S.Imulation theory holds that reality may not be real, but may instead be an illusion that we are unaware of and from which we may be able to awaken, and it is an idea shared by all of Plato (with ‘The Cave’) and Descartes (with Meditations on First Philosophy) to, more recently, Philip K. Dick and The matrix. It is a fantasy of escape as well as slavery, liberation and manipulation, and a fantasy that taps into our own experiences that move between conscious and unconscious states, losing ourselves in the fictional world of cinema. As such, it’s pretty much the ideal subject for documentary filmmaker Rodney Ascher, who is on his heels Room 237 (about The shining-as-versatile-puzzle box) and The nightmare (on sleep paralysis) once again ventures into unreal terrain with A glitch in the matrix, a compelling look at the possibility that we are all avatars in a game that we cannot comprehend.
Dick’s speech in Metz, France in 1977 entitled ‘If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others’, forms the backbone of A glitch in the matrix (premiered in the Midnight Section of the Sundance Film Festival on January 31, followed by a VOD debut on February 4). It states the famous author of it A dark scanner, The man in the high castle, Minority report, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the basis for Blade Runner), and We can remember it for you, wholesale (the basis for Total recall) confesses that a 1974 dose of Sodium Pentothal for impacted wisdom teeth allowed him to have an “acute flash” of a “restored memory” about a world, and life, that was not his. Dick wrote extensively about this experience (known as “2-3-74”) in the posthumously released The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick, and it also informed his fictional output, much of which grappled with the unreliable and ephemeral nature of reality while prophetic and poignant presentation of future societies.
Dick was the modern godfather of simulation theory, ed A glitch in the matrix spends a lot of time with people who have followed his seminal writing – as well as those of Lana and Lilly Wachowski The matrix, deeply indebted to Dick himself – to the heart. In Skype interviews with Ascher, these individuals appear disguised as bizarre digital avatars, including a red-haired armored lion, a Mechagodzilla-like dragon in a tuxedo, a vaping alien in a puffy spacesuit, and a helmeted warrior with digital eyes and mouth. Their appearance speaks to their own belief in dueling realities (and identities), which also stems from Elon Musk’s publicly stated belief that we may be living in an artificial simulation performed by advanced beings, as well as a 2003 academic paper by Oxford University. professor Nick Bostrom (“Do you live in a computer simulation?”) who put forward the hypothesis that we could be pawns in a hyper-advanced program that either reconstructs a past that has already occurred (called an ‘ancestor simulation’), or an all new alternate timeline.
The ideas presented by these speakers depend on everything from anecdotal stories of their own breaks with reality, to arguments about chance, probability and synchronicity, to excessive – and very specific – speculation about the details of our simulation. . Suffice to say, it’s not all convincing. However, it is amusingly illuminating about humanity’s continuing desire to explain great mysteries through spiritual-by-science concepts about strange realms, puppeteer-like higher powers, and technological exploitation.
To his credit, one interviewee (Paul Gude aka the “lion”) admits that simulation theory is perhaps the easiest way for his brain to cope with the complexities of human existence. And in an earlier scene, he admits that his VR-based theory could be the byproduct of people always trying to explain reality with the most advanced technology available today. With film clips from ao The Wizard of Oz, The Truman Show, A nightmare on Elm Street, Dizziness, The thirteenth floor, The customization office, They live, Defending your life and of course, The matrix, A glitch in the matrix suggests that the films are a primary vehicle for both creating and channeling these ideas, which are often rooted in feelings of loneliness, alienation and despair, and thus can result in particularly scary consequences.
“As Cooke’s story makes clear, the danger of simulation theory is that if nothing and no one is authentic, the ethical concerns about society and your fellow human beings are hopelessly undermined, leading to potential chaos.“
That is conveyed most poignantly by an extensive series in which Joshua Cooke explains (via audio interview, supplemented with CGI recreations) how his crush on The matrix, coupled with his violent home life and undiagnosed mental illness, prompted him to kill his adoptive parents in an attempt to discern whether he was in fact living in the Matrix (his conclusion: ‘It really confused me, because it not nothing like I had seen The matrix. How real life was so much more gruesome. It gave me a bit of a shock ”).
Cooke was 19 when he murdered his adoptive parents with a 12-gauge shotgun in Virginia, then pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. It came to be known as ‘The Matrix Case’, and as Cooke’s story makes clear, the danger of simulation theory is that if nothing and no one is authentic, ethical concerns about society and your fellow man are hopelessly undermined, leading to potential chaos. Unsurprisingly, the links between video games and simulation theory are many – Jesse Orion (i.e., the alien astronaut) says he did little more than play games for years – and A glitch in the matrix takes advantage of that connection by using all kinds of computer-animated images (including from Google Earth and Minecraft) to visualize the assumptions of his subjects. Illuminated and funny, the film’s playful digital form reflects and reveals truths about the content.
Set to Jonathan Snipes’ menacing electronic score, as well as the way déjà vu and ‘The Mandela Effect’ relate to the central topic, A glitch in the matrix continues Ascher’s non-fiction investigation of common tall tales, scientific hypotheses and art analysis. With a chorus of voices attempting to decipher the riddles of the universe and the atom through imaginative views of the mind, body and reality itself, his film is an eye-opening and clever critical investigation into our evolving perceptions of who we are. , our deeply personal connection to dreams on the big screen, and our persistent quest for knowledge about the things we don’t (yet) understand. It is a treatise on religious and scientific desire, as well as human impulses and aspirations, which also serves as a portrayal of crazy conspiracy theories and mass delusions.