(Orig posted 2003)

As I was thinking about the architect’s speech, I was reminded of a famous passage:

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 2:15-17

Followed by:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Genesis 3:4-7

(Both passages are from KJV, which is the version most readily available on-line)

It struck me that the assertion of the architect that Trinity, and Zion and the occupants of the matrix will all die may be little different than the assertion by God “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? Trinity does not die, the Matrix seem still to be standing (despite the destruction wrought by Neo in his flight to save Trinity) and Zion is still standing, still has a chance to be saved.

Just as the lives of Adam and Eve were radically changed by choosing the fruit of knowledge (an apple only by tradition) so the lives of the occupants of Zion and the matrix will be radically changed by the choice of Neo. It would be death, in a way. For that choice creates profound consequences: expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the destruction of the Matrix. Both choices lead to death and destruction: the murder of Abel by Cain, the death of people who can not accept that the matrix is not real. And both choices lead to a situation that will make some survivors profoundly unhappy, those who would choose a dream over reality. But in the end, is not free will, free choice, and knowledge a better option?

Perhaps that varies for individuals, but for humanity I think that I choose free will.