Blogging Around: Nonie and Jordan

The first blog I commented on was Nonie's which discussed the interplay between nature and technology. Our discussions in class always negatively connoted technology but her blog post made me take an equally cynical stance of nature. It also made me imagine the similarities between two concepts that normally seem at war with one another.

Nonie


I like the dialectic between nature and technology. Often I have imagined these as opposites but in the scenario of the Matrix I can see how they can play off each other.

It is sort of like when people want what they cannot have. In nature they are pine for technology and security. When surrounded by technology they pine for nature and freedom. 

Also, ultimately technology has become so advanced and intertwined that it is a huge network. Nature is also a huge network where each individual thing relies on the other in a huge complicated system.  

The introduction of the idea of human nature is also interesting. It is a pretty abstract concept and in a scenario of the Matrix I think that the individual's decision is tentative. However, I think the factors that influence human decision making are things like technology and nature around us.

In my personal experience I have not spent as much time in nature as I wish I could have but I could easily understand how I could be lulled by it the same way as technology. I do agree that this is a scary notion because it means that our every decision is so easy influenced.



The second blog that I commented on was Jordan's which discussed a dialectic between truth and ignorance and how once cannot exist without the other. It raised a lot of questions in my mind both on the personal level and on the global level that I found intriguing.

Jordan

I think the question of what pill we would take is a question that pops into the mind of anyone who has every seen that famous scene. I really do not know what I would choose. Willingly I would want to choose the blue pill and forgot everything. But then I truly would feel that there would be a gnawing feeling at me. I know that your're "supposed" to forget everything but I just know that subconsciously my willful ignorance would eat away at me.

This brings us to an odd idea. If there is a truth is there really anyway to ignore it? I mean you are living within the lie that is the Matrix. Once, you break away from that how could you go back. I just think that humans are not perfect enough so that they can adapt into lies. 

By this I mean though humans lie every single day. It is (hopefully) still an action that is forced, not something that comes out involuntarily. So, as long as we still seek truth then that prevents us from living an ignorant life.

This also poses the possibility though that we advance to the point where lying to others and more importantly ourselves become so natural that we can embrace something like the Matrix...willfully.

Dialectics: Logic and Faith

The intersect between these two ideas of logic and faith is in interesting one that occurs within The Matrix. Following Neo's experience it is obvious to see that there is the big lie that exists within the world of the movie. Even before meeting Morphius, Neo knows that something is wrong with the world. However, I cannot tell if it is some sort of logical reasoning that leads to Neo to this conclusion or just a hunch based on faith. Either way though both logical reasoning and faith play important roles in Neo's journey.

It seems to me that both elements of logic and faith, though sometimes polar concepts, are used to understand the Matrix. Let us take the "jump scene" for one. Neo stands at the edge of a building about to hurl himself off trying to reach another building. He has just seen Morphius accomplish the same exact jump. However, twenty some years of his existence has told him up until this point that a jump like that would kill him. At the same time Neo has faith in Morphius...Now you would think that being the chosen one and all that Neo would make the jump. Yet, he doesn't. Now though, when you think about that logically it makes more sense. After all, no one makes their first jump.

So we have now established that there are rules that govern the Matrix. Also that there are ways to systematically break these rules. We know this because even though movie is a post-modern film, it uses a modern frame, so there has to be a way for our hero to succeed in the end. Now, let us talk about the end. In climactic battle against Agent Smith, Neo's faith in himself is what allows him to become "The One." He believed that the Matrix was a system governed by logic and rules but his faith in himself is what allowed him to break this system (and also to the extent that no one before ever could).

Now, what does this all mean for us? Using The Matrix as a model it seems that logic and faith are two different ways to approach a foreign idea. It seems to me however that they use two different frames of thinking (if anyone can remember that discussion we had from our first semester). Yet, at the same time I said at the beginning of this blog that I felt that there was a strong intercept between logic and faith. This being when you can approach an idea using both. Neo manages to accomplish this and in doing so gains some wicked powers in the Matrix. So that poses the question, what can we accomplish?