the I, she, or it that thinks (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ironed_orchid) wrote in masqthephlsphr, |
Hey, I just stumbled on your comment directing me here. (Which I missed before).
I agree about the limits of The Matrix being the real or world. What was nice about "Normal Again" was that both options were equally feasible.
The film which I thought was much better than The Matrix, and which came out a year or so earlier, was Cronenburgs eXistenZ, which plays around with our ideas of which reality is virtual and which is 'real'(or as I thought of it, the higher level of reality).
The Matrix now will get brought up in philosophy classes discussing Descartes or Putnums Brain in Vat scenario, except that of course Descartes' version is much more radical, there is no body waiting for you once you've worked through your doubt and your sensory illusions, there is only a disembodied mind which thinks. This is so much harder to envision than a body in a pod, or even a brain in a vat, and I guess it just shows how much materialist views dominate our thought, whereas in the 17th C the idea of a soul that was attached to one's body but not essentially so was probably the normal way of thinking about oneself.
As for your teen fantasy, I think that's one of the key ingredients of teen angst, realizing the world needed be like this, that we could be different if we had different social cues etc. I don't think your sense of superiority is that different from the superiority implied by existential 'authenticity'.
Although, I must admit that the idea of contingency of the world makes me feel more free, that there are more possibilities open to me, than the idea of necessity or design does. Which is why the idea of radical contingency doesn't fill me with dread but rather is an idea that I find comforting.
I agree about the limits of The Matrix being the real or world. What was nice about "Normal Again" was that both options were equally feasible.
The film which I thought was much better than The Matrix, and which came out a year or so earlier, was Cronenburgs eXistenZ, which plays around with our ideas of which reality is virtual and which is 'real'(or as I thought of it, the higher level of reality).
The Matrix now will get brought up in philosophy classes discussing Descartes or Putnums Brain in Vat scenario, except that of course Descartes' version is much more radical, there is no body waiting for you once you've worked through your doubt and your sensory illusions, there is only a disembodied mind which thinks. This is so much harder to envision than a body in a pod, or even a brain in a vat, and I guess it just shows how much materialist views dominate our thought, whereas in the 17th C the idea of a soul that was attached to one's body but not essentially so was probably the normal way of thinking about oneself.
As for your teen fantasy, I think that's one of the key ingredients of teen angst, realizing the world needed be like this, that we could be different if we had different social cues etc. I don't think your sense of superiority is that different from the superiority implied by existential 'authenticity'.
Although, I must admit that the idea of contingency of the world makes me feel more free, that there are more possibilities open to me, than the idea of necessity or design does. Which is why the idea of radical contingency doesn't fill me with dread but rather is an idea that I find comforting.
