Red Pill, Blue Pill

The movie The Matrix opens up a lot of interesting questions to debate about philosophy and existentialism.  Whilst most people who have seen the movie will understand the basic concept, or those who have read of the philosophical scenario of the Brain in a Vat upon which the main premise is based.  There is a question that arises when discussing the idea of life as we know it being a simulation and that is whether or not you would want to know the truth if it really was.  In the movie this is portrayed in a scene where Morpheus presents Neo with two pills, one is blue and represents peace, serenity, calmness, and tranquillity, if Neo chooses the blue pill he stays in the Matrix and nothing changes.  The other pill is a red pill, representing danger, disturbance, risk, and change, if Neo chooses this pill then he gets to see reality for what it is.  Of course in the movie, Neo doesn't make an informed choice, Morpheus makes no attempt to explain in any level of detail what Neo is actually choosing.

If you were to be placed in the same scenario, presented with a red pill or a blue pill to choose from, there is the question of which you should take.  Whilst many people would want out, it is fair to say that not everyone who escapes the Matrix lives a life of fulfilment.  Indeed there is a YouTube video by MatPat for his Film Theorists channel where he discusses the idea that Zion and the "real world" in the movie might still be inside the Matrix which is well worth a watch if you haven't seen it.  Questions about reality and choice put to one side for a moment, there is a much more pressing question I think needs to be answered first before you even get to the choice between waking up and staying in the system.

The real question to ask I believe is how did you end up there in the first place?  If life is indeed a simulation, then there are only two scenarios as far as I can see.  The first is that I chose to enter this world, and given how grim it can be at times, I would have to wonder if I chose this world as a preference, then how bad is the real world that this is actually preferable.  In the movie Ready Player One, the real world is a dystopian future where life is miserable and the simulated world that people choose to enter provides an escape from the reality of the world they live in.  I would have to wonder if the real world was actually a lot worse than this one and that was why I chose to enter it in the first place.

The other scenario is the idea that this is a slave world, as posited by the Matrix, where humanity is subjugated by machines.  In this scenario I am not sure I would want to wake up either, reason being that if you took the movie the Matrix and modified it to the point where Neo wakes up and is flushed out of his pod, if he had been alone without Morpheus or the Nebuchadnezzar to come save him, how long do you think Neo would actually survive on his own.  We're initially shown Neo undergoing a lot of medical treatment to get him to a point where he can function as a human being, we're not explicitly told how long this process takes, but when we learn the reason for this treatment is the fact he is in an impaired physical condition due to the fact he's essentially been immobile his entire life, there is the question of how dexterous and resourceful he could be if he had never been rescued.  In any scenario where humans are slaves trapped within a simulation, to escape would be to escape to a world where you would have to fight for your existence, and you would have to be able to survive.

In this world we live in, there are very few people who you could take at a moment's notice, throw them into the middle of the wilderness without any technology, or any preparation without any resources at all and expect them to be able to survive.  Most people wouldn't know how to feed themselves, create fire, make a shelter, among many other things.  You would need to be a survivalist to be able to entertain the thought of entering an unknown world and be able to stay alive for very long.  Faced with all of this, I don't believe I would choose to wake up from this reality.  To leave this simulation would only be a choice that I would make if the world I would wake up in was better than this world or offered me something more.  Having said all that, when it comes to the simple question of whether or not I would want to know, not whether I would leave, but simply knowing whether or not this is real, I think that question at least I would like to know the answer to categorically.  For the immediate, I can only assume the answer is yes, this world is real, until I see evidence to the contrary.