Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and the Religion in the Matrix

Dive into the world of The Matrix ahead of the 2021 release of Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections!

Taking the Red Pill is a thought-provoking, mind-expanding thrill ride through The Matrix, examining the technological challenges, religious symbolism, and philosophical dilemmas the film presents.

Renowned scientists, technologists, philosophers, scholars, social commentators, and science fiction authors provide engaging and provocative perspectives:

Inventor and technologist Ray Kurzweil reveals the technological trends that make The Matrix more prophetic than anyone suspects

Sun chief scientist Bill Joy’s classic essay “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” describes the horrors that await as these technologies are developed

Yale philosopher and occasional standup comic Nick Bostrom calculates the odds that we are in the Matrix

Best-selling science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer explores the history of artificial intelligence in science fiction culminating with The Matrix

Economist and philosopher of science Robin Hanson shows how we are controlled by a power as malevolent as that of the Matrix

Taking the Red Pill will change how you view The Matrix—and the world around you.

Glenn Yeffeth is the editor of several anthologies in the Smart Pop series, including Anthology at the End of the Universe, Farscape Forever!, Five Seasons of Angel, Navigating the Golden Compass, Seven Seasons of Buffy, Taking the Red Pill, and What Would Sipowitz Do?

David Gerrold is the author of the Hugo and Nebula award–nominated The Man Who Folded Himself and When HARLIE Was One, books that quickly established him in the hard science fiction genre during the 1970s. He also wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode of Star Trek, voted the most popular Star Trek episode of all time, and is the author of the popular Star Wolf, Dingillian, and Chtorr series. He lives in Northridge, CA.