‘The Choice Is Yours’: The Matrix On Metaverse After Facebook Announces Meta

Metaverse, which was depicted in 1999 movie The Matrix, appears to be turning into a reality, with Meta investing heavily in the project

New Delhi: The term metaverse was first used in the dystopian, science-fiction novel, Snow Crash (1992), by Neal Stephenson, and was subsequently used in many books and movies. 

The Matrix (1999) was one of the first movies to depict the metaverse. The movie had humans living in a virtual world created by artificial intelligence, unaware that this is not the real world. 

After Facebook rebranded itself to Meta on Thursday to focus on its efforts to build the metaverse, the official Twitter handle for Matrix Resurrections tweeted a picture, which shows a red pill and a blue pill, and reads: “Now based on real events. The choice is yours”. 

The words intend to highlight the fact that the Metaverse, which was depicted in the Matrix franchise, is turning into a reality.

Is it possible for the real world and virtual world to merge into one? It may not be like 'The Matrix' immediately, but there may be small steps in the direction of a metaverse. 

The Matrix And The Metaverse

In 'The Matrix' franchise, humans were kept in sticky pods to generate electricity, while a cable was directly connected to their brains to project images of a simulated life in their mind. This gave them the feeling of leading a normal life, when in reality, they are controlled by machines.

The Matrix is actually a simulation where people are not aware that they are living in a simulation.

The metaverse is a concept similar to The Matrix plot, as the real and virtual worlds merge into one in the "next version of the internet". The only difference is that people would be fully aware of their surroundings in the metaverse, and would enter into it willingly.

A fair number of people are expected to retreat into the metaverse for hours when it comes into being.

Meta even tweeted that smoked meat can taste better in the metaverse. This is similar to Neo talking about eating tasty noodles while he was trapped in the Matrix.

In The Matrix, Morpheus and Neo try to liberate people from the simulation. At the end of the third Matrix movie, Matrix Revolutions, humans and machines form a truce, and people are given a choice whether they want to live within the simulation, or in the real world. 

Similarly, people will be free to choose whether they want to use the metaverse or not.