Last Friday, I watched The Matrix for the second time at the Flora’s Films event. After finishing the movie, the GRF, Magdala, asked us whether we would’ve taken the blue pill or the red pill. This is referring to the scene where the protagonist, Neo, is offered two options: the blue pill, which allows him to forget everything about the Matrix and go about his ordinary life blissfully unaware of the real world, or take the red pill, learn about the truth behind the Matrix, and lead a life filled with struggle against the sentient AI focused on imprisoning the humans.

I voted to take the blue pill, and I was surprised to see that very few of the audience raised their hands to signal they would do the same. There was a much larger response to take the red pill instead. I wonder how many people who voted for the red pill would actually be willing to leave behind their friends, their dream of graduating from college, their life at Cornell. Personally, my life seems real enough for me, so if this is indeed just a computer simulation, it’s a pretty good one. I enjoy living my current life, so I’m frankly not interested in leaving it behind to join a struggle that it appears I will be on the losing side of. Maybe this is selfish, but I bet there’s a good chance that the AI is right about this one. Perhaps humans are indeed viruses and it would be better to have the computers take over. Just take a look at what we’re doing to our planet.