Matrix Essay, Research Paper

In the science fiction movie “The Matrix” people are ruled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), machines made by men to make life easier on the human race. This form of industrialization has also begun in our world today. We have given birth to a host of machines that think for themselves, hoping they would make our lives easier and less taxing on our bodies. In the movie the machines have taken control of the humans and rule over them by hiding from them the real world. In today’s society machines have begun a hostile take over of the lives of humans. Ironic, is it not, that in the movie, and in our lives today, machines have become rulers over the humans who made them. In the time when the movie takes place, the humans of the world are being governed by the machines they created. At first the machines, after becoming fed up with working for the humans, attacked the humans through technological warfare. The humans countered by destroying what they thought to be the only source of energy for the machines, the sun. When the machines lost the power of the sun, they had to find a new source of energy. The machines learned that the human body itself can produce the kind of energy necessary to sustain their lives. But humans would never just bow down to their enemies and so the machines had to devise a way to detain the humans so that they could extract that energy. The machines created a computer program called “The Matrix.” In the movie this marvel displays the digital image of a human’s mental self along with that of other humans and a mock up of the world as it was at the highest point in human history. While some humans were detained in the matrix to be used for energy, other humans were fed intravenously to them. Humans became crops to the machines, they were grown in massive fields and harvested like wheat until they were ripe enough to be fed to the other humans. The living humans merely lived out what they thought were their real lives, not knowing that they were powering their own enemies through a war. Ironic that the humans became slaves to those they created as slaves is it not? In the modern world we find humans churning out new inventions constantly. AI is one of the most recent of these inventions and was invented for the sole purpose of making the lives of humans less hectic. However, different duties call for different machines. For example, the machine inside your automobile is not as “smart” nor as quick as the one inside a government-spec supercomputer. Recently humans devised a way to interconnect the thoughts of these machines and to allow them to hook up to and “speak” with one another. This wonder of the modern world is called networking. What if a few of the “smarter” machines found a way to network themselves together through this web of computers? They could begin to change the chain of commands going in and coming out of other machines, in effect taking control of those machines. Considering how much impact machines have on the daily lives of humans, could these smarter machines not bring the world to a sudden standstill? Think what would happen if machines began to make their own commands and would not allow even the slightest input from humans. Our lives would soon be governed by what the machines told us to do. You wouldn’t be able to cash a check at the bank or put gas in your car. These machines would soon learn how to command those used to assemble other machines and they would begin churning out new machines day in and day out. The machines would then have a foothold for the beginning of their attack on the human race, which leaves us at the beginning of the movie, “The Matrix.” Humans are setting themselves up for a fall by allowing machines so much freedom. Ironic is it not that humans make themselves so vulnerable to attack from the one enemy they could never stop? Imagine for a second that all the machines in the world today suddenly turned on humans. What would happen? The cataclysmic apocalypse referred to in all Holy books known to mankind would reek havoc on the earth. The world would bow down to an era fraught with boundless greed and corruption, global monetary systems would collapse leaving brother to kill brother for a grain of overcooked rice. Political systems around the world would disintegrate under the pressure of mutiny. Revolutions would be spring up everywhere, started by once faithful citizens who lost hope after all the civilized nations of the world collapsed. Those humans not experienced in the ways of old would die. Young children and those humans whose every breaths are governed by machines would soon follow painlessly. The lives of all humans would depend upon their ability to produce their own food and drink. Education would become a thing of the past, humans would be left to feed themselves while trying desperately to find a way to make things better. The invention of machines has not helped humans, but actually hurt them. Humans have become dependent upon machines for survival. No humans would be left alive if machines were to shut down. All that humans have created has served to leave lay waste to the earth. The world has been left in shambles by the disease known as mankind, leaving humans no shelter from the havoc created by the machines. Ironic is it not that humans have destroyed the earth, the one thing that could sustain them in the event of the apocalypse? The world today mirrors that of the world at the beginning of the movie “The Matrix.” Humans are closing in on the time when they believe they will no longer need to work for themselves. They will have created machines to do all the jobs required of them. However, humans will soon no longer have control over the machines they build they will then lose control their own lives. The machines will take over the earth laying waste to anything in their path, much like humans have done over the years. Humans are setting themselves up for a fall and they have yet to realize it. Ironic, is it not?

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An essay about the way computers rule the lives of humans today and how that relates to the sci-fi thriller “The Matrix