Enter The Matrix

The sound of inevitability - the umpteenth time 'The Matrix' has been shown on TV. It is getting to the point that I am picking up the actor's dialogue and visualising the situation simultaneously because of the amount of times watched. Like the deja-vu black cat. Yet there is so much that could be done with the Matrix. Firstly, we could have more animatrix or a matrix series with episodes set at different times and with different characters ranging from before the Matrix to hundreds of years after Neo (with possible extra-terrestrial versions of the Matrix).

Secondly, what about exploring the possibility that we could already live in a sort of matrix or artificial reality? There are many films and stories that use this concept yet there is a lack of scientific or philosophical content to weigh up the ideas. One reason why we 'are alone' in the universe may be because we are shielded from the real situation. This can be done by use of a global holodeck (matrix) although we may not necessarily have physical bodies to return to. It could also be done via a real solar system but the regions beyond this are projected or fabricated (this would also form a litmus test for first contact - interstellar manned flight). Also, it is feasable that a creater may be watching our world in a universe created in a laboratory (in which case a signal may lie in the cosmic microwave background).

According to our senses everything appears real but this in itself could be an illusion of familiarity. From childbirth we attain painful attachments to this world and even death may not be the release perceived by many. Does consciousness transfer to rebirth or live on in a ghostly form? One day we may be able to test this by downloading our minds to a virtual world and live electronically for untold time. Yet would that be me in the machine or just a ghost of me? Also, this would form the birth of machine consciousness (as triggered by human complexity rather than cold logic).

There are moral issues of identity that we may confront in cloning and in comprehending parapsychological phenomena. Time will tell - and closed spacetime would have its own peculiarities and deja-vu qualities as future wraps around to past. Of course to experience this we would need to traverse in 4-dimensional space time and not just in a 3-dimensional space that is bound by one of time. Someday all may or may not be revealed.