The Matrix (1999) A world where everything you’ve thought about the world suddenly comes into question; the reality in which you truly believe in becomes faint. In many scenes, the world of the Matrix seems so radical and frightening but still somehow almost believable. For instance when Neo first wakes up to the “real” world, the first things he sees is glowing red gigantic metallic pillars; the sky is filled with thick black fog and he’s too high up to see the ground. He’s surrounded in some kind of fluid and has cables plugged into sockets all over his body, it becomes much more apparent that those glowing red things on the pillars were pods with people inside. Before he can observe anything else a robot rushes to his pod to detach the cables from him, and flush him out of his pod like you would a dead goldfish down the toilet. This scene really inflicts fear and discomfort in relation to artificial intelligence, and the idea that we have the power to create robots so intelligent to overthrow the human race. In today’s society artificial intelligence is much more real than ever with robots that can maneuver nearly identical to a human body, to a supercomputer in the UK that was created to replicate the human brain. This movie really raises the question whether artificial intelligence is a good thing, is it just a matter of time before we create something that’s too intelligent? The Wachowski brothers do a fantastic job at making the design and idea of the Matrix so believable and relatable for its viewers, while still keep things a little out worldly. “Throughout human history we have been dependent on robots to survive, it seems fate has a sense of irony –Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). I thought this was a great quote from the movie, after waking up from the pods Morpheus tries explaining to Neo the history of the human species and what it has become. After generations of countless working they’ve finally developed an astounding AI system, only to have it turn them and attempt the extinction of the human race. The Matrix itself is a gigantic network that the AI created in which all of the pod trapped humans are in a sort of dream state, where they believe they are still living in the 21st century. Thomas A. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) otherwise known by his hacker alias “Neo” is one of the humans trapped in the Matrix, living by day as an intelligent program writer for a successful software company. But by night he’s Neo the renowned computer hacker guilty of hundreds of crimes, searching and waiting for the one known as Morpheus. After a series of events he finally finds Morpheus but is completely taken back at what he has to say, Morpheus explains the situation the humans are in with their battle against the AI and leaves Neo with tough decision. “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes” –Morpheus. After taking the red pill and beginning his battle against the AI, Neo is faced with the obstacle of truly believing that humans could create such a terrible machine. Coming from a society much like ours today where we may not have quite the great AI system as in the Matrix, but the great technological advancements we’ve made really make the idea of it perceivable. But minus all the negative aspects of AI, this movie also shows a good amount of reasons why AI would be a good thing for society if able to keep under control. The concept that you can simply upload software to a human’s brain and