I know this steak doesnt exist.
After nine years, you know what I realize?
Twenty years have passed since the films release, so lets begin with a brief recap.
After, this there is no turning back, Morpheus says.
You take the blue pill, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland.
And I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
But maybe at least a small part of Neo lives to regret not choosing ignorance rather than truth.
Earth is a blackened husk governed by machines which patrol the endless battery farms of unconscious humans.
I wanna remember nothing, Cypher says, waving a glass of wine.
Nothing, you understand?
Maybe a comfortable illusion is better than an unpleasant truth particularly when the illusion is literally indistinguishable from reality.
Consider, too, that Cypher is but a rank-and-file member of Morpheuss rebels.
Why is a universe composed of software necessarily any less real than one composed of matter?
Just as everything looks like a nail to a hammer, so everything looks like code to a programmer.
If so, whos to say that the beings who created our reality arent themselves caught inside a simulation?
Viewed like this, it becomes clear that Cypher is living in the middle of a philosophical quandary.
If we cant condone Cyphers treachery, then maybe we can at least understand his motivations.
This article first appeared onDen of Geek UKon October 18, 2016.
