To further enhance this class, I would recommend adding the film, The Matrix. This movie follows Neo as he goes on an epic journey of escape after he discovers his current life is a lie, portrayed by an artificial super intelligence. It is set in a future Earth where human-created super intelligences have taken over, and have resulted in using humans for batteries. The computers place the humans into a conscious state called The Matrix, where everything appears to be real and normal, unlike the mess of a place the real world has turned into. Neo attempts to release his fellow humans from this state, which, as one might guess, is met with heavy resistance from the computers.
I believe this movie, along with the following 2 movies (for closure) would open the pathway to many discussions like the one’s we had in class, particularly pertaining to the advancement of artificial intelligence. A specific scene I would love to discuss would be when Neo is offered a choice between two pills, a red pill, which will allow him to see the Matrix for what it truly is, a lie, or a blue pill, which would allow him to have his recent memory wiped and return back into the Matrix, oblivious to the fact it is all a lie. I think it would be really interesting to hear people’s thoughts on how this choice is somewhat applicable to our lives today, in which we are so consumed in social media and technology, and what they would choose in this scenario.
The Matrix hits on pretty much every theme from our class, and it would be impossible to relate it to just one piece of media we looked at this semester. It particularly ties in with the theme of digital consumer, as all the humans are quite literally consuming this information, both unwillingly and in some cases willingly. The most relatable piece would probably be The Circle in which we see technology move to control almost every aspect of our lives. Another aspect of the class that applies well to this movie is the concept of subliminal advertising and data-collecting of our personal information. However, I think The Matrix poses an extremely important question that no other media piece does, “Would you be willing to live in a lie in order to escape the world you currently live in?” There’s no doubt that the current state of our world is a mess, racial injustice, a pandemic, civil unrest, but would that justify giving up the freedom of having your own life? In a roundabout way, the title of the prompt for this post poses my final question, or more so challenge. I challenge you, the reader, the student, the professor, the hopeful, the hopeless, I challenge you to Choose Your Own Adventure, to not be satisfied by being so engrossed by the facade of social media, but to rip aside the veil of familiarity and grow, as we as humans are programmed to do.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/
