Real Real or Just Real?

The poll on IMDb.com wanted to find out what meta-reality users would rather be plugged into. Here were the choices:

• The Matrix
• A Na'vi from Avatar
• Biological game device from eXistenZ
• Surrogate from Surrogates
• Dream-sharing device from Inception
• Memory implantation device from Total Recall
• Computer game from TRON
• VR machine from Virtuosity
• Simulation machine from The Thirteenth Floor
• Tunnel to John Malkovich's body in Being John Malkovich. 

Luckily I'd seen all these movies (though some more recently than others) and I was able to pick one accordingly. My first choice was The Matrix but I didn't really know why. So I thought about it and I think I came to an answer. 

"If you're killed in the Matrix, you die here?" 

Before I go into it, I want to say that I choose the Matrix itself, not the reasoning behind it. I don't want to be plugged into the Matrix because I want to be a battery for a robot. So when reading this, only keep the simulated reality of the Matrix and not the forces behind it in mind. 

All the options do essentially the same thing—they transplant you from the "real world" or a "waking reality" to a simulated one or dream state (except for Total Recall, which honestly I don't think really fits in the poll). The physics of each are the determining factors in my choosing, specifically one physical property. Unfortunately for some of the movies, this physical property isn't explored, so I couldn't really consider it. The property which I find the most compelling is death and it is why I choose the Matrix. 

Of the movies that explores death in a simulated reality, the sim-real of The Matrix is the only one that actually kills you if you die while "plugged in" so to speak. In Inception, you're woken up or transplanted to limbo. In Surrogates, you wake up (unless killed by the special weapon). And you'll wake up from your deceased avatar. 

So why is this important? The easy way to answer it is that it makes the Matrix more real in that in our current perceived reality, death is real, certain, and inevitable. The hard way to answer it is that actual death makes life worth living more than in a safer sim-real.  In film at least, death is a good motivator. Characters have to accomplish something or else someone will die. Perhaps art imitates life (or the other way around) in that death makes life more appealing. Of course, I can't really say for sure as I have never died. Yet. 

I'm also under the impression that I would learn much more about myself while in a simulated environment that I could actually die in. In Inception, I could live as long as I wanted (in theory) and I would be able to re-do any mistakes I've made, which would defeat the purpose of learning. Having a surrogate would lead to a super hedonistic life, devoid of pain or humanity. I could literally do whatever I wanted. In the Matrix it's different. I have to live by some kind of rule. One of these is that "the body can not live without the mind" which none of these films really explore. They're more about the nature of reality. But I find these rules important. Though ironically, I find the fact that you would die in the Matrix to be unbelievable. It makes more sense that you would simply wake up, like in the other movies. 

Perhaps another film will come out that deals more heavily with the "body-mind" question and less of the "What is reality?" question.