The film “The Matrix” is based on futuristic science fiction where everyone is alive inside of a computer system and don’t know it. There are humans that are alive outside of this system and they are fighting to free human kind from the grasp of the AI that invented this virtual world. The AI of the virtual world have programs that are in essence guardians or firewalls to stop the humans from leaving the virtual world. If a human dies inside the virtual world then they die in the real world as well, do to the neural stimuli that are connected to their brains shutting down their entire system. There are those that are saved from the virtual world and are able to as they call it “jack-in” to the virtual world. To those that are aware and can jack-in it is like a deadly game of cat and mouse as they try to save the other humans from the AI that is keeping them unknowingly hostage. For if they die in the virtual world even knowing about it they will still die in the real world. While they are jack-in they are able to do things that the ordinary person in the virtual world can’t do like jump from one building to another without thinking about it or in the case of the main character “Neo” in the end he is able to manipulate the computer system to do his will and becomes like a virtual version of Superman able to fly and rewrite parts of the programming of the virtual world.
A. Counter culture. A counter culture is a subgroup that is in opposition to most aspects of the larger, mainstream culture. The culture in Matrix would be considered the AI controlled virtual world where everyone is living their lives as they would normally. Those that can jack-in go around trying to find a way to stop the AI from controlling the majority of mankind because the AI are using the humans as an energy source to stay alive. The humans that are aware that it is just a computer virtual world fight the guardians on a regular basis, the guardians can take over anyone’s body that is still unaware and part of the program and use it to instantly be anywhere they need to be, as they try to make others aware that it is just a computer simulated world, and they can wake up if they want to, and live in the real world, even though the real world is not what they expect it to be anymore it has become more of a desert world. Those that jack-in to the virtual world are continuously fighting in the real world against the AI to stay alive they have moved deep underground and travel through old sewer systems to stay alive while there are mechanical squid like sentries that are hunting for them to stop them from transmitting their signals to the virtual world and kill them.
B. Culture. Culture refers to the social heritage of a people-those learned patterns for thinking, feeling, and acting that are transmitted from one generation to the next, including the embodiment of these patterns in material items. When the AI first created the matrix they created it to be a peaceful place with no violence or illness, but human kind rejected the first model of the matrix do to non-individualism being available. The second version rewrote the virtual world to represent the mid-20th century where the culture of human kind was at its peak. Humans were able to accept this version in their minds to be the real world and move along with their daily lives. In the virtual world you had every aspect of mainstream culture from cops to robbers, and cooks to presidents, and disabled to severely ill. People were going around making money, going to church, getting married, and having children. There were wars where soldiers would leave their loved ones for months at a time and some would not come back.
C. Power. The ability to control the behavior of others, even against their will-determines who will gain and who will lose it also determines which group will be able to translate its preferences for behavior into the operating rules for others. When the AI first created the matrix they took control over most of mankind and kept them in a realistic dream state. The humans in the dream state know nothing of the AI that are controlling their world they are in. The AI can control what someone will do inside of the virtual world to an extent, like giving someone the knowledge to be able to create a cure for a disease that is running around in the virtual world. The extent of what they can teach them is as far as what the AI already knows should a new disease appear that the AI know nothing about they would have to just destroy those infected with it and erase them from everyone’s memory as if it was a dream that they were known in and didn’t really exist. If the AI are looking for someone that is jacked-in and know what building they are in they can reconstruct the building so there is no way out of the building besides the front door or the roof, the windows are bricked off, this way they are able to trap them and destroy or capture the ones that are jacked-in so they can get information from them concerning the real world to locate and destroy the humans that are not part of the virtual world.
D. Social Darwinism. The social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated, a survival of the fittest look. When the AI were first created by man they were solar powered so they would not have to be recharged or batteries replaced in them. When the AI started becoming self-aware the humans got scared and were trying to figure out how to shut the AI down. With an endless power supply from the sun the humans finally decided that their only hope was to blow up the sun so the AI would stop recharging and eventually shut down. The humans shot every nuclear warhead they had at the sun blowing it up and stopping the solar recharging of the AI. The humans knew they would not be able to survive on the surface for long without the sun so they moved underground to live life and work on figuring out how to make the planet livable again on the surface while the AI ran their solar powered batteries out. The AI started working immediately on figuring out a new power source to keep them running for being self-aware they did not want to die. The AI finally figured out that the human body creates a lot of energy naturally, the AI then worked out how to harness that energy from the humans. They created fields with protective barriers over humans and implanted devices into their bodies so that they could keep the humans asleep in the real world till they died, but make them think that they are awake and living their lives in the real world. These individual protective barriers also harnessed the humans’ natural energy and transferred it to the AI to keep them alive. The AI had figured out how to turn the human body into nothing more than a battery.
