phlosophy in the matrix essays

phlosophy in the matrix essays On 1999, the weekend before Easter (purpose or no?) the matrix hit movie lovers by surprise. Similar to the star wars culture it started cult viewers into questioning and even believing the story. This film from start to finish comes on strong, promising to give viewers insight on a science fiction world that so narrowly resembles ours. This has brought close examination of this film and its messages, and is the outcome that I hope to derive from my study; the different levels of interpretation of the matrix. Firstly what does the word matrix mean? The above states quite clearly that it basically means a womb. But this simple 6 letter word has somewhat became twisted around the films plot by the Wachowski brothers to mean something on an a lot more 3 dimensionally spiritual level. The backbone of this film relies a lot on the simple question of what is the matrix. This phrase only becomes technologically explained leaving you, on a personal level to subconsciously debate the question. This brings the film into a different light. One that so similarly resembles reality, which puts unstable minds and those who rely on movies to provide a safe haven from the harmful natures of reality, into questioning the probability that are we living in a matrix. This fear, brought on the eve of the new millennium, was cantered around the already present technological fear of A.I. Acting on the moral panic that A.I. has been progressively inducing. It states that some day humanity will be surpassed and replaced as top proprietors on earth by its own creations: machines. I can visualize a time in the future when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans This naturally gives the film controversial appeal acting on an existing panic and achieves an already naive audience base, which may relate or find this story believable or forthcoming. Examples of this were cre...

The Man Who Brought Geometry to the World

The Man Who Brought Geometry to the World Much of our modern science, and astronomy in particular, has roots in the ancient world. In particular, the Greek philosophers studied the cosmos and tried to use the language of mathematics to explain everything. The Greek philosopher Thales was one such man. He was born around 624 BCE, and while some believe his lineage was Phoenician, most consider him to be Milesian (Miletus was in Asia Minor, now modern Turkey) and he came from a distinguished family. It is difficult to write about Thales, since none of his own writing survives. He was known to be a prolific writer, but as with so many documents from the ancient world, his vanished through the ages. He is mentioned in other peoples works  and seems to have been quite well-known for his time among fellow philsophers and writers. Thales was an engineer, scientist, mathematician, and a philosopher interested in nature. He may have been the teacher of Anaximander (611 BC - 545 BCE), another philosopher. Some researchers think Thales wrote a book on navigation, but there is little evidence of such a tome. In fact, if he wrote any works at all, they did not even survive until the time of Aristotle (384 BCE- 322 BCE). Even though the existence of his book is debatable, it turns out that Thales probably did define the constellation Ursa Minor. Seven Sages Despite the fact that much of what is known about Thales is mostly hearsay, he was definitely well-respected in ancient Greece. He was  the only philosopher before Socrates to be counted among the Seven Sages. These were  philosophers in the 6th century BCE who were  statesmen and law-givers, and in Thaless case, a natural philosopher (scientist).   There are reports that Thales predicted an eclipse of the Sun in 585 BCE. While the 19-year cycle for lunar eclipses was well known by this time, solar eclipses were harder to predict, since they were visible from different locations on Earth and people were not aware of the orbital motions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth that contributed to solar eclipses. Most likely, if he did make such a prediction, it was a lucky guess based on experience saying that another eclipse was due. After the eclipse on 28 May, 585 BCE, Herodotus wrote, Day was all of a sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it took place. The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on. Impressive, but Human Thales is often credited with some impressive work with geometry. It is said he determined the heights of pyramids by measuring their shadows and could deduce the distances of ships from a vantage point onshore. How much of our knowledge of Thales is accurate is anyones guess. Most of what we know is due to Aristotle who wrote in his Metaphysics: Thales of Miletus taught that all things are water. Apparently Thales believed the Earth floated in water and everything came from water. Like the absent-minded professor stereotype still popular today, Thales has been described in both glowing and derogatory tales. One story, told by Aristotle, says Thales used his skills to predict that the next seasons olive crop would be bountiful. He then purchased all the olive presses and made a fortune when the prediction came true. Plato, on the other hand, told a story of how one night Thales was gazing at the sky as he walked and fell into a ditch. There was a pretty servant girl nearby who came to his rescue, who then said to him How do you expect to understand what is going on up in the sky if you do not even see what is at your feet? Thales died about 547 BCE in in his home of Miletus. Edited and updated by  Carolyn Collins Petersen.