Corrected entry: While explaining the Construct, Morpheus tells Neo, "Your appearance now is what we call residual self image. It is the mental projection of your digital self." What he really meant is, "It is the digital projection of your mental self." (00:40:00)
SoylentPurple
4th Feb 2009
The Matrix (1999)
Correction: That is not a mistake, Morpheus spoke correctly. They are in the construct, therefore it is Neo's digital self. His clothes and hair are his mental projection. Just as if Neo were dreaming it would be: "It is the mental projection of your dreaming self."
No, they are in the construct, a digital environment. So the projection is digital (being that it exists in a digital environment) and the self is mental (being that it is what he thinks it should be). The correction of the movie quote is correct.
When in the Construct, it's like being connected to the Matrix. The people in the Construct are Avatars of themselves, which means they are their digital selves. The projection of themselves is based on what their Avatars are thinking.
That is pure nonsense. Avatars don't think. Your comment makes no sense. As explained elsewhere, it should be "the digital projection of your mental self."
I probably oversimplified what I was trying to say. But I can understand your confusion. The digital self is what a person looks like in the Matrix, which is different from the real world. The mental projection (in the construct or as an avatar) resembles their digital self, not their real self. Which is why Neo in the Matrix has hair, real life Neo is bald, but his mental projection has hair.
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Correction: The concept of a mental projection of one's digital self is rooted in the idea that the person's memory of how they looked (in this case, curated through years of living in an illusory digital reality) is going to manifest itself within any simulation that allows it. Because Neo lived in the matrix, he has a mental image of what he should look like (his digital self). So the line in the movie is correct.
No, it is not correct. As explained by others above (and overwhelmingly upvoted by other site users), it would still be a digital projection of your mental self. There actually is no digital self. It's just a digital projection. It is what is in the mind that is the self and what the film values as the core of an individual. "The body cannot live without the mind," as Morpheus says. Also, it is in the mind where we believe. Throughout the film, the mind is central. Thus, the correction stands.
Those living in the Matrix are digital representation of themselves. Which is why Neo has hair in the Matrix but is bald in the real world. When in the construct, Neo has hair again because that's how he remembers himself, which was his digital self, not his real self.
Bishop73