To be a Human

What it means to “Be Human”

“Julius Deane was one hundred and thirty-five years old, his metabolism assiduously warped by a weekly fortune, in serums and hormones” (12) - how could a human live to be one hundred and thirty-five years old? An average human would live up to their eighties or nineties. Very inhuman and out of the world today.

“…you can access live or recorded simstim without having to jack out of the matrix” (53) - being humans mean having private feelings and thoughts, but in this world, people can transfer feelings and sight from one person to another.

“ ‘hang on.’ He disconnected the construct. The presence was gone. He reconnected it. ‘Dix? Who am I’” (76)? - Dixie is ROM that forgets everything once unplugged, this goes against the nature of a human for once “brain-dead,” it cannot be reversed

“Then I’d ask what your terms were” (29) - like humans, we don’t do anything without an incentive

“pure mindless reflec: he threw the beer and chicken down and ran after her” (38). - similar to the fact that any of us would react the same if a love one is killed or hurt.

The matrix goes against the law of human, for human is a living being with a brain to help us function. However, the matrix, a non-being, forces the being to connect its mind to it by “jacking in” (51)


“What he imagines, you see” (87) - a human’s thought is very private, it is a nonhuman ability to project our thoughts to someone else to see

“She slid down around him and his back arched convulsively” (33) - like any other being, the sense of reproduction, basically sex, is an urge even in this future world.

“This scam of yours, when it’s over, you erase this god dam thing” (104) - it is a rather disturbing thing to find out that you are still alive but not alive as in having a growing body and a thinking brain instead of a machine. Dixie realizes that he is dead for some time and asked to be erase or deleted since being alive this way is not worth it.

“do you think he knows he was Corto” (91)? - Every human has his or her own unique personality but Corto has been molded to assume another’s personality.