Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present

We live on the cusp of change. Reality has already spawned one alternate state. Virtual reality is where some are most at home. But what happens when virtual worlds become indistinguishable from the real? Waking from a dream, how do you know you aren't still dreaming? If the reality we're in is virtual, who's doing the programming? These kinds of questions spin effortlessly out of the box-office megahit The Matrix. More than just a computer-aided shoot-'em-up, more than just another expression of cyberpunk angst, it presents layers of explorations of what the nature of reality might be & why this should or shouldn't be important. Exploring the Matrix presents 18 provoking essays on what the film had to say & how it was said. You'll discover the history of some themes set forth in the Wachowski Brothers' film, why they're important, how they've been explored & their implications for the future. The true nature of reality in our current cyber-age isn't a rhetorical question, but one that must be answered as approach seamless virtual scenarios, accessible online, in video games & perhaps as the result of uploading software to an implanted chip in the brain. Take the blue pill & stay in the dream or take the red & see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Introduction/ Pat Cadigan Every other movie is the blue pill/ Bruce Sterling The real matrix/ Stephen Baxter The matrix: know thyself/ John Shirley Art imitates life (yes, it's news)/ Darrel Anderson Literary influences on the matrix/ Paul Di Filippo More than you'll ever know: down the rabbit hole of the matrix/ Kathleen Ann Goonan The matrix & the star maker/ Mike Resnick Yuen Woo-Ping & the art of flying/ Walter Jon Williams Alice in metropolis or it's all done with mirrors/ Dean Motter The matrix as simulcrum/ Ian Watson The matrix as sci-fi/ Joe Haldeman Tomorrow may be different/ David Brin Revenge of the nerds, part X/ Alan Dean Foster Reflections in a cyber eye/ Karen Haber Meditations on the singular matrix/ James Patrick Kelly The matrix made me do it/ Kevin J. Anderson Dreaming real/ Rick Berry About the Authors View Less