last night I watched "The Matrix" pretty freaky

[YmaOHyd]

View attachment 2579068

There's always room for one more...

Room for how many more?



Oh. Thanks, Jennifer!

 

[stickygirl]

I’m surprised no one has looked at the plot through the eyes of its two creators, both of whom have now transitioned. If anything, it wasn’t that audiences wouldn’t cope with their brains being used to power a planet-sized bio-computer: themes of being enslaved run thick on the movie world - starting with Metropolis 1927. As with any story set in a rigid, corporate, top-down world, the central theme is the need for individual identity and expression.

The Wachowskis recognised that while they didn’t set out to write an allegory about transgender people, it did leak all over the script. To quote Lilly Wachowski at the GLAAD awards in 2020 “the corporate world wasn’t ready for an allegory about transgender people.”

Here’s some clues:

• Red pill / Blue Pill is the decision whether or not to transition. ( I find it hysterical that incels have adopted the expression without understanding what they are swallowing! )
• The Matrix represents a cis-normative world; Neo frequently describes his feeling that something is wrong with the world.
• Agent Smith's accusation “It seems you have been living two lives” then later taking delight in dead-naming Neo.
• The character Switch was originally intended to appear as male in the real world, but female in the Matrix. Switch - geddit?

If movie goers have had their imagination fired and leave the theatre with an interpretation, which they continue to discuss 25 years later, then the creators have won - that’s what art is supposed to do. If it has worked as a trans metaphor, that’s huge easter-egg for trans folk to enjoy!

 

[SandraMaus]

Uh, I think you watched the wrong movie to ask this question. To my perception, at least, the core message of The Matrix is all about how "we live in a society," like, we are part of a system, we're cogs on a machine, and all that type of stuff. It's an allegory.

Ghost in the Shell came earlier than The Matrix, and it actually delves into your question down even further. I'd say watch that instead. Not the live action though, the original animated film from the 90s. The word "Ghost" in the title literally refers to the spirit.

Iain M. Banks ' Culture' Novels explore this topic as well

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I’m surprised no one has looked at the plot through the eyes of its two creators, both of whom have now transitioned. If anything, it wasn’t that audiences wouldn’t cope with their brains being used to power a planet-sized bio-computer: themes of being enslaved run thick on the movie world - starting with Metropolis 1927. As with any story set in a rigid, corporate, top-down world, the central theme is the need for individual identity and expression.

The Wachowskis recognised that while they didn’t set out to write an allegory about transgender people, it did leak all over the script. To quote Lilly Wachowski at the GLAAD awards in 2020 “the corporate world wasn’t ready for an allegory about transgender people.”

Here’s some clues:

• Red pill / Blue Pill is the decision whether or not to transition. ( I find it hysterical that incels have adopted the expression without understanding what they are swallowing! )
• The Matrix represents a cis-normative world; Neo frequently describes his feeling that something is wrong with the world.
• Agent Smith's accusation “It seems you have been living two lives” then later taking delight in dead-naming Neo.
• The character Switch was originally intended to appear as male in the real world, but female in the Matrix. Switch - geddit?

If movie goers have had their imagination fired and leave the theatre with an interpretation, which they continue to discuss 25 years later, then the creators have won - that’s what art is supposed to do. If it has worked as a trans metaphor, that’s huge easter-egg for trans folk to enjoy!

I have. Ever after transitioning I've always had a strange feeling that this movie had some transgender themes splattered all around. I just didn't know God confirmed it in 2020.

 

[stickygirl]

I have. Ever after transitioning I've always had a strange feeling that this movie had some transgender themes splattered all around. I just didn't know God confirmed it in 2020.

Have fun rewatching it now ... the green type that appears right at the start? Coincidence? Of course it is

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, one of the writer/producers was a man and is now a woman, so yes, very trans-friendly movie.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Well, one of the writer/producers was a man and is now a woman, so yes, very trans-friendly movie.

So, the red pill is X-Change.

 

[stickygirl]

Well, one of the writer/producers was a man and is now a woman, so yes, very trans-friendly movie.

Both writer/directors Lana and Lilli Wachowski are trans... the producer is a man, but I dare say most of the crew were cisgender.

 

[Lifestyle66]

last night I watched The Matrix. have to say its pretty freaky as to what they got 'right' and the path humanity is taking. I have some questions, but I'm unsure if my question even matters to someone watching the movie (or the reader if I attempt to write a story/book based on the movie).

Question:
Did the movie ever address the "spirit" of the person? When you get plugged into the matrix, are you just a node, or does your being get uploaded into the system? does that make any sense?

If mankind can solve the issue of (not even sure what to call this) the spirit... can a person be plugged into the system and then say downloaded into a different body?

"The Matrix" didn't deal at all with any soul or spirit to upload in a two-way street. The "person" remained within their own brain. Thus when they were no longer needed or considered a threat, they could be literally flushed away.

The movie was "virtual reality" on steroids, showing that your world "reality" is merely what your brain experiences through your five senses. The computer was plugged into the brainstem, and "fed" your brain the world experience. And your world would change as the computer chose to make you sense it.

A newer movie "Ready Player One" is a similar theme of computer-fed worlds, but the people in that movie choose based on their addictions to don suits and headsets and immerse themselves in a whole-body virtual world.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I don't think it said exactly but basically humans convert food into energy and the machines harnessed that energy

It doesn't sound like the most efficient system but I guess the movie wouldn't work otherwise

I think the concept of humans as batteries occurred to the author based on the heat plume rising over ever city.

When we pack millions of bodies generating 98.6 degrees of heat into skyscrapers, that heat needs to be sucked out of the buildings cooling the inside to the 70's, and it goes somewhere ... out and around in the streets and UP into the atmosphere. That's why cities like New York are so oppressively hot in the late summer. They're not fighting merely the Sun's heat, but the heat generated by the people themselves.

The surrounding countryside near those cities are much cooler at the same time of year.

 

[iwatchus]

I think the concept of humans as batteries occurred to the author based on the heat plume rising over ever city.

When we pack millions of bodies generating 98.6 degrees of heat into skyscrapers, that heat needs to be sucked out of the buildings cooling the inside to the 70's, and it goes somewhere ... out and around in the streets and UP into the atmosphere. That's why cities like New York are so oppressively hot in the late summer. They're not fighting merely the Sun's heat, but the heat generated by the people themselves.

The surrounding countryside near those cities are much cooler at the same time of year.

It's not the humans that generate the heat in a city, it's all our machines.

 

[Lifestyle66]

It's not the humans that generate the heat in a city, it's all our machines.

Both the human and their machines contribute to the air temp around them rising above 75 degrees.

Pack ten million people together, shoulder to shoulder and front to back on a spring day with the air temp at 75 degrees and no wind. The temps around those in the middle of the group WILL approach 98 degrees as their body heat has nowhere to go but up.

If you ever host a large party in your home and invite 30 or 40 people, a good host KNOWS to turn down the house heat before they show up, because those people will generate more heat in the house. My wife hosts a large party every year, and hours before they show up, I ensure the heat or A/C sets the house at 68-69 degrees, knowing that those bodies will be comfortable after the first half hour at around 73-75 degrees.

 

[iwatchus]

Both the human and their machines contribute to the air temp around them rising above 75 degrees.

Pack ten million people together, shoulder to shoulder and front to back on a spring day with the air temp at 75 degrees and no wind. The temps around those in the middle of the group WILL approach 98 degrees as their body heat has nowhere to go but up.

If you ever host a large party in your home and invite 30 or 40 people, a good host KNOWS to turn down the house heat before they show up, because those people will generate more heat in the house. My wife hosts a large party every year, and hours before they show up, I ensure the heat or A/C sets the house at 68-69 degrees, knowing that those bodies will be comfortable after the first half hour at around 73-75 degrees.

For each of those people, there are cars and computers and refrigerators and air conditions and ...

The BTU's created by those dwarf our measly 98.6

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I think the concept of humans as batteries occurred to the author based on the heat plume rising over ever city.

When we pack millions of bodies generating 98.6 degrees of heat into skyscrapers, that heat needs to be sucked out of the buildings cooling the inside to the 70's, and it goes somewhere ... out and around in the streets and UP into the atmosphere. That's why cities like New York are so oppressively hot in the late summer. They're not fighting merely the Sun's heat, but the heat generated by the people themselves.

The surrounding countryside near those cities are much cooler at the same time of year.

That isn't the people, it's all the concrete and buildings, the term is heat islands.

https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/what-are-heat-islands

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Both the human and their machines contribute to the air temp around them rising above 75 degrees.

Pack ten million people together, shoulder to shoulder and front to back on a spring day with the air temp at 75 degrees and no wind. The temps around those in the middle of the group WILL approach 98 degrees as their body heat has nowhere to go but up.

If you ever host a large party in your home and invite 30 or 40 people, a good host KNOWS to turn down the house heat before they show up, because those people will generate more heat in the house. My wife hosts a large party every year, and hours before they show up, I ensure the heat or A/C sets the house at 68-69 degrees, knowing that those bodies will be comfortable after the first half hour at around 73-75 degrees.

If you've ever worked at an indoor stadium or theatre, they crank the AC down a few hours before the crowd arrives to essentially "pre-chill" the venue.

 

[TheLobster]

It's not the humans that generate the heat in a city, it's all our machines.

Also the heat-absorbing materials our buildings are made of. Whatever heat humans emit, it's a drop in the ocean that doesn't contribute much to the heat island effect of cities.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

For each of those people, there are cars and computers and refrigerators and air conditions and ...

The BTU's created by those dwarf our measly 98.6

Exactly!
All you have to do is stand outside and hold your hand over the compressor on your AC unit when it's running. Compare all the heat coming off that to what your family inside is producing.

 

[stickygirl]

A human body gives off around 100W
A petrol car 5kW
A domestic aircon ( of course it depends on load etc ) 2kw power rating = 2.5kW of heat

In a domestic setting the ambient temperature is designed around 3 or 4 people ie 400W, but increase than to 40 people = 4kW. So yes, you'll notice a difference in your house party.

In a city of 5 million = people would produce 5MW of heat,
but throw in 2 million aircons = 5GW,
plus 1 million cars running third of the day = 1.5GW

So... machines 6.5GW versus 5MW people, a ratio of about 16,000:1

Can someone check those figures? Easy to drop a few zeroes. And Watts are a power rating, not consumption over time (Wh) but hold a thumb up and squint an eye and the horizon is about 3.5 miles away... y'know wibbly-wobbly science.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

A human body gives off around 100W
A petrol car 5kW
A domestic aircon ( of course it depends on load etc ) 2kw power rating = 2.5kW of heat

In a domestic setting the ambient temperature is designed around 3 or 4 people ie 400W, but increase than to 40 people = 4kW. So yes, you'll notice a difference in your house party.

In a city of 5 million = people would produce 5MW of heat,
but throw in 2 million aircons = 5GW,
plus 1 million cars running third of the day = 1.5GW

So... machines 6.5GW versus 5MW people, a ratio of about 16,000:1

Can someone check those figures? Easy to drop a few zeroes. And Watts are a power rating, not consumption over time (Wh) but hold a thumb up and squint an eye and the horizon is about 3.5 miles away... y'know wibbly-wobbly science.

And that is dwarfed by Mother Nature.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/energy-hurricane-volcano-earthquake1.htm

"A hurricane also releases energy through the formation of clouds and rain (it takes energy to evaporate all that water). If we crunch the numbers for an average hurricane (1.5 cm/day of rain, circle radius of 665 km), we get a gigantic amount of energy: 6.0 x 10^14 Watts or 5.2 x 10^19 Joules/day!

This is equivalent to about 200 times the total electrical generating capacity on the planet! "
That's for an average hurricane.

 

[djrip]

Iain M. Banks ' Culture' Novels explore this topic as well

Don't forget Neuromancer!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Iain M. Banks ' Culture' Novels explore this topic as well

I have those books on my "to read" list because the guy who did the Five Deeps expedition was a huge fan and named all the vessels they used after stuff from the books.

https://fivedeeps.com/

 

[Lifestyle66]

That isn't the people, it's all the concrete and buildings, the term is heat islands.

https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/what-are-heat-islands

It's also known as the relative albedo, or absorption versus reflectivity of the surfaces with regards to the Sun's energy. Even the highways and every country road has similar effects on the planet's albedo.

Admittedly, that is also a factor in the city heat plume, along with the heat energy of the friction within all motors used in air conditioning, fans, etc to move the heat around.

But, in a blackbox thought experiment, ignoring all other factors, when packing ten million people together even if they are surrounded with greenery, those bodies will eventually generate a heat plume approaching 98 degrees, the average temp of each of those individual candles all packed put together.

 

[Britva415]

That's why cities like New York are so oppressively hot in the late summer. They're not fighting merely the Sun's heat, but the heat generated by the people themselves

While "teknicly not-wrong," those two things are so many orders of magnitude apart that one of them really can't be considered to be adding to the effect.

 

[SandraMaus]

I have those books on my "to read" list because the guy who did the Five Deeps expedition was a huge fan and named all the vessels they used after stuff from the books.

https://fivedeeps.com/

In the books the names are choose by the ships 'mind' and mostly give a clue of the ship minds attitude.

 

[stickygirl]

• Red pill / Blue Pill is the decision whether or not to transition. ( I find it hysterical that incels have adopted the expression without understanding what they are swallowing! )

Trans trailblazer Lilly Wachowski says she had to ‘let go’ of The Matrix over right-wing interpretations​

'Lilly Wachowski, who co-directed and co-wrote The Matrix with her sister Lana Wachowski, has confirmed that the film series is a metaphor for the trans experience.'