USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FOURTH ASSIGNMENT (PHILOSOPHY)- 'The Door'

"In many ways, yes.

"We believe- after due consideration- in the existence of a Clockmaker God. That is to say, a being that puts into place all the procedures and operations of the Universe, winds it up... and lets it run. He never, ever, inteferes... the clock just keeps on turning, until it finally winds down.

"And in such a process, what is the only tool that sees to the advancment of life?"

"Evolution."

"Yes indeed..."

EVOLUTION

"Which is where we get to the root of this whole thing."

"How does evolution play into this?"

Time to see if anyone has clocked any of this in advance.

Also, I'd prefer this was a genuine answer, rather than something you looked up.

"Have any of you ever before heard the line... 'It takes all the running you can do, to stay in the same place'?"

"I have, yes. Reminds me of the end to The Great Gatsby. Backs bent against the current, that sort of thing. I don't know if I could tell you where that line was from, though."

Sirin laughs slightly.

"'And if you want to go someplace else, you must run twice as fast as that.' The Red Queen's race from Through the Looking Glass."

(I adore those books! 😄 )

"I was going to say something about 'survival of the fittest,' myself," Heph says.

(My copy is actually glaring at me from the desk for not remembering that line...)

"It sounds familiar," Klez says, most likely before Sirin goes 'I know! I know!' "In relation to evolution, it sounds relevant to Darwin's survival of the fittest. If you want to stay in the game, stay alive, at all, you have to try very hard to compete for your place."

"Yes indeed," says Lo Qi. "Lewis Carroll."

And that quote was given earlier in the game- considering the association the Matrix has with these books, I was a little surprised no-one picked up on it.

"The Red Queen's Race, a powerful analysis of an aspect of evolution. Let us examine the struggle of the fox and the rabbit. The foxes eat the rabbits. This threatens their survival. So what do the rabbits do?"

(Was it? I'm surprised I didn't see it!)

"The rabbits evolve to avoid the foxes, by becoming faster or more adept at digging holes to hide in, and so on."

It was done in big bold highlighted letters, in fact...

Oh! Was it the passage that Storm's character Mirage read?

Yup!

Originally posted by Brit
(Was it? I'm surprised I didn't see it!)

"The rabbits evolve to avoid the foxes, by becoming faster or more adept at digging holes to hide in, and so on."

"Let's keep this simple, and stay with the matter of speed. It is what the Red Queen's race refers to, after all.

"But now we have another problem. If the foxes can no longer catch the rabbits, they will starve. This threatens their survival. So... what happens?"

"They also evolve, becoming faster than the rabbits."

"But wait... now the rabbits are dying again."

"And so they evolve again. It's a continuous cycle."

"And so the race goes on forever. Both sides getting faster and faster and faster for absolutely no final effect to them. It takes all the running you can do... to stay in the same place.

"Objectively, what does this mean?"

"It means that you survive. In order to keep alive, you have to adapt to a new way of doing it. Once the competition catches on, you have to find another new way. The competition will always catch on, but you'll always find a way to thwart them again."