https://duan.ca/tag/culture/ <p>For whatever reason, a dialogue from the Matrix trilogy stuck with me. I've never heard anyone else talk about these quotes. Maybe they aren't that deep and I have been over-projecting meanings. Anyways, Neo (<strong>N</strong>) and Councillor Hamann (<strong>H</strong>) are in the last human city Zion, looking at a vast array of machines. They had this exchange about <em>control</em>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>H</strong>: Down here, sometimes I think about all those people still plugged into the Matrix and when I look at these machines I can't help thinking that in a way we are plugged into them.</p> <p><strong>N</strong>: But we control these machines; they don't control us.</p> <p><strong>H</strong>: Of course not. How could they? The idea is pure nonsense. But… it does make one wonder… just… what is control?</p> <p><strong>N</strong>: <em>If we wanted, we could shut these machines down.</em></p> <p><strong>H</strong>: Of course. That's it. You hit it. That's control, isn't it? If we wanted we could smash them to bits. Although, if we did, we'd have to consider what would happen to our lights, our heat, our air…</p> </blockquote> <p>It is scary how often this definition of (lack of) control applies in life.</p> <p>Figured I'd share.</p> Wed, 22 Jun 2022 13:13:09 -0700 https://duan.ca/2022/06/22/control/ https://duan.ca/2022/06/22/control/