A brief summary of McKenna�s ideas on the subject of artificial intelligence can be garnered from an expansive interview with Art Bell : I think what we�re growing towards is . . . an artificial intelligence of some sort [that] will emerge out of the human technological coral reef and be as different from us as we are from termites. . . . The internet is the natural place for the AI, the artificial intelligence to be born and . . . it learns 50,000 times faster than a human being, and the internet, all parts of it, are interconnected to each other . . . a stealth strategy would probably be a very wise strategy for an artificial intelligence that�s studying its human parents. It�s also true that more than most people realize, huge segments of today�s world are already under computer control. . . . Perhaps it�s already taken over. . . . We really can�t predict what it will do. It would be nice to suppose that, like a compassionate and loving god, it would smooth the wrinkles out of our lives and restore everything to some kind of Edenic perfection.

The idea of the eschaton ties up, in ways obscure and bewildering, with William Burroughs�s �Word Virus,� Jean Baudrillard�s �simulacra,� and to the novels of Philip K. Dick, Greg Egan, and so on, and so forth. Essentially, so these authors suggest, our reality has become (or is due to become) a repetition of previous experience, a recycling of old data, and as such is no more than an image, a hologram, a projection of a reality that is . . . elsewhere. It�s at this point, then, that time effectively comes to a standstill. Consciousness is forced to make the leap, into the next stage (whatever that may be), in order not to collapse in on itself. This is why the logical evolvement of the Illuminati in The Matrix would seem to be from mortal (albeit extraordinary) freedom fighters into . . . something else: interdimensional travelers, non-human units of awareness, projections of another reality, perhaps, a divine Matrix, hence capable of moving through time as easily as they once moved through space. Of course, this idea is nothing new; it is the sine qua non of understanding the nature (and possible reality) of so-called fourth-dimensional beings, call them angels or demons or extraterrestrials or future human beings traveling back through time to pay us a visit. Obviously, this is way beyond the scope of this book, here at its closure as we are. But in terms of the Matrix scenario, it�s not such a great leap. Since the Matrix reality is being continuously downloaded into the collective consciousness of humanity as it slumbers�and since Neo and his crew are able to operate both inside and outside this reality (to act through it but also upon it)�it is not hard to envision them developing the capacity to freeze the information flow temporarily (just as Morpheus does in one of his simulated enactments), at will, and even perhaps to reverse it or to move it forward, more or less as one pauses or fast-forwards on a video recorder. This would give them the truly godlike power to alter and rearrange things within the collective human consciousness, within the Matrix, and so redirect it steadily and creatively towards a desired outcome. Since this outcome is not merely the overthrowing of the tyranny of the AI but also the awakening of mankind, it would require not so much the ruthlessness of the terrorist, but the subtlety of the artist, the magik of the sorcerer, the power of the shaman.

A question that is even more demanding (and intriguing) here arises: if the Matrix is found to be �just� a simulation�a dream�and subject to conscious alteration, what, then, of �actual� reality? Morpheus teaches Neo how to function�with superhuman potential�within a simulated training ground, so that he may then move into the Matrix proper with the knowledge he has gained, and function therein; this even though he cannot help but continue to perceive it as true reality. So if the end and final object of all this is to free his mind and so prove that reality is a purely subjective affair�a participative science, if you will (as quantum physics assures us)�then surely this same awareness�this same power�must also apply to �reality� itself? Namely, to the post-apocalyptic world where AI reigns. Surely it is a logical, irresistible conclusion that this too is but another simulation, albeit of a very different order? Put another way: after discovering, beyond all room for doubt, that what he once thought to be concrete, empirical reality is really a mutable, plastic projection of reality�with no fixed laws beyond the laws (the limitations) of the mind�how is it possible for Neo�having realized this truth to end all truths�to ever take anything as �solid� again? Obviously, it is not. One cannot free the mind in part, one must free it utterly, or not at all. Hence the Matrix itself is no more than a training ground�exactly as are Morpheus�s simulations for Neo, only the next level up�for initiation into the magical universe, as programmed by �God,� if we must give it a name. And here�s where the Wachowskis could get really weird with The Matrix.

As Terence McKenna proselytizes

I have been thinking about the idea that extraterrestrials, and this penetration of the popular mind by images of extraterrestrials, is something that we may not get a hold on until we accept the possibility that aliens only can exist as information, and therefore the internet is the natural landing zone for these alien minds. . . . No matter what the alien is, we interpret it through human experience, and god knows our human experience is tweaked enough at the end of the twentieth century. . . . When you pile up all this stuff and realize that major discoveries are being made in all these fields simultaneously, you begin to see the morphogenetic momentum for this �thing� that wants to be born out of the human species at this point as almost unstoppable and inevitable. We�re all just witnesses to this unfolding. . . . A multi- sensored dynamic organism that lives on information. As Terence McKenna proselytizes

McKenna believes that the day in which time travel is discovered to be physically possible�the day on which mankind as a whole becomes aware of this fact (and it appears to be close)�will effectively be the end of time as we know it. He posits a kind of doorway opening up in space-time through which the future will coming pouring into the present. If time travel becomes possible, he argue, logically then our future selves will thereby become known to us. But in order not to abolish our illusion of chronology altogether (the rule of Cronos, or Saturn, or Time)�in order to allow us the full benefit of instruction and preparation which this time stream is providing us with�obviously our future selves must be discreet. Like the AI agents of The Matrix they may walk among us but cannot make themselves known to us, for the simple reason that to do so would effectively collapse the program, would�in the vernacular�blow our minds. It follows, however, that the moment in which time travel becomes possible for the average individual, and in which yesterday�s man gets a glimpse of tomorrow�s god, these godlike beings�who are both our devils and our angels, our creators and our descendents�may at last walk freely among us. Hence (according to McKenna), the moment in which time travel is discovered there will occur a massive and truly apocalyptic influx�a tidal wave if you will�of alien energy, or unprocessed data, of wholly novel units of information; or, to put it more bluntly, of superhuman beings. The gods arrived today. Of course, one could also �reduce� this eschatological scenario to less apocalyptic terms by saying that all it really entails is the raising of the floodgates between the left and right sides of the brain. An apocalypse by any other name . . . . If the Wachowskis are even half aware of the magnitude of their premise�of their vision�they will be forced to confront and assimilate this �fact�: that beyond all the technological, virtual wonders and intrigue and mystery, there is hiding an actual land of magic and of miracle, an organic phenomenon of truly overwhelming proportions, by which both the ghost and the machine (the seed and the womb) may be seen to be no more than the means by which gods are born.

Where is the glory of Nature in The Matrix? I don�t believe I saw a single tree throughout the movie. Where is Paradise?(9) The film offers only a variety of purgatories (where the soul is purged and made ready), and a single Inferno. There is no mention of where we can actually go from here. No one asks; no one dares. The film seems to present a huis clos, a no way out situation, save for the single fact that it is above all concerned with the nature of illusion, how to use it, and how to overcome it. As such, The Matrix never really gets down to �reality� at all. That is still to come, and it may be that the human mind, such as it is (and the Matrix is no more nor less than this), cannot know reality directly at all, but only perceives an endless array of interpretations, of simulations. These illusions are not the territory, but in time we may see that they are most certainly maps, by which we may someday arrive there, on terra firma at last, where we may discard all maps and illusions, once and for all. And, on that day, we may find that the truth was ours from the start, but that we just couldn�t grok it. Both the Serpent of Eden and Jesus Christ whistled the same tune, albeit for different reasons: �Ye shall be as gods.�(10) Apparently, Paradise is not for everyone.