The Matrix : "The body can't live without the soul."

"The body can't live without the soul."

"The body can't live without the soul".

Assume the Matrix is an mmo, or a VR simulation.

Ok, imagine you have latest, most advanced tech, a cable that's just pinned in your brain to connect with these programs. Would you bleed from your nose for hitting your nose in the program or die when dying in the program? No, you don't!

That's like playing Skyrim for your whole life in first person view and getting injured when your character does. It just doesn't happen. Or needing to pee at the same time your Sims needs to pee just because your Sim needs to pee. When did that happen? Playing WoW "omg i'm dead! im resurrected. Oh, wait! I was dead for real but I'm back again. Cool!"

The Matrix is sci-fi can't be the reason for it. In Star Trek they don't tell you "Men have the ancient mental ability to synchronize their bodies with quantum particles so once in a while they can beam themselves to the Enterprise in sudden danger." Casual person "Hey! How does that make any sense?" "Shut up! It's sci-fi! Don't question it!"

Re: "The body can't live without the soul."


The Matrix is sci-fi can't be the reason for it.

It is the opposite.

It is because The Matrix is NOT sci-fi. Not really.

It you were really going to be a science prig, you would question why human bodies are used as batteries in this story instead of using...well, batteries.

The answer to both questions is that The Matrix is ultimately more social commentary and allegory than hard sci-fi. In this story humans serve as batteries to portray a role-reversal. For so many years humans have enslaved and used machines, and now the roles are reversed.

Likewise for the question of why people die in the Matrix when it is all virtual reality. There is a social answer. If you watch all three Matrix movies it becomes clear that what we call "reality" is going to become less and less important. All the real action is happening online and in virtual reality. So in the story, virtual reality has to be more serious and important than it is to us, now. Thus you have to be able to die in virtual reality.

To illustrate the shift in importance: in Revolutions there is a huge battle between the people of Zion and the squiddies. Very dramatic (and long). But eventually it is revealed that this real world battle means nothing. Once the Zionites have given all they have to defeat 250,000 squids, the Machine World just sends 250,000 more. Zion never had a chance...EXCEPT for what is happening inside The Matrix, with Neo and Smith. That is the real battle. The virtual reality battle is the one that matters. And, of course, Neo has to die in it.

The movie would lose all impact if Neo could just take off a visor after the battle and say "whew! Glad that wasn't real"

The Matrix is a place where humans and machines can interact with each other. Most times you can't really tell which one is which. The Wachowskis aren't trying to make a real depiction of the future. They are making a commentary about the gradual diminution of the "real world" and the elevation of electronic reality to being what is most important.

Re: "The body can't live without the soul."

First off, Morpheus says that the body cannot live without the mind.

Hopefully that doesn't come across as nitpicky as I think that the difference between the two is significant.

But assuming that there IS a sci-fi explanation, I think it has to do with their implants.

If you were playing Skyrim via a port that was wired directly into your brain, then perhaps the consequences for injury or death would be more tangible.

Re: "The body can't live without the soul."

I just watched this for the first time in yeeeeeeears, and this was one of the first (of many) things I thought was really lazy. The line was actually "The body can't live without the mind." And that's the explanation. Nothing more. What about brain dead people who survive on life support? These people have the ability to build hover ships and can build an entire colony in the earth's core, but don't have life support systems that were available centuries earlier?
Top