Title:

The Matrix

: 1669

Summary: It is straightforward to confuse the concepts of "virtual reality" and a "computerized model of reality (simulation)".

Key phrases:

Write-up Body: It is effortless to confuse the concepts of "virtual reality" and a "computerized model of reality (simulation)". The former is a self-contained Universe, replete with its "laws of physics" and "logic". It can bear resemblance to the real world or not. It can be consistent or not. It can interact with the real world or not. In short, it is an arbitrary environment. In contrast, a model of reality need to have a direct and powerful relationship to the world. It ought to obey the rules of physics and of logic. The absence of such a relationship renders it meaningless. A flight simulator is not considerably very good in a world without having airplanes or if it ignores the laws of nature. A technical analysis method is useless with out a stock exchange or if its mathematically erroneous.

However, the two concepts are typically confused due to the fact they are both mediated by and reside on computers. The computer is a self-contained (although not closed) Universe. It incorporates the hardware, the information and the directions for the manipulation of the information (software program). It is, consequently, by definition, a virtual reality. It is versatile and can correlate its reality with the world outside. But it can also refrain from performing so. This is the ominous "what if" in artificial intelligence (AI). What if a computer had been to refuse to correlate its internal (virtual) reality with the reality of its makers? What if it had been to impose its own reality on us and make it the privileged one?

In the visually tantalizing movie, "The Matrix", a breed of AI computers takes over the world. It harvests human embryos in laboratories known as "fields". It then feeds them by means of grim searching tubes and keeps them immersed in gelatinous liquid in cocoons. This new "machine species" derives its energy requirements from the electricity developed by the billions of human bodies therefore preserved. A sophisticated, all-pervasive, computer system referred to as "The Matrix" generates a "world" inhabited by the consciousness of the unfortunate human batteries. Ensconced in their shells, they see themselves walking, talking, working and creating enjoy. This is a tangible and olfactory phantasm masterfully developed by the Matrix. Its computing power is mind boggling. It generates the minutest info and reams of information in a spectacularly profitable effort to maintain the illusion.

A group of human miscreants succeeds to find out the secret of the Matrix. They form an underground and live aboard a ship, loosely communicating with a halcyon city known as "Zion", the last bastion of resistance. In one of the scenes, Cypher, one of the rebels defects. Over a glass of (illusory) rubicund wine and (spectral) juicy steak, he poses the main dilemma of the movie. Is it greater to live happily in a perfectly detailed delusion - or to survive unhappily but no cost of its hold?

The Matrix controls the minds of all the humans in the world. It is a bridge between them, they inter-connected by means of it. It makes them share the very same sights, smells and textures. They don't forget. They compete. They make decisions. The Matrix is sufficiently complex to enable for this apparent lack of determinism and ubiquity of totally free will. The root question is: is there any distinction between creating decisions and feeling particular of generating them (not having created them)? If one is unaware of the existence of the Matrix, the answer is no. From the within, as a part of the Matrix, producing decisions and appearing to be generating them are very same states. Only an outside observer - one who in possession of full data concerning both the Matrix and the humans - can tell the distinction.

Moreover, if the Matrix had been a computer method of infinite complexity, no observer (finite or infinite) would have been able to say with any certainty whose a decision was - the Matrix's or the human's. And since the Matrix, for all intents and purposes, is infinite compared to the mind of any single, tube-nourished, individual - it is secure to say that the states of "producing a decision" and "appearing to be producing a decision" are subjectively indistinguishable. No individual inside the Matrix would be able to tell the distinction. His or her life would appear to him or her as real as ours are to us. The Matrix may possibly be deterministic - but this determinism is inaccessible to individual minds due to the fact of the complexity involved. When faced with a trillion deterministic paths, one would be justified to feel that he exercised totally free, unconstrained will in deciding on one of them. Free of charge will and determinism are indistinguishable at a particular level of complexity.

However, we KNOW that the Matrix is diverse to our world. It is NOT the identical. This is an intuitive type of understanding, for certain, but this does not detract from its firmness. If there is no subjective distinction between the Matrix and our Universe, there need to be an objective one. An additional key sentence is uttered by Morpheus, the leader of the rebels. He says to "The Chosen One" (the Messiah) that it is truly the year 2199, although the Matrix gives the impression that it is 1999.

This is where the Matrix and reality diverge. Although a human who would encounter both would discover them indistinguishable - objectively they are various. In one of them (the Matrix), individuals have no objective TIME (although the Matrix may possibly have it). The other (reality) is governed by it.

Under the spell of the Matrix, men and women feel as although time goes by. They have functioning watches. The sun rises and sets. Seasons change. They grow old and die. This is not entirely an illusion. Their bodies do decay and die, as ours do. They are not exempt from the laws of nature. But their AWARENESS of time is computer generated. The Matrix is sufficiently sophisticated and knowledgeable to maintain a close correlation between the physical state of the human (his well being and age) and his consciousness of the passage of time. The fundamental rules of time - for instance, its asymmetry - are part of the system.

But this is precisely it. Time in the minds of these folks is system-generated, not reality-induced. It is not the derivative of change and irreversible (thermodynamic and other) processes OUT THERE. Their minds are part of a computer system and the computer method is a part of their minds. Their bodies are static, degenerating in their protective nests. Absolutely nothing occurs to them except in their minds. They have no physical effect on the world. They effect no change. These issues set the Matrix and reality apart.

To "qualify" as reality a two-way interaction need to occur. One flow of information is when reality influences the minds of men and women (as does the Matrix). The obverse, but equally required, kind of information flow is when men and women know reality and influence it. The Matrix triggers a time sensation in men and women the exact same way that the Universe triggers a time sensation in us. Some thing does occur OUT THERE and it is known as the Matrix. In this sense, the Matrix is real, it is the reality of these humans. It maintains the requirement of the very first kind of flow of information. But it fails the second test: men and women do not know that it exists or any of its attributes, nor do they impact it irreversibly. They do not change the Matrix. Paradoxically, the rebels do impact the Matrix (they practically destroy it). In performing so, they make it REAL. It is their REALITY since they KNOW it and they irreversibly CHANGE it.

Applying this dual-track test, "virtual" reality IS a reality, albeit, at this stage, of a deterministic kind. It affects our minds, we know that it exists and we impact it in return. Our alternatives and actions irreversibly change the state of the method. This altered state, in turn, affects our minds. This interaction IS what we call "reality". With the advent of stochastic and quantum virtual reality generators - the difference between "real" and "virtual" will fade. The Matrix therefore is not impossible. But that it is possible - does not make it real.

Appendix - God and Gödel

The second movie in the Matrix series - "The Matrix Reloaded" - culminates in an experience between Neo ("The One") and the architect of the Matrix (a thinly disguised God, white beard and all). The architect informs Neo that he is the sixth reincarnation of The One and that Zion, a shelter for those decoupled from the Matrix, has been destroyed just before and is about to be demolished once again.

The architect goes on to reveal that his attempts to render the Matrix "harmonious" (perfect) failed. He was, therefore, forced to introduce an element of intuition into the equations to reflect the unpredictability and "grotesqueries" of human nature. This in-built error tends to accumulate over time and to threaten the extremely existence of the Matrix - hence the ought to obliterate Zion, the seat of malcontents and rebels, periodically.

God appears to be unaware of the work of an critical, although eccentric, Czech-Austrian mathematical logician, Kurt Gödel (1906-1978). A passing acquaintance with his two theorems would have saved the architect considerably of time.

Gödel's 1st Incompleteness Theorem states that every single consistent axiomatic logical program, sufficient to express arithmetic, contains accurate but unprovable ("not decidable") sentences. In specific circumstances (when the program is omega-consistent), both said sentences and their negation are unprovable. The method is consistent and accurate - but not "complete" due to the fact not all its sentences can be decided as accurate or false by either becoming proved or by becoming refuted.

The Second Incompleteness Theorem is even more earth-shattering. It says that no consistent formal logical program can prove its own consistency. The program may possibly be complete - but then we are unable to show, utilizing its axioms and inference laws, that it is consistent

In other words, a computational program, like the Matrix, can either be complete and inconsistent - or consistent and incomplete. By attempting to construct a method both complete and consistent, God has run afoul of Gödel's theorem and produced possible the third sequel, "Matrix Revolutions".