| |
In catching on with such speed and taking every turn
in every corner of the Nocturnal City, he nevertheless
could still see the Matrix : brilliant trellises of
logic being unfolded into dull emptiness. [William
Gibson/Neuromancer, 1984].
Side by side with the speed of light - that which is
familiar to all for it now organizes the perspective of
the world - is the light of speed […] The speed of
light is also a light of speed. All speed illuminates.
[Paul Virilio: Ver para crer].
The good thing is that you have just waken up to
eternal life. You will live forever. Immortality exists.
A miracle of medicine? Not quite.
The bad thing is that you are now a mere fragment of
eletronic code. The world around you, what you see, has
been digitalized, scanned, and dowloaded into a virtual
reality program. You are now a Copy who is aware of
being a copy.
The good thing is that there is a way out. By law, all
copies are entitled to choose
whether they wish to be deleted and thus reawakened into
a normal life of flesh and bone. This ejection can be
found in the utilities menu. You need to open it…
The bad thing is that this does not work. Someone has
blocked the ejection option. Furthermore, you know who
did it. It was you. The other you. The real you. The one
who wishes to keep you there forever.
This was Terry Bison's last comment in 1995 (winner
of the Hugo Science Fiction award) on Greg Egan's
romance Permutation City/1995 (science fiction author
and a specialist on Artificial Intelligence). Is it not
enough to confront us as if we were a paraphrase of
Matrix?
In order to illustrate our contribution to the
reflection of today's movie, let us begin with the noun
IMPACT.
From the Latin, impactu, past participle of impingere,
which means to force/to go against something.
Films, amongst numerous cultural expressions, possess an
important role in the scope of our perception, for they
IMPACT us. The extent of these impacts are as varied and
complex as the array of perception/sensations each of us
possesses when absorbing these dimensions whether real
or imaginary.
The Matrix trilogy has had an important impact on the
public and the headlines seem to evidenciate this: movie
theaters are filled to capacity, specialized analysis
such as critics and books are triggered and mass
behavior is dictated.
In several writings on the Matrix, it was said that:
· It would show the 'trap into which the world has been
transformed'…
· It would witness the magnified human arrogance…
· It would be like reliving the creative genre of
cyberpunk…
· It would create another escapist nonsense?…
· It would make for a great action movie, although his
philosophical pretensions are not justifiable
· It would belong to a post-modern paradigm?
· It would inspire some spectators to the point of
unity and rebellion against the capitalist system…
Or better yet,
The Matrix would suggest that Artificial Intelligence is
our destiny, not our decline…
In initializing my process of 'free association' (may
Dr. Sigmund find a way to legitimatize my claims), I
cannot help but initially associate the Matrix Trilogy
to the artistic form of the tripartition [folded into
three] which is revered, above all, in the art of
painting.
It strikes me that this scenic metaphor attributed to
the Matrix is able to trigger our questioning in regards
to the relation it attempts to maintain between
Form/Content herewith presented, that is, between the
relate of an action film and the statute reality it
seeks to question.
However, in viewing the focus of 'impact' under a
different perspective, it is possible to establish that
many see, discuss, write, buy, wear, and dream to the
taste of the "airs"/"arias"provided
by the Matrix.
Thus, I associate a junction between etymology - which
gave origin to "airs/arias" by reminding me of
musical arias scattered in sound, so to speak, into the
"airs of time" - and its capacity to bring
forth and format tendencies in the panoramic culture of
an era. Therefore, opera arias, romantic German songs
[lied], pop songs, MPB - popular Brazilian songs - jazz,
and rap seem capable of providing us with "airs of
time" by way of this involvement which delves into
each one's perceptions in a world full of
sounds/images/meanings.
Perhaps both associations suggest to you, as they did to
me that, effectively, the Matrix seems to constitute an
"aria" of impact on the "airs" of
time which elapses the XXI century…
In addition, I wish to add the word SPEED to that of
the former IMPACT. Some of you may be aware that, among
the many thoughts I deem crucial to inhabit the idea of
space-time in the 21st Century is that of a French
urbanist-philosopher Paul Virilio.
For those of you who do not know him, I therefore
introduce the one responsible for conceptualizing the
term Dromology, in other words, he who works with
military space and the development of bonds between
power and territory. He who defines the epistemological
and existential project of a dromology as if it were a
study/speech/logic of speed [Drómos, from the Greek,
meaning race/speed, lógos, from the Greek, meaning
speech, words, reason…].
Paul Virilio's dromology occupies a space for
reflection between the fields of political economy,
geostrategy, and geopolitics. In addition, it is worth
mentioning that, under this definitive context, the
political economy would be the one referring to wealth
and its accumulations. However, this stance seems to
refer equally to speed and to those who hold power. The
one who holds power is the one who holds speed and,
above all, in these contemporary times, the transparency
of such power through means of communication - whether
peaceful or bellicose in nature - seem to demonstrate
this syllogism impetuously…
In regards to the Matrix, let us now formally
structure our reasoning with the aid of the two
aforementioned words, in case we have not yet done so:
the impact caused by the Matrix is intrinsically linked
to the speed of light and to the light of speed.
Difficult? It may be somewhat difficult to elaborate
initially, however, not so much when it comes to
grasping/experiencing…
The interesting part of this approach which studies
dromology is the need to encompass in the concept of
speed, that is, a commonly established relation between
a distance traversed and the time required for such
task, that which relates a vectorial greatness which not
only represents movement "quantitatively" (in
other words, as a measure), but also as qualitative
movement of bodies, that is, the action/performance of
an axiological purpose which man attributes to this
"duration" according to his view of this
project.
In this context, the author will include, pari pasu ,
the concept of traject to that of subject and object
which explicit an existential and imaginary density of
this environment - the speed. How does one speak of
"objectivity" when overlooking the significant
ascribed trajectivity, that bridged the path between
subject and object?…
Thus, one is able to claim that speed is not merely a
measure of movement, a distance to be traversed or
already traveled, but speed is also an ENVIRONMENT
through which bodies are able to move in the course of
their habitability on Earth.
In speaking of habitability, it is necessary to
reflect briefly on how these changes took effect in the
core of the revolutions in transportation.
If the late 19th century and early 20th century have
seen the advent of the automobile vehicle - dynamic
vehicle, railway, highway, and finally aerial -, then
the late 20th century witnessed the arrival of the
audiovisual vehicle and thus begins confronting our
perception as if it were a motionless vehicle
substituted by our corporeal displacements and prolonged
domestic lethargy which, perhaps, will reach a
victorious sedentariness greatly aimed by the utopia of
a "well-being" societal project … Therefore,
such device would come to "free us from
slavery", from submission…
This will thus signify that 'extensive time' - that
of duration - will be succeed by 'intensive time' by
means of this technological device, namely the
audiovisual vehicle!
We now possess miriads of information contained in an
instant and under the image of a
subexposed/exposed/overexposed light… Virilio says:
From the time of succession to the duration, deemed as a
sequence of instances without duration - following the
example of a line conceived geometrically by means of a
succession of dimensionless points - it will be
convenient to oppose, from this moment onwards, against
notion time exposure. From the time which surpasses
chronology [based on the study of time] to the time
which exposes itself from chronoscopy [based on the view
of time], this would lead us to conceive an assembly of
concealed procedures of "takes" - as in
"takes of time"- (…) the camera and its
monitor becoming a precision clock, a model of clock of
light infinitely superior over the solar quadrant
(P.V.:O resto do tempo)
Therefore, we come to understand that demographical
or cultural generations exist, in the same way
generations of the real exist. This is due to the fact
that reality never presents itself beforehand, but it is
acquired through the development of sociopolitical and
economical societies.
With such a device - introduced by optic-eletronical
technology - comes the dawning of a new "generation
of the real": speed triumphs over time/space and
light overcomes matter. As Virilio states: As in space,
absolute time has come desintegrated : in terms of
duration, everything depends on where gaze is set upon
and on the era, on one's "viewpoint", and no
longer on supposed natural conditions of experience.
In one of his articles on Polar Inertia, "The last
vehicle", Virilio adopts the practical example of
"camera motion in the movies" [traveling]
where he will introduce the notion of
"kinematics".This notion is brought upon to
explain the optical displacement movement which
undertakes the audiovisual vehicle and enables an
extended access to the speed which enlightens our
imagination, our vision of the world never seen before,
and where very little or barely any dynamics are
necessary from our part.
Kinematics is, therefore, a part of Physics, and more
precisely, of Mechanics which study the movement of
bodies in time and space without referring to the causes
which gave them origin (the study of forces or causes
and the movement they produce is the object of
dynamics).
In kinematics, priority definition are given to the
elements of movement, that is, the position of the body
and its changes in relation to time.
Hence, we come to understand the extent to which our
perception of the world can be modified through this
device: optics and kinematics are confounded: the
distance of space suddenly yields its place to the
distance of time - time exposes itself in the cathodic
screen instantly!
At present, it is the speed of light that marks the
boundary to the real, it is the light of speed which
enlightens reality. The impact of such speed fascinates
us to the extent that we allow ourselves to be involved
in the kinematics of these "machines of
vision". Speed does not serve the purpose of
dislodging one point to another any longer. Above all
else, it serves the purpose of conceiving the reality of
facts (P.V., O resto do temp).
Perhaps beyond the morale mask of a diagnostic on the
'crisis of a generation' or that which is given a tone
of 'decline' or 'progress' of a civilization, the study
of the trajectivity of impact linked to the speed of the
new technology, the ascertainment of a kinematic and
optical fusion, of seeing and of the movement of the
machine-of-vision will enables us to better understand
and detect the fascination held over the almost
continuous and frantic impact of action presented in the
Matrix.
Perhaps, as suggested by one of the critics of
science fiction, Not only do we live in an ultimately
post-modern era, but also "post-human" in
which we should define the meaning of human being. In
the post-human, there are no essential differences or
precise delimitations between a corporeal existence and
a computer simulation…and this redefinition would
suggest on a comprehension of the human inside a pure
mechanism of space and a New Jerusalem, a Promised Land
(David Parush, The Red Pill, p. 98).
This technological capacity of creating new ways to
perceive reality (see the cinematographic resource of
the bullet-time in the Matrix) enables us to understand
the reason we find ourselves living much more inside a
'map' rather than in a 'territory'.
Do not let yourself be a slave any longer. Abandon
this slavery.Rebel against the servitude of your mind,
said Morpheus to Neo.
To what extent did Morpheus' invitation - the god of
dreams whose name can be found in the linguistic root of
words such as 'morphine', the drug which incites
sleepiness and removes the pain- and words like
"morphing" [formatting], the operation which
requires the use of the computer in order to proceed
from one reality to another without a perceptible
amendment - to what extent, I repeat, would this
invitation not sound like an extremely ambiguous echo
towards the reflection of desire for human
"resistence" against the impact of speed on
this disembodied life on the screen which seems to
inebriate and makes human perception addictive?
In responding positively and swallowing the red pill,
a new problem could arise. This would be evidenciated
insofar as we would want to determine the extent to
which this invitation would concede us the guarantee -
after all, would this guarantee be of human or
machinelike nature? - that this rebellion is not itself
being generated by a Matrix much more sophisticated in
the art of simulation of the truth?!
Recall when agent Smith, one of the sensitive programs
that policy the Matrix, told Morpheus the following: The
first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world
where none would suffer, where happiness would prevail.
It was disaster. No one accepted the program…I believe
that, as a specie, human beings define reality through
suffering and misfortune. Thes perfect world was a dream
from which your primitive brain has attempted to awaken…(The
red Pill,p.104).
How can one be certain that a third vision of the
tripartition would not offer a 'fantasy' escape to the
real, thus simply offering a "new software"
with an appearance capable of configurating itself to be
the "true" alternative to the exercise of
human freedom linked to the option of your suffering in
the realm of Artificial Intellingence?
As in ECHER's drawings, we feel that this recursive
chain of solipsism seems endless…
The white rabbit's hole may be extended to where dream
carries it. In this context, the versions/projections of
the Matrix would be no more than different stages of
different 'formattings'/morphings inside the complex
configuration of the human model and its desire…
Or perhaps, as the mad robots from Michael Crichton's
Westworld - where all are soulless -, we now find
ourselves certain and secure that, in face of the new
technological Man, nothing can possibly go wrong in the
autonomy of his humanity...?
|
