From Sci-Fi to Reality: The Matrix as a Mirror of Our Screen-Centric World
Exploring the parallels between the cult classic and our screen-dominated reality
The Matrix portrays a grim future in which people’s minds are trapped in a computer-generated simulation while their bodies are harvested for electricity to power robotic metropolises. Similarly, modern society’s dependence on technology is not only tangible — our reliance on mechanized means of production for our sustenance and standards of living — but also intangible. Indeed, our growing dependence on digital mediums for subsistence and leisure makes the dystopian future portrayed in The Matrix bear an increasing resemblance to our reality.
The deepening human-machine dependence
From electricity and refrigeration to transportation and medicine, modern standards of living depend on machines. Similarly, in The Matrix, the residents of Zion — humankind’s last surviving colony on what remains of Earth after sentient robots usurped control — rely heavily on machinery to survive. As Hamann, a senior council member, notes during a conversation with Neo, “I like to be reminded that this city survives because of these machines.”¹ He gestures toward the vast underground apparatus recycling Zion’s air and water…
