https://www.wikiworld.com/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=TheMatrix 2026-05-06T14:10:17Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.45.1 https://www.wikiworld.com/index.php?title=TheMatrix&diff=2064&oldid=prev 2026-01-28T11:54:25Z

<p>Imported current content</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div><br /> To the Editor,<br /> <br /> To Stephen Whitty, Ray Bradbury, and the other adults<br /> who don&#039;t &quot;grok&quot; The Matrix, the big question is:<br /> (drumroll please) what separates me from my<br /> technology, and which part (me or my technology) is<br /> going to survive the ever more rapidly approaching<br /> apolcalypse?<br /> <br /> To &quot;kids&quot; who met their &#039;&#039;&#039;spouses&#039;&#039;&#039; on internet chat<br /> rooms (there are MANY), who see their video game<br /> skills actually applicable to realtime war (and we all<br /> thought The Last Starfighter was ridiculous), who are<br /> afraid to let their children play outside in the<br /> UV-rays, high-traffic areas, and non-adult supervised<br /> neihborhoods, these are not hypothetical questions.<br /> <br /> The experience of re-entering messy real life after<br /> being lost on the net for hours at a time is nearly<br /> ubiquitous these days, and it can be nearly as jarring<br /> as Neo waking up in a tub full of goo.<br /> <br /> In a world where we are so wonderfully isolated from<br /> each other physically, a moment with a live person who<br /> actually loves you in an elevator can seem<br /> unbelievably liberating, and belongs in a place called<br /> Zion.<br /> <br /> As for the apocalypse, we are long past the protesting<br /> fervor of our parents&#039; generation. We will do our<br /> part to stave off the inevitable -- recycling, turning<br /> off extra lights, watering our lawn on even days only,<br /> buying fair trade products -- but we know it will<br /> eventually come, as unpredictably and uncontrollably<br /> as the weather: the nuclear/chemical/biological jihad,<br /> the<br /> submersion of New York, LA and Singapore in melted ice<br /> caps, cancer of the skin, breast, and prostate.<br /> <br /> Or worse: endless imprisonment in the technology of<br /> our own making. After all, is depression really<br /> wishing you were dead, or knowing that you are not<br /> living?<br /> <br /> What we want to know is, what comes next in the<br /> evolutionary chain? Who will the be fittest to<br /> survive this cataclysm? Will it be human or machine?<br /> Will we know? Will we care?<br /> <br /> I think the immersive special effects of The Matrix do<br /> not mask the absence of a story, but are an integral<br /> part of the meta-story.<br /> <br /> In order to write this hasty letter, I have plopped<br /> two children in front of the video babysitter after<br /> taking a break to change a poopy diaper. All my<br /> friends and associates complain that I am not<br /> connected enough. Think about it.<br /> <br /> I recommend Sherry Turkels&#039;s Life on the Screen (1995,<br /> Simon and Schuster), though dated, to those who don&#039;t<br /> think that people really can get confused about what<br /> is them and what is their technology.<br /> <br /> Amy W. O&#039;Connell<br /> %%%Writer about science, technology, and society<br /> %%%and mother of two<br /> %%%Somerville, NJ<br /> <br /> P.S. To Ray Bradbury: You are my hero. Thank you for<br /> Dandelion Wine.<br /> <br /> (Amy is my oldest -- [[JimScarver]])<br /> </div>

imported>Import