Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present

It is the beginning of the twenty-first century, and we are living on the cusp of change. Reality has already spawned one alternate state, and for many people virtual reality is now where they are most at home. But what happens when virtual worlds become indistinguishable from what we consider to be the real world? When you wake up from a dream, how do you know that you are not still dreaming? And if the reality we're in is virtual, who is doing the programming?

These questions, and many more like them, spin effortlessly out of the box-office mega-hit The Matrix. More than just a computer-aided shoot-'em-up, more than just the latest cinematic expression of cyberpunk angst, The Matrix presented layer upon layer of challenging explorations of what the true nature of reality might be, and why this should (or should not) be important to us.

Exploring the Matrix presents eighteen thoughtful and though-provoking essays on what the film had to say and exactly how it was said. Here you will discover the long and fascinating history of some of the themes set forth in the Wachowski Brothers' landmark film, why they are important, how they have been explored n the past, and their implications for the immediate future of human society. The true nature of reality in our current cyber-age is not a rhetorical question, but rather one that needs to be answered as we move closer to seamless virtual scenarios, accessible online, in video games... and perhaps ultimately as the result of uploading software to an implanted chip in the brain.

You can take the blue pill and stay in the dream, unaware of your status, or take the red pill and see just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Karen Haber is the author of eight novels, including Star Trek: Voyager - Bless the Beasts; coauthor of Science of the X-Men; and editor of the Hugo-nominated essay anthology celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien, Mediations on Middle-earth. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many anthologies. She reviews art books for Locus magazine and profiles artists for various publications, including Realms of Fantasy. Haber lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, Robert Silverberg.

Robert Zohrab is an Australian digital artist and designer whose work appears on book covers and in corporate brochures. His clients include the Manta recording company, for which he has designed album covers and promotional material, and ibooks, inc., for which he has supplied cover image for new trade editions of Brian Aldiss's landmark Helliconia triology, among others.

Darrel Anderson, a digital-art pioneer, emerged from the underground comix scene to create one of the earliest and longest-running art Web sites, braid.com. With members of the BRAID collective and PCA Graphics, he created the animated CGI climax of the 1995 film Johnny Mnemonic. The Science Fiction Channel Web site features forty-eight of his images, and he is profiled in Fantasy Art of the New Millennium II by Dick Jude. His artwork has received top honors in numerous international awards, including Pixar's call for images and MacWorld's Macintosh Masters competition. Anderson actually works either side of the screen, as both programmer and artist. One of his latest developments, GroBoto, is an interactive art tool intended to allow children to explore their creativity, and artists to further theirs. Anderson's work can be seen and sampled at braid.com