There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy – The Matrix is one of them

OK so I took some liberties with Hamlet's line but I've seen 2 works of art in the past week that have blown my mind. It wasn't the first time seeing either, and maybe it was the picnic cups of wine at the beach or perhaps the epic new screen and sound system at the VIFF Centre, but in both cases it's the first time I felt I really, “got it.”

Hamlet wasn't crazy – he simply saw the truth. In a similar way, The Matrix's main character Neo comes to understand the difference between believing, and truly knowing.

The Vancouver International Film Festival Centre's “Total Cinema” series is celebrating the “best films on the big screen.” The Matrix featured as part of the “Spectacle” category – and it shines every bit as brightly as it did 25 years ago.

Beyond the groundbreaking visuals, it's just really smart sci-fi. I love the literary and philosophical references: Alice in Wonderland and the white rabbit, which sets the plot in motion; Simulacra and Simulation and its questions of reality, a copy of which also serves as a prop.

But it's the tech stuff that really stuck this time. The Wachowskis created a time capsule that captures early 21st century tech concerns and ruminations as potently as those of the late 20th. Is the idea that AIs will eventually use humans for battery power that far off?

On the walk over to the movie theatre I was listening to a podcast where the journalist cloned his voice to see if he could effectively punk phone scammers. While the tech is still relatively crude, he could. Man fights tech. Tech fights tech. What is reality? Do we really exist? And the big one,

What does it mean to be human?

As we accelerate at unprecedented speed into uncharted tech waters, perhaps we can at least free our minds and choose how we respond.

Take it away Hamlet:

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”