Instigator / Pro
7
1731
rating
167
debates
73.05%
won
Topic
#2764

The Matrix: On balance, taking the blue pill, as opposed to the red pill, is more beneficial for Neo(Read Description)

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
3
0
Better sources
2
0
Better legibility
1
1
Better conduct
1
1

After 1 vote and with 5 points ahead, the winner is...

Intelligence_06
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
4
Time for argument
Three days
Max argument characters
12,500
Voting period
Two weeks
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Con
2
1502
rating
41
debates
35.37%
won
Description

So essentially the story goes like this: It is the future and robots have taken over the world and we humans are enslaved. We lie all day in liquid nitrogen tanks, plugged as a machine program makes you live in the dream world that will make you think it is real, so they can use us as storage for electricity and make sure that almost none of us realize what is going on and rage against the machines. It is just Mandatory VR sessions for life.

Humans are reproduced to be for storage. When one is "born", he/she/they will be plugged so they will start to exist in the dream world. Human growth and the speed of flowing time are consistent in both realms. When one dies in any realm, he/she/they translates to electrical energy and becomes replaced by another baby, who continues the cycle.

Neo is one such person and everything in his life seems normal. Neo is hired as an IT engineer and is also a computer hacker. Someone tells him that the world is virtual and all that machine extravaganza. It is his choice to take the blue or red pill.

The Red pill is a signal that you want to wake up and escape this dream world, and they put a silvery conductive liquid onto you so you could be disrupted and wake up in the machine world where there are robot spiders everywhere.

The Blue pill is a signal that you want to continue living in the dream world instead of waking up in the "real" world. Then they will remove your memory about the "real world" talk and you continue your life, your everyday struggle.

My stance is that taking the Blue pill is more beneficial to Neo as a person, instead of the Red pill. The BoP is shared.

Note that Blue Pill or Blue-pill refers to the pill itself, and bluepill, without a hyphen or space, refers to people that have taken the blue pill and are unaware that they live in a virtual world, Vice versa(Redpill refers to a person who took the red pill and thus cheated the system and has woke up in the real world aware that they have been living in a virtual world). Misusing the terms so they cause considerable misunderstanding would be an S&G loss.

Everything here is hypothetical but nevertheless follows the story and logic of the saga. Saying that taking the red pill is the status quo for Neo is simply an argument fallible enough that it isn't counted towards the end.

Criterion
Pro
Tie
Con
Points
Better arguments
3 point(s)
Better sources
2 point(s)
Better legibility
1 point(s)
Better conduct
1 point(s)
Reason:

The resolution is specific to Neo himself, which left me a little curious as to all the talk of other humans being better or worse off based on Neo's decision.

Pro made a case in favor of a boring utopia, and con made a case for apocalyptic excitement. Intuitively, the second sounds like a terrifying and short life; and even if other humans were factored in, apparently freeing them all from the Matrix (which I am pretty sure did not happen in those movies), was well argued as something which would lead to mass starvation among the youth and immediate death by redpill among the older.

Sources:
Pro of course gave lots of good information on the real world in question, which set the foundation for the debate. The psychologytoday one was critical, as it showed no world to be more real than the other. Con tried to leverage the year in the "real world," but failed to actually show these wonders which would make it preferable to live within.