Minute 74: “Balls to bones.”

Transcript

Transcribed automatically from the audio, and imperfect for it — names and punchlines suffer worst. Useful for finding a moment, not for quoting one.

0:00Welcome to the Matrix Minute, once again, Minute 78. 78? 74. Ah, I was looking into the future as I was eating some cookies. Why? Because we're still here with the Oracle. Oracle time. Oracle is a company that produces more IT stuff. More trivia with Tim. The most famous for is the database, the Oracle database. Hey Tim, can you check as crazy if the Oracle building is based on two hard drives? Let me have a look at it. Because I think that's true. I think that's really lame, because, you know.

0:42Welcome everybody, thank you for tuning in and trying to listen. Yeah, that was Phil, introduction as usual. And then we have me. Well. Us together. The one, the two hard drives, what are you talking about? Yeah, Oracle. I guess. They do look like hard drives, I guess. I don't know. Drew told me that. Possibly not. There's just, you know, some architect maybe thought. My hair. Anyway, sorry viewers, you can't see my majestic faux hawk. It's okay. I think everybody will forgive you. I think they will. It's all okay. So, Philip, tell us what exactly, specifically, happens within this 60-second clip.

1:27It's Latin. It means know thyself. The Oracle said, being the one is like being in love. No one can tell you you're in love, you just know it. Balls to bones. And Neo looks quizzical. And the Oracle gets up and has a look at him, putting on her glasses and reading his palms. Now I'm supposed to say, hmm, that's interesting, but. But what? But you already know what I'm going to tell you. No, we don't, we don't, we don't. That's it? That's where it stops? God damn it. Do I have to wait another week for this? Yeah. I hate this. I hate this. I was looking forward to. Tim, Tim, talk about this. Talk about this. Explain to the audience what you keep hating, because this has been going on since episode

2:08three. This has been, yeah, if you haven't listened to the early episodes, we got into a conversation quite early when we all shushed ourselves collectively, realizing that I was under the assumption that she tells him that he is the one, while you guys were telling me otherwise, and I refuse to believe it. So I've, I've been waiting for this minute to come so we can get some clarification here. So what's the clarification? But we don't know, because I need to hear that part of what she says next minute. So next Monday, we'll find out, unfortunately. Teaser. Exactly. So I really want to hear what she says, because I have a dreadful feeling that I've been projecting

2:49and hearing something completely else. You've been bamboozled. You've been hearing too many uamamas. Ah, yes. Uamamas. Exactly. So let's get back to Know Thyself. Yeah. She says this, but then she quickly moves on to something that's completely unrelated. So what the hell does Know Thyself? Oh man, tell us. I should have prepared for this. I prepared. Um, Temet Noska, which is the, uh... Wait, can I guys read you a really Greek... Greek? Come on, dude. No, I won't. You can tell me. Anyway, it's one of the Delphic maxims, and it was inscribed in the Pronaus, the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, according to the Greek writer Pausinius.

3:31The phrase was later expounded upon by the philosopher Socrates, who taught that the unexamined life is not worth living. In Latin, the phrase, Know Thyself, is given a Noska te ipsum, or Temet Noska. There you go. This is also what's in the book, which I explained. What book? Uh-huh. This book. The Matrix Novel? In Philosophy. So what's the philosophy behind it? Let me just read you an excerpt. So Phil said it's Latin, right? It means Know Thyself. Lol, kill yourself. It says, This wisdom is, in fact, the key to making sense of the oracle's prophecy. Wow. The same phrase was inscribed in Greek, like you said. It says, Rather than the barbaric Latin Temet Noska, it was in Greek, not what she has on her.

4:14I know. You just mentioned that, right? Mm-hmm. In the Temple of the Apollo at Delphi. And it was surely more important in interpreting any Pythian prophecy than the actual answer given by the oracle. And Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. And it says in the end, self-knowledge is the key. And without it, we can unlock no other knowledge worth having. This is a theme important not just to Socrates and The Matrix, but to other outstanding philosophical films. Like Fight Club. Fight Club poses the seemingly adolescent question, how much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight? And so on. I could easily hear Agent Smith saying that.

4:55Yeah. How much do you know yourself if you've never been in a fight? One-on-one. So how would this connect to Neo? Well, well, well. I guess knowing if you're... Well, she makes the parallel with love. So, I mean, there's that. I don't know if that is... Sure. But if we can connect it to what they were talking about earlier, what I've mentioned on Wednesday is that, you know, we all practically know the decisions. Right. And we know what we want. But it does... But, you know, it's a conundrum. If you have two choices, eat the ice cream. Eat the poop.

5:35Don't eat the ice cream. Eat the poop. Eat the poop. Sorry. And you know the ice cream is delicious. And it is good, but it will make you fat. And if you have, you know, problems with dairy, it will make you flatulent. But so you don't want to... You want it, but you don't, you know, you don't want the problems. It's a great photo there. On the other hand, you don't eat it. You don't eat the poopoo. You don't eat the ice cream. It'll be good. But also, you know, it deprives you of the pleasures. So you ask your friend, should I eat the ice cream? And what you're anticipating for them to say, yes, eat the ice cream. It's okay. And for that second, just because that other person shared that opinion, one person, you

6:19will forget about the flatulence and everything. And you will rationalize in your brain. It's okay. That person said, I can eat the ice cream. And then you eat the poopoo, you know? And I think that's... No, you eat the ice cream. That's what... Yeah, you eat the ice cream. That's confused. So I think that might be what she's talking about. Like, you already know what... You need to, like, know yourself and be true to yourself. I think that's a good explanation. I think that's true. I think that happens a lot as well. Yeah. Because that's tied with, like, what you're talking about, the faith, or is it determined? And, you know, can an oracle tell you what you're going to do or what the outcome is? Or, you know, what the right choice is? Can an oracle tell you? Maybe she just pushes you whichever direction you want to go, you know?

6:59Yeah, like a therapist. Yeah. But also, the falling in love stuff, continue. Jack up. Go on, Jacob. Nothing, nothing. I was just mentioning that you guys talk about that. Yeah. Do you guys ever... Were you guys ever in love? I was in love with life. Great question, Tim. Yeah, yeah. It's good personal life, huh? I was in love with life. You were in love with life? You didn't want to go to Mars? Oh, man. Yeah. I don't know. What do you think? What do you think, Tim, about the oracle's statement? I mean, obviously, it's trickery, you know? It's one of her ways. But she does speak the truth, you know? It's something that you and your own perception of your reality can be sure about.

7:43People, obviously, people can see, you know, their signs and everything. But it is interesting. Maybe if you were, you know, brought up by yourself on an island, you know? Yes, fingers are being touched. There is no spoon. Exactly. There is no love. No, no. I meant, like, it's all subjective here. You see? There is no spoon. It's you. And she's always, she's talking about, like, you know it. You know you're the one. No one else can tell you you're the one. Yeah. I mean, it's obviously tied to social kind of... Well, I think it's tied to what Tim was saying earlier, which was this idea that, like, you probably have your mind made up in the sense that you...

8:24Yeah. You have your mind made up. And basically, that's something like maybe perhaps understanding maybe what you think you want. I don't know. Something like that. Yeah. I mean, like, I was going way too deep and trying to make a crazy argument, you know, there that... Because there's a natural feeling that is falling in love. But us humans have categorized as in love, you know, a Freudian might say that's just sexual attraction. That is a biological, you know, kind of thing. And if you didn't know love as a love existed, would you know that it's love? Or you just, you know, kind of had a feeling for another human? But that's not what this is about. This is about knowing... Yeah, this is what you're talking about.

9:05It's something that you are aware of inside you and you choose to ignore it or, you know, you... That's a good point. Remember who you are. You are my son. I'm a true king. Is Scar Mufasa brothers? Yes. Are they really brothers? Because they don't look nothing alike. I know, but that's Scar was adopted. That's creative licensing. Is he adopted like he's Loki? I don't think so. I thought that was just a joke. Because usually... Because they look nothing like each other, you know? And then also, you know what's the weird thing? Isn't like... Look, Tim, I found something in the book that you were talking about. Your ice cream analogy. Okay.

9:45Okay. It's even in here. It's super simple. Is it about poo-poo or ice cream? No, it says... So, it says, to complete our look of the urban oracle, consider another piece of wisdom inscribed at Delphi and practice in the kitchen. Nothing in excess. And the oracle goes... Well, this is later. But she goes, here, take a cookie. The oracle says to Neo. Not take some cookies or take as many cookies as your heart desires. We know they smell good, perhaps tempting Neo to overindulge. So, maybe it has something to do with your ice cream analogy. I could have used a cookie and it was right there. Right? So, like... Yeah. She's sort of, like, nudging him in that... She nudged him towards the vase and she's nudging him towards the cookie and she's trying to

10:27nudge him towards the one. Wow. So, does anyone else say balls to bones? Because I'm just... I'm just really nasty. Nasty, sexist. You know? Balls to bones? What does it even mean? I guess you feel it in your balls and your bones. I never felt anything in my bones. No, no. It's like your whole body. Balls to bones. Head... It couldn't be like your feet, head to toes? I thought it was like balls touching bones. Ew. Exactly. That's why I thought it was a disgusting analogy. How? Ew. Ew. Exactly. Should we make a t-shirt of that? No. Yeah. The Matrix Minute podcast. Balls to bones. It's just a bone touching a testicle. Balls to bones. That's gonna sell. Yeah. You know when you're in love when there's a bone touching your testicle.

11:10That's a t-shirt. It's beautiful. Amazing. So, then after the balls and bones thing... Whatever. We talked about enough of this. Now, she goes into classic witchcraft. Oh, yes. Yeah, she goes into the palm reading. Oh, yeah. She does the thing that... She's looking if there's any silver left over in his mouth. Yeah. You know, if there's any of that nasty silver there and there. Silver. And then, you know, when he transforms the real world. Yeah, she's looking for that. She's looking for that. Any silver left? Yeah. Speak to me. Do you hear any sampling errors? Like, la la la la la la? No, it's good. Compression is good.

11:51But I have to say that this is what everybody's expecting her to do. The audience and Neo and Morpheus. Maybe not Morpheus, but that's what Oracle's supposed to look at. Can I have a look at you? Puts her glasses on, her inspection glasses. But I always knew she was faking this. Yeah? All the time? Yeah. What kind of checkup is that? Open your mouth slightly. Let me look at the side of your head. She's indulging Neo, I guess. Yeah, she's just... Maybe she did that in the beginning, but she's now too powerful. She doesn't need to do that. Yeah. No, I think she's doing it like, you know, what's that term? Just as sort of like a formality. Procedure.

12:31Oh, yeah. Formality. Like, not really anything real. It's just for fun. Mm-hmm. Which proves exactly... She's not prophesizing anything. She has an agenda. Yeah. And this is all niceties. And she's like, mm-hmm. You know? Yeah. And I think maybe Neo is the wiser. Maybe Neo... Sure, he could be a person who doesn't believe in such things. That's one thing. And on the other hand, he sees through it. You know? He sees through Morpheus and he sees through... Well, I think that's what's happening right now, to be honest. That's what's happening. Neo... The thing is that Neo is not a very opinionated person, as we've discovered. And he does take things as they come.

13:13But at the same time, he ultimately will have an opinion on something, which is proven in the movie. He does ultimately, you know, make his own choice, so to speak. And he comes to... Comes to conclusion, right? To what he believes about all this stuff. And in this scene, we're kind of realizing that Neo is beginning to really go like, you know? And don't really think this is all, you know, everything that Morpheus cooked up to be. And it's the beginning of him really... It's solidifying, you know, his... But he's not a mean guy, so he's not going to be like, Morpheus! What is this? Come here, Marcus. Come here. I gotta have him here.

13:53Listen to this. It's a good angle, I think. Like, Neo... The Neo has it because he's holding it with an open hand. He's not like, you know, with a clenched fist, like, going like, oh, yeah, I think this. This is the only thing I think. You go like, you know what? Yeah. I think this is the case, but I'm still going to go ahead and see what happens. Maybe there's something that shows up that'll change my mind. Ah. I think that's sort of like revealing this other side to Neo. And that makes me think maybe he's not just what we thought, you know, like this dumb guy. Yeah, that's insane. Oh, questions. He might have already formed his opinion many, many scenes ago. Yes. And he kind of figured it out because he's a smart guy, but he's also very thankful that, you know, Morpheus unplugged him and showing what the real world is.

14:35Exactly. And he wants to know more to get a better judgment. But I think at this point, this is not like a reveal, like, okay, this is my opinion. I think he already formed the opinion. Well, Neo is not even on edge when it comes to meeting the Oracle. He's not like, oh, she's going to... Exactly. He's not going to... She's going to tell me what everything means. He's sort of like, hmm, like, where are we going again? Yeah, very nice. Very nice. Maybe he's even relieved because his, you know, his thought and his assumption is confirmed here. It's like, you know, I had a feeling about all this. That's going to be an interesting interview. On Monday. Okay. Okay. But even in his, the way he's, you know, reacting to everything, it's more like, it's okay. You know, it's just, it's just a bunch of people think, bunch of people who think they

15:19know what they're doing and it's okay. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to go along. And also, I don't think he has any really reason to fight against it in the sense of like, you know, rejecting going along with it because there's really not much of a point. Yeah. I mean, like, he's been, you know, yeah. You know, he doesn't have, he doesn't really have much of a choice in terms of, you know, how to conduct himself differently. Yeah. Yeah. Within these sequences. Cause you know, he's not going to be Cypher tomorrow. Cypher nine years. Yeah. Yeah. That's a process. You know, you got to be really missing that stick.

15:59He's probably had a stake like a week ago. You know, he's still fine. Who? Cypher? No, Neo. No, Neo. But Neo's is still real. If it's real. All his memories. It was real. I think he's more intrigued by it. I don't think, I don't think he's very, he's not, he's not that against. That's what I'm saying. I don't know. He's not against the machines that much. He's not like, oh, I can't believe you've done this. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying it's a pretty good outlook because. He's pretty open-minded. Maybe just. That's right. That's right. Maybe he just has friends for the first time. Could also be that. And they mean something to him. Look at that. Need Morphe and Trinity.

16:40Who cares about, who cares about Choi? Seriously. Choi just asking favors. That's all. He used him. Well, you know, Morphe is kind of using him as well. Trinity, on the other hand, she's nice. Trinity's not using him. And, and, yeah. No. And then, and then in the real world, there's Dozer with his goop and his aminos. And, and, and. Yes. Good old aminos. I'm imagining now a montage with like some sappy music and just like. Saxophone. And just like, like, you know that. Oh, you know, remember in The Hobbit where they had that stupid, stupid, shiny. Not shiny. What was it? The, the effect where everything looks like somebody rubbed Vaseline on the lens.

17:20Like a waxy. Glow. What is that? What is that? Glow. Glow on everything. Yeah. Yeah. Filter glow. So that kind of montage. Glowy montage. Yeah. And slow motion, like choppy slow motion where they only shoot like 20 frames per second and then the slow motion. That's the worst slow motion ever. I know. Can we not? Can we like ban that slow motion? Like, you know how they had in the 30s, like those, those strict film code laws in the US? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's have that for no slow motion going click, click, click, click. Who does that anymore? You know what's even worse slow motion? When they do that, but they also like totally cut the shutter speed. So there's like these really long like motion blurs. Like I remember in Fellowship of the Ring.

18:02Yeah. I don't like that. There's a couple of those shots. It's just so weird. I like that. That's an ancient kind of movie technique that kind of takes you out of the flow of the movie so much. Just use either proper slow motion or no slow motion. Please. Yeah. Fellowship of the Ring had like these weird editing effect. Anything like techniques that do not come up at all in the other movies. They're just straight like cutting and that's it. You know, maybe a faded. The weird thing where the shutter is low and. Yeah. Yeah. I remember clearly Gandalf in Moria and just click, click, click, click. And there's like some extreme close ups in the first one as well. Like where Gandalf's like, is it safe?

18:42Yes. Is it safe? And it's just whoosh. This is my nose. Peter Jackson camera. You know, just. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the, the, the, the, the. And also the. You remember when a photo wakes up in a Rivendell and there's the floating head of Elrond. Oh, yes. The worst, the worst shot. I still can't believe that's in the film. I honestly. That's amazing. The one like segment in the movie where you don't believe what you're seeing. I don't know. You mentioned it. Tulagangangana. Yeah. Tulagangangana. Now that you mention it, like, yeah. Fellowship of the Ring seems like it's like they made that movie first and then the next two were. And then they realize like there's no time for that. Yeah. Experimenting with people's floating heads. Yeah. Speaking in television. I used to be the guy that was like, you know, what, which one is the best?

19:27Well, of course, Return of the King. It's the grand. It's just the grand finale. The big battles and everything. But the older I am, the more appreciative of Fellowship of the Ring I am. I just, it just, there's less effects. The, the, the group is so much tighter. You have the relationships. I enjoy Fellowship of the Ring much more than when I was a kid. And it's also a pretty tightly neat story. And it follows one trajectory. I think that helps. Yeah. But then again, I love Two Towers too. Yeah. So. And it's got the, yeah, some, some great. Yeah. So welcome. So yeah. So we're talking about Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings. How do we get it? Who knows? Who knows?

20:08Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, you know, it comes back to the, well, they came out about the same time. Welcome to Rivendown. It was Rings. Mr. Anderson. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. There was also Two Towers and, no, Two Towers and Matrix. No, Return of the King came out in, during Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. Yes. Yeah. 2003. Yeah. Reloaded was also, it was also the phenom. Yeah. Both of them were in the same year. Were they, were any of them dominated for anything? No. I don't think so. Not even effects? No. No. Because for Orange. What, Matrix? Well, maybe the Matrix was, but, you know, Return of the King. Well, no, I know Return of the King. It's a clean sweep. Why did clean sweep win? Oh, yeah, yeah. That's what Peter Jackson's kid said. Peter Jackson's kid, yeah. Oh, okay. He misinterpreted what Spielberg said on the, at the Oscars.

20:49It's a clean sweep. Aw. Clean sweep. Clean sweep. Directed by Mr. Sweeper. But, uh, I remember when I was that age, I think the, the, you know, the, there were movies, the big things that came out there was, you know, Loathe Rings, then there was the big thing was, uh, Matrix, and then it was Harry Potter started, 2001, so that was a big franchise. Then you had Spider-Man, and you had X-Men, and then the last one was Star Wars, right? Also Pirates of the Caribbean, right? That was like the early 2000s. Yeah, yeah, Star Wars finished in 2005. Yeah. I was one of the kids that was like, I just wanted the serious stuff. So, to me, it was like Matrix and Lord of the Rings. That was the, even Harry Potter, to me, was like, that's like for, you know, for fans,

21:31these kids, what is this, kids movie? Definitely wasn't in the, in those, uh, the X-Men. Sad. Sad. Spider-Man. So sad. Sad, sad. Maybe someday. Yeah. I grow to like Harry Potter, but the books, not the movie. Yeah, I know what you mean. You've seen this all in your ways. Nope, no, I've watched that. This is the best. This is a great, these are great films. It has heart. It's wholesome. It's a fun action film. It's bright and it's colorful. It's wonderful. No, no. Characters are great. Everything has. And you're like, yep. Shout out to Spider-Man Minute. Shout out. Too small. And you're also like, I like that you also changed your mind in X-Men. You're like, X-Men makes sense, you know? Delving into those themes, making it realistic. I watched those again and I didn't change my mind. I watched, yeah, I watched even Spider-Man.

22:13Did not, that didn't sell me. I didn't like the grand Hollywood approach to those. Yeah, it's very, it's very movie-like, those movies. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, didn't feel, I feel. So anyway. Oh, well, yeah. But the, yeah. The Matrix. The Matrix was the big one. The Matrix. The big one that, everyone knew that. I was like, are you sure? I used to boast around like, oh, Washington. Every night. So cool. Yeah. I fell asleep to Morpheus's words. Well, I think, I think, I just, we have to wait until Monday. I'm really curious for the explosion. Well, the true reveal happened on Monday. Yeah. There weren't many declarative sentences in this minute.

22:55It was really just, they were asking Neo something and the, Neo going, I don't know. The Oracle said quite a few declarative sentences. Like what? Being the one is like being in love. Know thyself. It's also declarative. Yeah, but she didn't mention it to him. She's like, that's a sign up there. I have. Yeah, but that's declarative. What do you mean? In the period. You get it? Delphic Oracle. That's me. Oh yeah, baby. Oh yeah, baby. I mean, as, as watching this as, you know, younger age I was, I was aware that these were all like, oh, prophetic. And these are smart things. These are smart things. Philosoph. Philosoph. Philosophical. Things. But I never, I never, you know, bothered to, to think about it or to realize it was just like, oh, it is philosophy, philosophy, philosophy over there.

23:38And it's like, that should stay there. And that's fine. Let's move on. To the action. So, and I think, and, and, and listening to it right now, I don't know if, you know, if there's more than to what we talked about. If there is, if we miss something, if there's some hidden. Please. Listen, I wanted to say, I encourage, like, when we're done with the Matrix Minute, I have no qualms if someone else does another Matrix Minute, but just talking about the philosophy because. That'd be good. You know. That'd be fine. Yeah. Yeah. But then you have to register, you have to register the Matrix Minute dot. Yes. Yes. No, the Matrix Minute dot fill. No. Philosophy. Oh. Perfect. No. No. Instead of bringing me into these things.

24:20That'd be cool. Someone should do that. Yeah. If you're out there, like, getting, like, a master's or a PhD in philosophy, just, you know, near the Matrix. Absolutely. Do, like, an in-depth, proper analysis. And we'll listen to it. Yeah. Or maybe there's nothing to it. We just spoke. We said, told everything there is. Even the Master Mark. Master Baggins. Master. No, not Master Baggins. The philosopher. Oh, yeah. The philosopher in the commentary. Cornel West. Cornel West. Master Cornel. Ken Wilber. Yeah. I should listen to those guys again. You'll find it interesting, I think, watching it again. Yeah, yeah. Because. It's different than I remember. Yeah, because when we were 15, when I was 15, we watched the Philosopher's Commentary and we didn't understand, like, half of it.

25:00Or more. There's, like, random references to things. Yeah. Okay, well, that's Friday. Brother fail. Brother. Brother Jake. Tim. Brother, not Master. That was a brother Cornelius as well. Brother. Master, Master. Yep. Everyone, thank you. Indeed, thank you. Thank you for having me. Have an excellent week. You've been good listeners. I ran out of cookies. Do some fun stuff. Bake some cookies, you know? Yeah. Christmas is here, too. Christmas cookies, you can bake those. I bet online there's an Oracle's Home Cookies recipe. You'll feel right as rain. You'll make your fart really bad. Put in the Dalmatian.

25:41Not Damien. Not Damien. All Damien. No, Macadamian. Macadonian. You and your Macadonian. Well, thanks for enduring this episode where we didn't have much to talk about. We had lots to talk about. For the Rings. We had lots to talk about. Frame rates. We did. Enjoy the holidays. I like how Phil started up there at J-Club. Yeah, he's done. Now he's basically on the floor. So please, everyone, have a great time. Stay safe. Drive responsibly. Drink responsibly. What is it? It's December already. Have a great time. Holiday times. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Ah, yes. Watch out. Get the snow tires. And if there's ice, drive.

26:23Don't swirl. Don't turn your steering wheel too drastically. You will skid away. You know those special chains and tires if you live somewhere mountainous with snow? And your car will look pretty metal. You can blast some folk death metal in there. Let's hope we can make it to campus life. Wear a comfy coat when you go outside to stay warm. The poofiness will save you. Don't be like Trinity Latex. That's kind of like so cold. That sounds horrible. Good for the winter. In the cold? Oh, man. It freezes. Because you probably have to lube yourself. Imagine the summer. And then the lube will freeze. Imagine summer latex in the summer.

27:05Whoa. Whoa. And every move you make. No, it's this sound. Look over there. Pinching your skin every single time when you move your arms. Do you know what's so painful? That'd be funny, actually. We should do like, we should actually replace the sound in one of Trinity's. Oh, man. Sound effect. Yep. Yep. We can do that. Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. Dude. That's the next clip. That's the next clip. Perfect. Next clip. Roll the clip. All right, boys and girls. Yep. You too. Have a good one. All of you. All of you. Bye-bye. See ya. Oh. Sad fellas says goodbye.

27:45Bye. Bye. You didn't do the... Jacob, I gave you a chance.