Blog 4

Gracia and Sanford use the terms "source and ontilogical status" to distinguish between the real world and the unreal world of the Matrix. I've read thier essay over and over again to try and get an understanding of it. Little by little I began to realize what it is they were trying to explain, or express. They mention the "source" is a way to tell the difference between real thing or unreal one's. They claim that we know the source for the things in the real world, like machines and electrical signals are produced by humans and artificailyl intelligent machines. They say that the Matrix is not the cause for all the real things in the real world, although they don't know where the machines come from, or humans are reproduced they know that the Matrix has nothing to do with that. But unlike the real world they do not the source of the World of the Matrix, it was created by the machines. They claim that we can tell the difference between due to their different causes; one was created by the artificial machines, the other is the result of being freed from the machines. Although not mentioned in the first movie, in later one's you find out the source is the mainframe of the Matrix explained on http://matrix.wikia.com/wiki/The_Source. This now gives the unreal world a source, giving it a better cause for it's existence.

Thier second argument is the ontological status of the worlds, they way things exist. A way to determine ontological status is dependence, they say that the real world does not depend on something else for its existence. Becuase the unreal world depends on everything in the real world to extist, they say the unreal world of the Matrix has a weaker ontologcal status. The Matrix only stays running so long as there are machines still running the programs. Then they say in order for the freed prisoners to realize what was the difference between the worlds was the need of a teacher. If Neo never talked to Morpheuos he would have never known the difference.

I think the source means where and why anything is there, the real world was there because the prisoners were freed from the Matrix which is everything we know. While we didn't know why the Matrix is there, only that the machines created it. And ontological status means their dependence on something. The real world depended on nothing, while the Matrix depended on the Machines and humans prisoners.