Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Problem is Choice

As Neo says in The Matrix Reloaded, the problem really is choice. At every instant, as we go by our lives, we make a choice. "Its time to get up" or "Just a few minutes more"...Coffee or tea...Wear jeans or shorts.... But ever so often, we come face to face with a potentially life-changing choice. What do we do then?

I have always had the life-changing kind of choices made for me by circumstances. One of the potential choices usually just dropped out of contention and I was left with a clear path. Maybe it was just escapism on my part to let the choice drop out. Or maybe, I had already made up my mind subconsciously and thus, let the rejected option drop out. Either way, I don't regret any of the "decisions" (well...almost). But, recently I was faced with an important choice.

"There are two doors. The door to your right leads both to The Source and salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to the Matrix....The problem is choice". -Architect, The Matrix Reloaded.

Neither door was perfect in its promise but both opened equally wide. While one lead to a tough path that went through lot of new places, the smooth door lead to the comparatively simpler path in the backyard but well-made.I made the choice to take the door onto the tough path to the Matrix.

"Hope...It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness" -Architect, The Matrix Reloaded.

Having gone through this, I wonder how are we able to decide at all when we can never be sure of what the future holds for us. It is always a risk, a law of probability. Is there really anything called a "safe-choice"? Or is it just SAFER? But, I just contradicted this by choosing the riskier path. Is it just me being dumb?

“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing." - Leo F. Buscaglia (Not from The Matrix trilogy!)

"As you adequately put, the problem is choice". Architect, The Matrix Reloaded.

Or ..... its just an illusion. The Grand Unified Theory of Everything predicts exactly what your life is like. So you don't really have a choice as, in this universe, you couldn't have ever chosen that which you didn't choose.

"....You've already made your choice. You are here to understand it" - Oracle, The Matrix Reloaded.

P.S. : Something related to this....
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html