Matrix as Metaphysics

 
The Matrix presents a version of an old philosophical fable: the brain in a vat. A
disembodied brain is floating in a vat, inside a scientist's laboratory. The scientist has
arranged that the brain will be stimulated with the same sort of inputs that a normal
embodied brain receives. To do this, the brain is connected to a giant computer simulation
of a world. The simulation determines which inputs the brain receives. When the brain
produces outputs, these are fed back into the simulation. The internal state of the brain is
just like that of a normal brain, despite the fact that it lacks a body. From the brain's point
of view, things seem very much as they seem to you and m
The brain is massively deluded, it seems. It has
all sorts of false beliefs about the world. It
believes that it has a body, but it has no body. It
believes that it is walking outside in the sunlight,
but in fact it is inside a dark lab. It believes it is
one place, when in fact it may be somewhere
quite different. Perhaps it thinks it is in Tucson,
when it is actually in Australia, or even in outer
space.
Neo's situation at the beginning of The Matrix is
something like this. He thinks that he lives in a city, he thinks that he has hair, he thinks it
is 1999, and he thinks that it is sunny outside. In reality, he is floating in space, he has no
hair, the year is around 2199, and the world has been darkened by war. There are a few
small differences from the vat scenario above: Neo's brain is located in a body, and the
computer simulation is controlled by machines rather than by a scientist. But the essential
details are much the same. In effect, Neo is a brain in a vat.