The Gamer ’ s Rationale : Simulation , digital culture , and the video game

Having seen the Wachowski brother’s film The Matrix over a dozen times, I constantly wonder about the potential of technology and its collision with our traditional notions of physical reality. The Matrix offers a preemptive view of the intersection (or collision) between human culture and digital technology. It introduces the idea of simulation space and our ability to learn and refine skill within a simulated digital environment. The implied idea behind this technological interface is the ability of human neural pathways to be directly and immediately manipulated to allow a skill to be learned. The result we see is the ability of those engaged with the system to 'download' skill sets into their neural circuitry which can then be acted upon in digital space. While this futuristic vision seems to give us almost unlimited potential for skill acquisition, there is one important question that goes unanswered by the film. While we see countless examples of learned skills (martial arts) which get uploaded and are instantly accessible by the individual for use within the matrix, we never discover if these skills become translated into physical reality. In other words, is Morpheus able to bring kung fu skills back into physical reality and are we able to translate a practiced skill from the human imagination into our everyday physical life? This question is fundamental to the understanding of the video game culture and its ability to learn or practice skill through simulation.