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The Matrix Online

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The Virtual Future

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Immersive Environments ((SSIE))

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Abstract

of all the gameworlds, The Matrix Online (MxO) most explicitly concerns the relationships between the virtual and the real, and the future and the present. It was based on three popular science-fiction movies – The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) – that were so pretentious in asserting their artistic and philosophical quality that they were subsequently published as a set of ten DVDs including extensive commentary and videos of their own filming. The entire Matrix mythos depicts the way the present might be conceptualized by the future, and in so doing perfectly realizes Arthur C. Clarke’s vision of the future City. Dystopian rather than utopian, The Matrix Online predicts a grim destiny for the human species with only a dubious prospect for salvation. Crucially, while the movies rely upon high-tech special effects, and the game exists only through fast computers connected to the Internet, they prophesy that computer technology will doom human freedom.

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  1. Virginia, USA

    William Sims Bainbridge

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  1. William Sims Bainbridge
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Bainbridge, W.S. (2011). The Matrix Online. In: The Virtual Future. Springer Series in Immersive Environments. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-904-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-904-8_2

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