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RE: If Reality Were A Simulation, Which Pill Would You Take?

in #philosophy7 years ago

You perfectly explained why people would choose the blue pill and I completely get that. It's a lot to give up. No, it's everything to give up.

But I do have to disagree that the red pill represents death. In my scenario, and in the movies, the red pill represents the truth, the actual reality. Granted you would be literally no one in that reality and would have to build everything from scratch and you might not even get to do that if it was ruled by this other highly intelligent species. But yes, you would at least get the truth.

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I completely agree that the red pill represents truth. I interpret the movie to mean that our mind creates a world (the matrix) that is made up of illusions. Illusions of self, illusions of belief, illusion related to attachment and so on. If you remove the machine aspect of the movie, which for me is just a plot line used to convey the deeper message, then the world of the matrix actually parallels our own world. The matrix is the world of the ego - the world of the "self." Whereas the red pill is the world of truth beyond the self and beyond the illusion. People in our world hold onto their egos for dear life. We are so attached to our identity (ego) that many of us do not even consider the fact that when we die, we may not exist at all or that the "self" won't exist.

If we think about the truth (red pill) as only being associated with the machine world then I personally think that we miss the true meaning of the movie. In such a case we are not actually giving up our "self" we are merely transporting the self to a different world. We are in essence saying that we are unsatisfied with this world and that we want to be a part of something else. Like saying "I want a new purpose in life."

In "The Matrix," Mr Anderson dies and eventually he becomes "Neo" - "The One." So Mr. Anderson lets go of his ego and becomes one with the universe. Its basically the idea of enlightenment as taught by Buddhism. I say that no one actually wants the red pill because everybody has the opportunity to take the red pill in this life, yet no one does. Only a select few become monks who dedicate their lives to meditation and dissolving the ego, and all of its illusions, in order to reach enlightenment and oneness with the universe.

So the "actual reality" of our world is that there is no "you" or "me." Such things are just illusions that are created by the mind.

That's just my thoughts on the subject though.