well i did think of that FF, residual self-image, and decided that was what exactly what it was, ur self-image in ur head of urself. therefore u could be, i would have thought, a blind deaf dumb paraplegic but in the matrix u would be whatever u saw urself as.

where does this residual self-image come from? as the people trapped in the matrix have been there all there lives and have never woken up, how do they KNOW what they look like? spmeone from outside going into the matrix would surely have a preset image of themselves in their heads, but someone whos spent their lives asleep? if u grant that then surely u have to grant my argument as a logical extension of the same principle.

All of them also have never walked in their lives, meaning that ALL, 100% of them ARE paraplegic. Yet a great percentage of people do walk around in the Matrix. Ok, their "parents" teach that to them in their childhood.

But think about it this way, then: why would the machines bother checking if someone is paraplegic or ugly by birth? as long as they are alive and wired, they have fulfilled their roles as power sources. I believe whatever the role someone has in the Matrix in entirely up to the humans, not the Machines. The Machines created a world, not a zoo. Since checking for someone's genetical characteristics is a fruitless labor, then we must conclude that "residual self-image" is not a 3rd party (the machines) input. It somehow exists and brought to conscience by genetic memory.

thats a fair point. i did have a counter to that argument earlier when i was in the bath but its gone now and I've got a cold. i bow to ur superior insights into the Matrix.

Edited by - Tawakalna on 01-09-2003 07:50:58

Did you know that people can write philosophy thesis based on the movies and tv shows? I wish I have the intellectual capacity to create "something out of nothing" crap. I've seen philosophy books based on the Matrix, Seinfeld, The Simpsons.

Ok, next topic debate: when a couple who live in the Matrix gets pregnant (or think that they do), do you think the machines hurry up to their bodies put together their seeds and spawn the baby? or just assign the next random baby's mind at birth as the parents' child?

I read an article comparing the Matrix to Plato's allegory of the cave. Which was actually quite fascinating! I wish i'd paid attention during all htose philosophy lectures at Uni and not wasted my time sketching tanks and missiles and planes.

@Taw: its weird how many people sketch tanks and such, my mate focusses on Mech's though.

anyway, the matrix...

@Fear: thats a good point, since a child born of a couple would appear to bear a resembelance of their parents, and since a persons appearence is defined by the person themselves and their residual self-image, then we can only conclude that they must take the sperm and egg from the parents. Very complex it seems. so Neo's Matrix parents were his ACTUAL physical parents.

-arcon
------

these days I've grown out of drawing tanks and such, Archie. Now we play "w*nk words bingo"

this is a brilliant game for those of us who have to suffer the pretentiousness and mundanity of the modern workplace. I include a link so you can get the bingo card. basically you play it just like ordinarybingo. you give a card to each of ur m8s who have to go into some tedious meeting with you, and you stash it in yer notes, then as each "w*nk word" is mentioned by the egotistical bore who is running the meeting, you cross off until you have a full card, then shout "Bingo!" it really makes boring meetings go with a bang plus you get serious office monkey cred.

here's the URL
w*nk words bingo





Edited by - Tawakalna on 01-09-2003 19:08:26