A Glitch in the Matrix

Couldn't finish it. The interviews with guys in weird digital cosplay outfits that have no value to add are completely distracting. I wanted this to be so much better. Now, I just don't care. Thanks for turning me apathetic. Skip this if you have better things to do, like watch paint dry.

First off this is a documentary, and one that except for a lot of production trickery thrown in (speakers clothed in avatar animations, animated scenes, and background music) would be really boring since it's a series of interviews. A bunch of people discuss Simulation Hypothesis which contends that reality is a simulation run by higher order beings, including a 1977 speech by Philip K Dick (who's ref'ed alot in this) where he states "we're living in a computer programmed reality." Later, Elon Musk asserts there's only a one-in-billions chance that we're in the Base (or true) Reality. There are references to computer games and simulations, most notably Minecraft, though not Civilization or The Sims, as well as "The Matrix" films a quote from which this doc derives its title. The doc is interesting in a seminar kind of way, you get a broad overview of this topic from a variety of speakers so that's decent. But the most interesting and possibly the most important thing to bear in mind is something noted at the very beginning, that a college teacher of the narrator once noted that through the ages, we attempt to explain our brain and nervous system in the context of the highest level of technology known at the time. Thus, given photo-realistic computer games, simulations, and virtual reality you have many people attempting to explain reality in that context, apparently unaware that they're simply doing what everyone's done since our caveman ancestors. Personally, I think this topic would do much better as a short six-ep streaming series since it lends itself so well to animations and cut-scenes from current computer simulations and VR games.

I was looking forward to so some actual theoretical science, but the first 5 minutes where accounts of people seeing oddities in there lives, such as a women in a red hat, or a restaurant sign with a fish in it.

If you were in a college dorm getting baked with your friends after watching The Matrix in 1999 - you won't learn anything new. I was hoping for some science and actual scientists. Instead I got random youtubers behind goofy avatars. Philip K Dick's lecture from the 70's was pretty interesting though, so it gets a few stars for that. If you're REALLY interested in seeing this, wait until it's free.

Poor. I came into this with high hopes having seen "Room 237" and "The Nightmare" previously, and harboring a strong interest in the simulation hypothesis. I get what he was trying to do, basically what he was doing in those last 2 movies, he wanted to center this less on the truth of the matter or convincing the viewer of anything, and more on the experiences of the subjects interviewed. The 3d animation is very enjoyable, but sadly the underlying interviews skew mostly towards random, often delusional, ruminations on experiences in which the subjects felt they percieved the titular "glitch inthe matrix", interspersed with only very few actual philosophers or scientists offering actual substantive thought on the idea of simulation theory. There are also, interspersed, archival footage sections in which phillip k. dick divulges his own experiences which in many ways align with those of the other subjects. About 40 minutes into the film i became rather disenchanted and started to scan through for more interesting sections, finding few. I think the time allotted would have been better served exploring more of what philosophers and scientists have to say about the possibility that we exist in a simulated universe, or could create one in the future, etc. Instead i got some folks ruminating on their experiences playing GTA, talking about how modern games suck, Reciting drowning pool lyrics, and talking about how much they love(hate?) the matrix. Just go read reddit or something, Google simulation theory and you'll have a better time.