Introduction

A scene in the second film in the turn of the century postmodern trilogy The Matrix finds the lead character Neo (‘The One’) in the mechanical bowels of the city of Zion – defined in truly modern terms as ‘the engineering level’. Neo and one of the city councillors engage in a philosophical conversation touching on some fundamentals of machine-dependent life, the machine war that is raging, and the simulated existence of those plugged into the computergenerated realities of the matrix:

Councillor: Almost no one comes down here unless there’s a problem. That’s how it is with people. Nobody cares how it works as long as it works. I like it down here. I like to be reminded this city survives because of these machines. These machines are keeping us alive while other machines are coming to kill us. Interesting isn’t it: the power to give life and the power to end it.