Mar 27, 2008  Fragment from the documentry 'Philosophy and the Matrix' About Kant, schemata, structure of the mind, creation of reality This clip is taken from the documentary 'Return to the Source - Philosophy.

Incredible as it may seem, the end of March marks 20 years since the release of the first film in the Matrix franchise directed by The Wachowski siblings. This “cyberpunk” sci-fi movie was a box office hit with its dystopian futuristic vision, distinctive fashion sense, and slick, innovative action sequences. But it was also a catalyst for popular discussion around some very big philosophical themes.

The film centres on a computer hacker, “Neo” (played by Keanu Reeves), who learns that his whole life has been lived within an elaborate, simulated reality. This computer-generated dream world was designed by an artificial intelligence of human creation, which industrially farms human bodies for energy while distracting them via a relatively pleasant parallel reality called the “matrix”.

This scenario recalls one of western philosophy’s most enduring thought experiments. In a famous passage from Plato’s Republic (ca 380 BCE), Plato has us imagine the human condition as being like a group of prisoners who have lived their lives underground and shackled, so that their experience of reality is limited to shadows projected onto their cave wall.

Read more: The great movie scenes: The Matrix and bullet-time

A freed prisoner, Plato suggests, would be startled to discover the truth about reality, and blinded by the brilliance of the sun. Should he return below, his companions would have no means to understand what he has experienced and surely think him mad. Leaving the captivity of ignorance is difficult.

In The Matrix, Neo is freed by rebel leader Morpheus (ironically, the name of the Greek God of sleep) by being awoken to real life for the first time. But unlike Plato’s prisoner, who discovers the “higher” reality beyond his cave, the world that awaits Neo is both desolate and horrifying.

Our fallible senses

The Matrix also trades on more recent philosophical questions famously posed by the 17th century Frenchman René Descartes, concerning our inability to be certain about the evidence of our senses, and our capacity to know anything definite about the world as it really is.

Descartes even noted the difficulty of being certain that human experience is not the result of either a dream or a malevolent systematic deception.

The latter scenario was updated in philosopher Hilary Putnam’s 1981 “brain in a vat” thought experiment, which imagines a scientist electrically manipulating a brain to induce sensations of normal life.

Read more: How do you know you're not living in a computer simulation?

So ultimately, then, what is reality? The late 20th century French thinker Jean Baudrillard, whose book appears briefly (with an ironic touch) early in the film, wrote extensively on the ways in which contemporary mass society generates sophisticated imitations of reality that become so realistic they are mistaken for reality itself (like mistaking the map for the landscape, or the portrait for the person).

Of course, there is no need for a matrix-like AI conspiracy to achieve this. We see it now, perhaps even more intensely than 20 years ago, in the dominance of “reality TV” and curated identities of social media.

In some respects, the film appears to be reaching for a view close to that of the 18th century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, who insisted that our senses do not simply copy the world; rather, reality conforms to the terms of our perception. We only ever experience the world as it is available through the partial spectrum of our senses.

The ethics of freedom

Ultimately, the Matrix trilogy proclaims that free individuals can change the future. But how should that freedom be exercised?

This dilemma is unfolded in the first film’s increasingly notorious red/blue pill scene, which raises the ethics of belief. Neo’s choice is to embrace either the “really real” (as exemplified by the red pill he is offered by Morpheus) or to return to his more normal “reality” (via the blue one).

This quandary was captured in a 1974 thought experiment by American philosopher, Robert Nozick. Given an “experience machine” capable of providing whatever experiences we desire, in a way indistinguishable from “real” ones, should we stubbornly prefer the truth of reality? Or can we feel free to reside within comfortable illusion?

Read more: Why virtual reality cannot match the real thing

In The Matrix we see the rebels resolutely rejecting the comforts of the matrix, preferring grim reality. Tamil to hindi learning books pdf free download. But we also see the rebel traitor Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) desperately seeking reinsertion into pleasant simulated reality. “Ignorance is bliss,” he affirms.

The film’s chief villain, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), darkly notes that unlike other mammals, (western) humanity insatiably consumes natural resources. The matrix, he suggests, is a “cure” for this human “contagion”.

We have heard much about the potential perils of AI, but perhaps there is something in Agent Smith’s accusation. In raising this tension, The Matrix still strikes a nerve – especially after 20 further years of insatiable consumption.

The National Monument to the Forefathers, formerly known as the Pilgrim Monument,^[1] commemorates the MayflowerPilgrims. Dedicated on August 1, 1889, it honors their ideals as later generally embraced by the United States. It is thought to be the world's largest solid granite monument.^[2]

Overview[edit]

Located at 72 Allerton Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the 81-foot-tall (25 m) monument was commissioned by the Pilgrim Society. The original concept dates to around 1820, with actual planning beginning in 1850. The cornerstone was laid August 2, 1859 by the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, under the direction of Grand Master John T. Heard. The monument was completed in October 1888, and was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on August 1, 1889.^[3]

Hammatt Billings, Boston architect, illustrator and sculptor, originally conceived the monument as a 150-foot-tall (46 m) structure comparable to the Colossus of Rhodes. Shortly before his death in 1874, Billings reduced the size of the monument, which was to be made entirely of granite quarried in Hallowell, Maine.^[4] The project was then passed to Billings' brother Joseph who, along with other sculptors including Alexander Doyle, Carl Conrads, and James Mahoney, reworked the design, although the basic components remained. The monument, which faces northeast to Plymouth Harbor (and, roughly, towards Plymouth, England), sits in the center of a circular drive, which is accessed from Allerton Street from the east. The plan of the principal pedestal is octagonal, with four small, and four large faces; from the small faces project four buttresses. On the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of 'Faith' with her right hand pointing toward heaven^[5] and her left hand clutching the Bible. Upon the four buttresses also are seated figures emblematical of the principles upon which the Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth; counter-clockwise from the east are Morality, Law, Education, and Liberty. Each was carved from a solid block of granite, posed in the sitting position upon chairs with a high relief on either side of minor characteristics. Under 'Morality' stand 'Prophet' and 'Evangelist'; under 'Law' stand 'Justice' and 'Mercy'; under 'Education' are 'Youth' and 'Wisdom'; and under 'Liberty' stand 'Tyranny Overthrown' and 'Peace'. On the face of the buttresses, beneath these figures are high reliefs in marble, representing scenes from Pilgrim history. Under 'Morality' is 'Embarcation'; under 'Law' is 'Treaty'; under 'Education' is 'Compact'; and under 'Freedom' is 'Landing'. Upon the four faces of the main pedestal are large panels for records. The front panel is inscribed as follows: 'National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty.' The right and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the Mayflower. The rear panel, which was not engraved until recently, contains a quotation from Governor William Bradford's famous history, Of Plymouth Plantation:

'Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all praise.'

The overall scheme was designed by architect Hammatt Billings. The 36-foot figure of Faith was based on a 9-foot plaster model by William Rimmer in 1875,^[6] that was enlarged and altered by Joseph Edward Billings and a sculptor named Perry (probably John D. Perry). The subsidiary statues were executed by area sculptors including Alexander Doyle, Carl Conrads, and James H. Mahoney.^[7]

National Register[edit]

The monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 30, 1974. Originally under the care of the Pilgrim Society, it was given to the Massachusetts government in 2001.^[8] It and Plymouth Rock constitute the Pilgrim Memorial State Park. Although intended as national in scope, the Forefathers Monument is not a federal 'National Monument' as understood today from the Antiquities Act of 1906.

Monumental movie[edit]

In 2012, Kirk Cameron released the movie Monumental which features the history of the monument and the values of those it commemorates.^[9]

Images[edit]

• The Monument at sunset, 2007

• Monument and the surrounding park

• Detail of statue of Faith

Seated Figures[edit]

• Morality

• Law

• Education

• Liberty

Panels on Monument[edit]

• Detail of front panel

• Detail of the Mayflower

• Detail of William Bradford quote

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Toomey, Daniel P. (1892). Massachusetts of To-day. Columbia publishing company. p. 2.
2. ^Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Planning and Engineering, Resource Management Planning Program, September 2006. 'Resource Management Plan: National Monument to the Forefathers, Plymouth, Massachusetts', p 1. Accessed 8 October 2012.
3. ^Plymouth Guide. 'Forefathers Monument'. Archived from the original on May 11, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2006.
4. ^Michael Shepherd. 'Hallowell to Celebrate a Long Forgotten Past Saturday'. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
5. ^Billings, Hammatt; Billings, Joseph; Rimmer, William; Perry, John D.; Doyle, Alexander; Conrad, Karl; Mahoney, James H. (24 October 2017). 'National Monument to the Forefathers' – via siris-artinventories.si.edu Library Catalog.
6. ^Armstrong, Craven et al, ‘’200 Years of American Sculpture’’, David R. Godine, Publisher in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1976 p. 302
7. ^O'Gorman, James F. (September 1995). 'The Colossus of Plymouth: Hammatt Billings's National Monument to the Forefathers'. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. University of California Press. 54 (3): 278–301. doi:10.2307/990993. JSTOR990993.
8. ^Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. 'Resource Management Plan, National Monument to the Forefathers'. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved May 18, 2006.
9. ^Kirk Cameron (2012), Monumental - In Search of America's National Treasure, retrieved 2012-03-28

Further reading[edit]

• Baker, Billy (November 24, 2019). 'How does an 81-foot-tall monument to the Pilgrims become invisible?'. The Boston Globe. Retrieved November 24, 2019.

External links[edit]

• National Monument to the Forefathers from SIRIS.

Coordinates: 41°57′36″N70°40′34″W / 41.96000°N 70.67611°W

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