social ethics discussions

5/10/22, 7:09 AM Topic: Week 4 Case Discussion Question - New Case Study Group 1

https://seattleu.instructure.com/groups/293194/discussion_topics/7970794/submit 1/7

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This is a graded discussion: 2 points possible due Apr 20

Week 4 Case Discussion Question - New Case Study Group 1 From UCOR 2910 02

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The following clip is from the movie The Matrix. If you are unfamiliar with this movie it might be good to consult wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix) for a more detailed plot description. But here is a brief synopsis: It is a science fiction movie about how machines humans created with artificial intelligence take over our lives and eventually enslave us. They enslave us by keeping us asleep our entire lives in pods so that they can use our body-heat to power their machines. In order to keep our warm blood alive and circulating the machines created a computer virtual reality of pleasurable experiences called the Matrix that they download into our heads. Connected cognitively to the computer program of the Matrix, humans think the comforting world they are dreaming is actually reality as such. A few humans woke up and realized the Matrix is not reality and decided to fight its dehumanizing use of humans while they escaped and now live in the miserable conditions of the real world. In this scene Cypher, who has escaped from the Matrix nevertheless goes back into the Matrix in order to sell out his liberated comrades to the machine agent. His reasoning is that he prefers the virtual pleasures of the Matrix to the miseries of reality because at least it is more comfortable and pleasurable.

Watch the scene and then state how you might try to ethically convince Cypher not to go back to the virtual life of pleasures within the Matrix. What ethical reasons could you offer for why he shouldn't sink back into the fantasy world of a computer program? Could you convince him not to go on purely utilitarian principles? If you believe utilitarianism would be unconvincing, explain how virtue ethics might reason differently (see the lecture notes comparing and contrasting virtue and utilitarianism (https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/files/68034376/download?download_frd=1) ). Provide your initial response by Wednesday, and then at least 2 engagements with group members you haven't responded to yet (or haven't responded to as often), by Sunday.

Something to think about while answering and responding: In connecting this to our modern world, think about the Matrix as a metaphor for our commercialized society and its mechanized worldview in which we are far removed from an organic connection to each other and nature at the point of production. Think about how, especially in our digital age, we now live within a highly programmed virtual reality of the marketplace, coming in contact with others primarily for commercial exchange where our lives are mediated everywhere by algorithms, ads, and images telling us what we need to purchase and consume in order to be happy. How would we reason with someone who believed there is nothing more to life other than this consumerist virtual reality

5/10/22, 7:09 AM Topic: Week 4 Case Discussion Question - New Case Study Group 1

https://seattleu.instructure.com/groups/293194/discussion_topics/7970794/submit 2/7

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of the marketplace and the fabricated pleasures it generates? Can utilitarianism wake us up to something more or greater about our life together and our human potentials? Can it inspire a desire to change our society toward higher qualitative relations beyond mere commercialism and private consumption? Can utilitarianism help us make the essential distinctions between real pleasures and fake pleasures, external goods and internal goods, true desires or false desires that might be needed to judge the unreality of the matrix? If life is nothing more than private pleasure seeking, then why would we ever want to leave a relatively comfortable existence in virtual reality (or any privileged bubbles) in order to fight against injustice in the messy real world?

Matrix (1999) - Eating Steak and Protein Matrix (1999) - Eating Steak and Protein ……

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(https:// Roma Gadhiwala (https://seattleu.instructure.com/groups/293194/users/6223789) Apr 20, 2022

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Is ignorance truly bliss? What I would try to explain to Cypher is that this is not always true. While the utilitarianism view says that happiness is just the pursuit of pleasure there is more to what a person should pursue in life. What he is doing in this situation is throwing the people who have helped him under the bus so that he can live a fake life that is controlled by someone else. While the reality of his current situation is not ideal, it is still the reality. What he