The resurrection of a stupid idea

For all things philosophical.

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Post Reply
User avatar
Sculptor
Posts: 8529
Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2019 11:32 pm

The resurrection of a stupid idea

Post by Sculptor »

The Matrix had some good effects, and some good ideas. But let it die please!
I found the films to be quite entertaining, except for one major problem - that basic fundemental error in the understanding of science that laid the basis for the entire film cycle- I am talking about the totally bogas and stupid reason why humans were kept in nutrient vats in the first place.
Remember the scene where the Lawrence Fishburne's character explains WHY humans live this way. Morpheus holds up a battery to the camera and says "energy". Humans, we learn are being harvested for their energy.
What utter complete bullshit.
I can think of a really good reason why society might develop in such a way that entrails keeping people in vats ,with a computer generated virtual reality. But "energy" gathering simply cannot be the reason.
It takes a serious misunderstanding of the most basic notions of physics to make such a moronic and stupid claim. For me, this put a dark shadow over the whole scenario.

As a lifelong reader of science fiction I appreaciate when Sci-fi stories adhere to basic rules of reality. Most science fiction requires a major deformation of natural law, the most common of these is some element requiring FTL travel. This being required to make the story work. But on any occaison where there might be a better, more elegant and scientific reason for putting people in vats why not use it, rather than resort to an meaningless and idiotic idea.
You simply cannot get any energy from a human, unless you put that energy in the ony way to get energy from a human is by burning the body!!! Energy cannot be created or destoryed. Human do not and cannot generate energy.
The fact of this stupidity acted like a damp squib throughout the entire film cycle.
Seriously if you want to have a scenario where human live like this there is a really good reason why you might want to do that - that the world's resources are depleted and this is a more energy efficient way to give humans a life free from want. All the resources are virtual.
Post Reply