The word “cyberspace” was coined by William Gibson in his 1982 science-fiction short story “Burning Chrome”, and in his first novel, Neuromancer, he used “matrix” to describe the same thing. In Gibson’s books it’s the technological equivalent of a drug-induced hallucination, an addictive virtual realm into which computer hackers escape from real life. The film The Matrix later switched this around: it’s where we all are, right now, unknowingly living out our so-called “lives”.
    So what is The Matrix? The simple answer is that it is a science-fiction action film, replete with Hollywood special effects, fight scenes, guns and chase sequences, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski and released in 1999. It is also a whole lot more though: it’s intelligent, philosophical even—but what does it mean? Is it a metaphor, or literally true; is it just science fiction, philosophy—or theology even? This book is a collection of fourteen essays loosely (very loosely in some cases) aimed at answering that.
    Some see the film as:

• Metaphysics: “What is the Matrix?” is also the question which propels the film’s hero, Thomas Anderson, down his rabbit hole; it’s a film about the true nature of reality.
• Or a religious parable for the new millennium; full of Christian imagery, a messiah story.
• Or Buddhism, although only superficially—the film glories in some pretty graphic ultra-slow “bullet time” violence, which is hardly part of the Buddhist (or Christian) teachings.
• Or a film, not about the future at all, but about the unreality of the way we live now—modern life as a kind of dreamworld imposed on us by the rich and powerful.
• Or, simply, as a pretentious, pseudo-intellectual excuse for violence on the cinema screen.

Other essays have a more tenuous connection to the film though (the possible future of technology for example, both optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints).
    There are some well-known contributors here, science fiction’s Robert Sawyer and inventor Ray Kurzweil among them, and the final essay is by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom who considers the question of whether we could all be living in a gigantic Matrix-like simulation already. Interesting read overall. ( )

A lot of very interesting essays here. Especially Ray Kurzweil's and Bill Joy's. There's are worth reading even if you're not a Matrix fan. ( )

O melhor livro lançado/traduzido para o português sobre o filme Matrix. Excelentes ensaios sobre a filosofia e mitologia do filme. ( )

Editora: Publifolha, Edição: 1a. edição, 2003, Número de páginas: 288 páginas