informational pattern, by destroying the machines and ‘the matrix’. The noise, best epitomized by the ‘agents’ like Mr. Smith, refer to those in search of disrupting and destroying the informational pattern of the body.

Wachowski’s The Matrix demonstrates a view of entropy very similar to Wiener’s perspective. Wiener associates entropy with oppression, rigidity and death, and similarly all are revealed as consequences of post humanism within The Matrix. In this paper I attempted to demonstrate that The Matrix not only reveals the consequences of post humanism but also exemplifies the four key elements outlined by Hayles (1999, p. 3). The importance of informational patterns over materiality was considered through the discussion of entropy; the significance of the human consciousness as the main or only prevailing precursor for human identity was argued; the body was discussed as an original prosthesis, an artificial entity that one constantly manipulates; and lastly, the gap between humans and intelligent machines is bridged within The Matrix and one can feel confident gazing upon the film as a post humanist text.

---

[edit] Bibliography

Hayles, K.N. (1999). "How We Became Post Human: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics." Chicago: IL University of Chicago Press.

Moravec, H. (1988). "Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence." Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Weiner, N. (1954). "The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society" 2nd Ed. Garden City: NY. Doubleday.