MovieChat Forums > The Matrix (1999) Discussion > Do they ever explain why you look like y...

Do they ever explain why you look like you in the Matrix?


I think that if your body is in one world where you never see yourself, and your mind in another, why would you look like your physical self?

Imagine if he awoke to realise that he didn’t even look like himself? He could be a black man!

Or a man could actually be a woman (like the writers) and this would explain why people feel like they are “born” into the wrong bodies.

I don’t think audiences would really want a transsexual/body image/gender dysphoria storyline but it would be an interesting way to address these issues, which the writers (then male) had.

reply

Well, their representation is from their minds. And the mind is cheated to believe it just is.... and if ones brain does not know ones physic, then who does. It makes sense to me. But it is explained that ones image in the matrix is ones internal image of ones self in ones mind.... a lot of ones here.... Remember they do actually not look alike. Not completely. Have different haircuts and dresses more cool etc.

reply

But if you've never seen yourself, then the matrix would have to create your image. So that would mean that while you're in your capsule, there would have to be some sort of camera, scanning your physical appearance in order to replicate it in the matrix.

reply

No. You look like you do because of the coding in your DNA. A blind man has never seen himself and yet his brain and body have no doubt that he has for example 2 legs, and a mole on his left shoulder etc etc, all those puzzles will add up to him and how he looks... so if you would fool this mans brain so it would believe he could see... I think it is logical that his brain would present an image not far to what his DNA has in reality coded him to look like

reply

It is not the matrix that creates your image. It is your subconsciousness that tells the Matrix how to image you.... And this has its info from your brain, which we must assume knows the coding (DNA) of your body.

Your consciousness may not know exactly how you look. And have likely never really seen your back for example. But your subconsciousness should have access to all that data from your brain and body, and you brain sure knows where all your beauty marks are on you back etc.

reply

There is no way your DNA feeds your subconscious with an accurate image of yourself.

reply

Which I never said. The brain feeds the SUBconsciousness. And the SUBconsciousness has access to all the date in you brain and body. At least we must assume. DNA etc is just part of your body’s physique and the code that made you look like you.

Your consciousness, on the other hand, knows comparatively very little about your physique.

If your point is that a blind man’s brain does not know his body’s physique, I just have to disagree.... of course it knows, and if it knows so does the Matrix.

reply

A blind man's perception of their body would be in relation to how they fit with their environment. So their size would be relative to how comfortable they are sitting in a chair or lying on a bed. Their height would be relative to where sound comes from. Do people talk up or down?

They would have no perception of how they look.

Being in the matrix would be like being in a dream. My movement in a dream is not determined by my physical body at all. I could lose my legs and still have dreams about having legs.

reply

There is a difference between what your brain knows and what YOU, your consciousness knows. The blind mans consciousness-self may have problems understanding how he visually looks. His brain though knows all the little secrets of his physical body.... and as i said earlier, if the brains knows, so does the Matrix.

To think the brain needs a visual confirmation on your look, sounds nonsensical to me, as the brain is in total and complete control and knows parts of your physique even your most intimate partner will ever know, and certainly even your consciousness-self does not know....

In your theory a fake mirror could then convince a brain into thinking it actually has three legs, and four eyes or perhaps just a nice tan?

It would not. You brain knows precisely how many legs you have, it knows how your veins flow in your body, it knows all the details of your skin and skintone, it knows where your moles are on your back, it knows how your heart beat, it simply knows all about your physique … to cheat the brain of this info, you would have to numb it or paralyze it in other ways…. Giving a fake or no mirror, would make no change in its knowledge of itself. You, yourself may be confused, but not your brain.

Phantom limps is an example hereof in the real world. Mirrors surely shows you that your arm has been cut off, and yet the brain may still experience feelings in this phantom limp as its nerves are sending it confusing signals after the arm was severed… in other words, the mirror confirmation and what you yourself may know, means diddly-squat to the brain. The brain gets its info from tis nerves, that connects to every little piece of your body...

Wouldn’t the real world phenomena of phantom limps prove your theory wrong ?

Of course, there are attributes that the brain does not control. Like the length of your hair, or the length of your nails or if you have something stuck in your teeth … and this we actually see in the movie are different from their real selves outside the Matrix.

I feel our disagreeance is based upon differentiating what a brain fully consist off. The consciousness-self (aka You) would need a stimuli of sorts to know how it looks, like a mirror or other real world interactions. On this I agree. The brain is so much more though, and the brain in general (the machinist of the body, if you will), depends on its info from billions or trillions of nerves and nerve endings and not external stimuli.

And so the way I see it is that the Matrix gets its info from the brain and then uses this info to manipulate your consciousness-self, as you walk about in the Matrix. In other words, The Matrix knows your looks because it has access to all this data in you brain

reply

- made an edit above. Anyway, see my point? Still disagree?

reply

Because it's movie, not a documentary.

reply

The Matrix creates the look, and feeds data directly into brain. It's not a big leap to think it monitors everyone's body and then molds 'The Matrix' version of the body accordingly in real time.

This way, both always match.

However, this movie also explains it as 'mental projection of your digital self', which makes no sense. If it was a 'digital projection of your mental self', it would make more sense, but what the heck is 'mental self' anyway, and how come it always has a definite, three-dimensional visual-physical characteristics?

What if my 'mental self' is a ball of energy?

Well, pretty much any movie like this can be torn apart by just thinking enough.

reply

Being transexual is a glitch on the matrix. I think you are unto something.

reply