The world of ‘The Matrix’ is here. It’s nothing like what we imagined

Things are already weird—and they're going to get a whole lot weirder really fast.

Insert preview text here. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions 12.21.21 The first Matrix movie introduced sci-fi fans to an ancient philosopher's saw: What if your entire reality were a deceit? The technologies that have emerged since then have only complicated our sense of what is real, but how they do so is in some ways even weirder than the movie predicted. And reader, this is just the beginning. We used the release of The Matrix Resurrections as a springboard for a special issue of WIRED exploring the future of reality—one in which the question is not "What if we're all living in a simulation and don't know it?" but "What happens when we're living in a simulation and in reality simultaneously, and we know it, but we have trouble telling them apart?" In this case, we can say one thing with confidence: It doesn't matter whether you take the red pill or the blue one. We're going down the rabbit hole either way. Read our series on the impact of the Matrix franchise—and the future of reality—below. The Matrix Is the Best Hacker Movie Most people point to Sneakers or WarGames. They're all wrong. The Wachowskis actually invented the ultimate cyber superhero. Welcome to the (Synthetic) Meatspace Reactor-grown nuggets, human-edited genetic code, and new mRNA technologies could change our relationship to life itself. It's Time to Reimagine the Future of Cyberpunk In the 20th century, the genre imagined the body modifications and protective streetwear that could save us from our own future. Now it needs to envision humanity anew. Can a Digital Reality Be Jacked Directly Into Your Brain? The idea of a synthetic experience uploaded to the mind has been a sci-fi fantasy forever. New brain-computer interfaces are making it nonfiction—very slowly. The Metaverse Is Simply Big Tech, but Bigger It's a rebrand of Silicon Valley's increasing power and reach. And it's made for companies, not people. What The Matrix Got Wrong About Cities of the Future Where the movie foresaw a distinction between digital and physical reality, modern cities are merging them, and not necessarily in a good way. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Is Ready to Blow Your Mind The actor isn't just the new Morpheus. He's the future of Hollywood. The Most Efficient Way to Debug the Simulation Look, some of these tickets just have to be marked WONTFIX so everyone can move on. See More Stories GET WIRED HOLIDAY SALE! Get WIRED for just $10 $5. Get the print edition and exclusive subscriber-only stories. Give yourself the gift of information. Subscribe now.     Have questions or comments? Reply to this email.   This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions