Mother Nature's little white lies(?)

Oracle: But... you already know what I'm going to tell you.

Neo: I'm not The One.

Oracle: Sorry, kid. You got the gift, but it looks like you're waiting for something.









In The Matrix, the oracle tells Neo that he is not "The One", which causes him to try to sacrifice his life for Morpheus, the action which leads him to the realization that he is "The One" and saving the day. It was a Machievellian move by the Oracle, telling a lie to create an optimal outcome, (Morpheus later tells Neo that she told him "only what he needed to hear") but it worked. Neo knew what he had to know to win.

In the movie, this is a really central part. But was what the Oracle said really a lie? Lets try to look a little deeper.

The three main characters (Neo, Trinity, Morpheus) are part of a deeper metaphor, revealed in their names. "Neo" has three letters in his name. By arranging them in a "Trinity" (Triad) you get N,E & O in a triangle. By applying "Morpheus" (latin for 'change') and turning the traingle, you get O, N & E, or "One" as in "The One". This bit sheds light on what the Oracle was saying, and what happens later: She said he wasn't the one, and that he would have to choose between Morpheus's life and his own (choose between "change" and his current state as N, E & O) He chooses to sacrifice his "life" (N,E & O state) state for Morpheus, and in this realizes that he is the One, (O, N & E state is acheived) in harmony with the metaphor.

So was the Oracle really lying at all? Yes and no, depending on who's perspective: Neo can't have his question answered about being the one, because he is limited to a dualistic 1 bit understanding of the question: He is either the One, or not the One, so when the Oracle says he is not, it turns out to be a "lie" - from his limited perspective. But the Oracle's understanding, (reflected in the above) transcends the dualism, its 2 bit. She know's he is not the One yet, but could be, (if he lets his "self" die) so she tells him that he is not the One, which is true at the time, so that he can reach the state of being the one, which will be true in the future.

So Neo's 1 bit system can only fit the oracles 2 bit truth over time. In technical terms, the Oracle is forced to Multiplex the truth so Neo can comprehend it. It was necessary that she do so, because simply telling him that he could become the One if he would sacrifice his life for Morpheus wouldn't make any sense, beacuse it would seemingly result in the "death" of the very One that was supposed to save everybody, and explaining that the death was "metaphorical" wouldn't lead Neo to risk his life in the way he had to in order to acheive the metaphorical death, or state change.

The point of all this is that when we accept that our minds are limited, we also have to accept that the optimal beliefs for a situation are not always the accurate ones, and this has some deep consequences for AI, which I will be turning over in my head...