Power technology gives you - People

Use of the matrix by the general public

Representation in the film:

In the film the general public are not aware of the fact they are in fact living in a simulated world, or the fact they are actually imprisoned and used as an energy source for the Machines that have imprisoned them. However the resistance can remotely access the matrix without having to submit to the AI at all. Since they are aware they are in a simulation, they also have learned to use the matrix in different ways to help with their cause, such as being able immediately learn specific skills easily through uploading information directly to their brains, as well as knowing about certain glitches, such as experiencing déjà vu would be mean that the matrix is aware of their existence. One of the members of the resistance also gains the ability to essentially hack into an agent of the matrix , which in reality is a program designed to remove any elements that could essentially reveal the truth of the simulation.

Ethics of the use of the matrix by the public (film):

The film makes it very clear that since birth, the babies are immediately are put into the matrix, and throughout their entire life until death they will stay in the matrix. When a person dies in the simulation, they also die in reality and their body would then be turned into food that is consumed by other trapped individuals. There is many unethical cases here as there is no free will or consent given to the people trapped, and have no awareness to how the AI actually uses them. However there is an argument to be made about how ignorance’s is a bliss, as real world is already ruined due to the war between humans and machine, which ended with the sky being blocked out by humans, in a last ditch effort to weaken the machines only to actively ruin their own crops causing worldwide famines and the machines being able to adapt around this. If it were not for the fact that the machines needed humanity for energy, they would have been extinct by now. In the film this is reflected by one of the members of the resistance betraying everyone else to stay in the matrix, as the real world was already mostly inhabitable. Within the matrix, criminal acts such as assault and murder can be committed with serious consequences, as the user still feels pain when hurt in the matrix, or can even die in the real world if they die in the matrix. However in order to satisfy the realistic world the matrix provides, these crimes can be conducted, albeit they can be arrested as law enforcement does exist in the simulation. But it could be considered unethical as the AI allows people to commit crimes.