A bit of philosophical nonsense
– Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, who claims that “there may be many layers of simulation.” Just like in a mirror, we see an infinite number of reflections of the same thing. By the way, in the film “The Matrix” (as William Irwin rightly notes in his book “The Matrix as Philosophy”), we encounter several important mentions of mirrors and reflections. For example, Morpheus’s dark glasses reflect Neo more clearly than Agent Smith’s glasses. Or the aforementioned episode when the same Morpheus offers Neo the red and blue pills from a mirrored box, etc.
– Nick Bostrom continues his thought: “post-humans, who created our Matrix reality, could themselves be modelled. Their creators, in turn, are also and so on”. Based on this assumption, our world is not even a multi-layered cake, but rather a giant matryoshka or sponge, in which different worlds can both mutually penetrate each other and exist absolutely autonomously, without affecting their closest “neighbours” in any way.
And perhaps, the Matrix (now we will once again attempt to abstract from the film) is merely a flawed copy of the original, constructive divine program? A defective copy that, immediately after its appearance, should have been thrown as far away as possible, somewhere to the back alleys of worlds, but for some reason, it continues to operate, controlling people in its own way. Perhaps our Universe itself, if we draw analogies with a computer program, is merely a defective copy that was accidentally, “by mistake,” loaded into the “drive” and launched by its Creator (instead of a cleaned, edited “licensed” version).
Perhaps this somewhat clarifies the fact of why there is so much suffering, evil, and injustice in our world, while the rest of the Cosmos is simply a soulless, cold, and lifeless space filled with nebulae and galaxies? Empty space, simply not interesting to the “programmer,” so he didn’t put anything there. In this case, we will be forced to admit that God (or some abstract “hacker-programmer” standing behind the scenes of all worldly processes), like our entire Universe, is far from perfect and cannot (or does not want to) control everything that happens within it. He’s just too lazy to clean the system of junk and other unnecessary programs, so our Creator simply leans back in his chair and calmly watches how it all ends.
Perhaps he is so captivated by the very process of observing our Universe in general and the bluish-green ball of Earth in particular, that Creator, without tearing himself away from the monitor, makes himself coffee, fries eggs, chats with friends, and performs all other actions right there, in non-stop mode, 24/7. A sort of abstract “Mr. Anderson,” god of a separate Universe.
– From the above statements, it logically follows that all of us are potentially the result of a mistake by a higher and more organized entity. Therefore, our entire world and everything we see, think about, dream of, and the choices we make, in essence, have no significance. For everything we feel and perceive around us might not even be a game, but simply a side effect of one program or another, or the result of a set of coincidences and actions that the human brain is unable to fully comprehend. Perhaps it is even a virus that, once it appears, begins to spread uncontrollably, capturing more and more areas. Does such a hypothesis have the right to exist? Undoubtedly. Even if it’s not very pleasant to think about.
Let’s imagine for a moment that God or the First Cause is synonymous with absolute order and harmony in the Universe, while its antithesis (the Devil, the fallen angel, the “disobedient” hacker-programmer, the creator of the Matrix, or come up with your own definition) constantly tries to throw a wrench in the works of its opponent, producing various kinds of chaos and disorder in the harmonious and well-tuned system of celestial spheres.
Observing this global confrontation, one might well assume that these two main adversaries will never “bury the hatchet” and come to a common denominator. They will continue to endlessly pull the rope to their side, while below them, worlds and galaxies twisted in spirals will endlessly spin in a mad whirlwind… and cycles will change, each of which can last for several billion years, or even more. The endless dance of light and darkness will continue until the end of time, or until the two adversaries tire of this struggle of opposites and turn to something else.
On the other hand, perhaps the main meaning of the Universe lies precisely in this confrontation. There is a possibility that the harmonious structure of the Cosmos, established by divine order, must occasionally be subjected to the intervention of certain external forces to prevent the wheel of life from rusting completely. So that there is no stagnation and at the same time there is a permanent, progressive movement, giving life to many processes in the Universe. For example, a perpetual motion machine operates on this principle.
After all, chaos is not only a gross violation of the usual order of things, but also a way of concentrating forms, seeking their final establishment. Whereas order, Love, and other divine energies are merely a method of bringing structure (both living and non-living organisms) to a certain completed state and ensuring their further survival in this final, “cast in bronze” form.
Everything seems logical so far, if it weren’t for one “BUT.” Acknowledging the fact that God or the Absolute is imperfect in essence and form, one could assume that He might indeed allow the overreach of the “Leviathan of the Matrix.” What does it mean? It’s very simple: if God is not omnipotent and omniscient, then everything He temporarily loses sight of immediately falls out of His control and begins to live its own life, often going against the original plans of the Absolute. And precisely the Matrix could very well become such an apex of this kind of loss of control. At least, if we consider only the scale of our Solar System. And who better than us, the rational representatives of the “awakened” part of humanity, to take on this noble mission of realigning the course of the ship, thrown off its original path by the treacherous agents of the Matrix and its minions?
But here, once again, there’s another inconsistency. It is related to how exactly a person has defined for himself the concept of God or the Absolute. According to the tradition accepted in religious and philosophical literature, the Absolute (from Latin – unconditional, unlimited, perfect) is a philosophical-metaphysical concept denoting the unconditional beginning and the center of all that exists, a self-sufficient, eternal, and infinite, completely free, ideal spiritual super-essence that generates and conditions the phenomenal world. The world that we see around us: transient, finite, and imperfect.
A reasonable contradiction arises: how could such an ideal and perfect in every way spiritual construct allow the chaos happening in our star galaxy, the Milky Way? Namely, the possibility of the existence of the Matrix and the System in the form in which it is described in this book. The first thing that comes to mind is two possible explanations for this:
1) The essence of it is that no one and nothing is responsible for anything in this Universe. Just as the Matrix could have been created by the Absolute, so too could the God-Father himself have been created by someone or something more powerful than He is. Moreover, completely accidentally and unplanned. And so on, up the chain. It is difficult for us to imagine such things right now, because even the infinite and omnipotent God is something we are currently unable to understand and grasp with our limited minds, let alone matters of a higher order. It is very difficult to accept that there could be something above God.
And yet, we are capable of understanding something. If a person was able to uncover the existence of the Matrix, then the potential of homo sapiens truly has no limits.
But for now, let’s leave aside the hypothesis of a world created from chaos and consisting of numerous mirror universes, where the Absolute is merely one of the ordinary elements in the cosmic cycle of matter and spirit, and far from the most important…
2) The second explanation is more optimistic-traditional and, if you will, more rational, if judged from our human perspective. This paradigm can be described in a few words as follows: initially, there existed some higher substance or super-entity, which we call the Absolute or the First Cause. From it, everything that exists in this world (and in other worlds, if they exist) has come into being, and nothing can be above it. God is light, the highest justice, and also the highest point of self-realization of absolutely any object in the Universe.
– Based on the second assumption, it is logically possible to suggest that God, as the pinnacle of all existence, deliberately allowed the existence of the System or the Matrix for some reason. For example, so that humanity could develop in a certain way, come to know itself, transcend the ordinary, and eventually become like the Absolute in everything. As it is said in the Book of Genesis: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him” (Genesis 1:26).
As you can see, we are faced with the same scales, the same infamous red and blue pills. The second explanation is more rational and “safer” for humans also because, in this case, we can explain the origin and emergence of the Matrix by some higher powers, or rather one, the most important power: a divine Superbeing or God, above whom there is nothing and cannot be anything.
The Creator, for some unknown reason, gave rise to the System; He fully controls it and all the processes occurring within it, and He can also destroy it. With our help, of course. Because we also inherently carry within us a particle or spark of the divine.
The Book of Your Life
“Stepping outside the System is not an open, destructive war. It is the creation of an underground, far-reaching network of free people united by a single noble goal.”