title: Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present
author: Karen Haber
description: Larry and Andy Wachowski scored big in 1999 with The Matrix, a science-fiction film in which cyber-rebels discover the world is an artificial computer-generated construct. Beneath the film's airborne martial arts were philosophical underpinnings, and the thriller's huge success prompted piles of merchandise, animated shorts, magazines, Web sites and books. Now a new wave begins, timed to coincide with the May 15 release of The Matrix Reloaded, the second feature in the series. This anthology covers the film's concepts and themes. Haber, a veteran sci-fi and fantasy editor, assembles an array of original essays by 17 science-fiction authors and digital artists, including Alan Dean Foster, Joe Haldeman, Bruce Sterling and Ian Watson. John Shirley (Black Butterflies), insightfully explores what he defines as a new cinema movement of "films questioning reality" as he compares The Matrix with American Beauty, Fight Club and the enigmas embedded in Mulholland Drive. Shirley sees allegories amid adolescent imagery, while nanotech novelist Kathleen Ann Goonan finds the Zen within. David Brin traces fiction's "suspicion of authority"; writer-illustrator Dean Motter tours The Matrix's kinetic architecture; and Kevin J. Anderson examines the Columbine connection. Philip K. Dick and cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson both get many mentions throughout this compelling collection, yet Gibson is regrettably absent as a contributor. Displaying 20 imaginative b&amp;w illustrations by Robert Zohrab and Darrel Anderson, these potent pages conclude with a six-page section of author profiles.<br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  L A U N C H
  “ A T  R O O T  T H E  A N X I E T Y  I S : 
  WHO 
  IS 
  THE
  HUMAN
  HERE, 
  A N D 
  WHO 
  IS 
  THE
  SIMULACRUM?
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  F E A T U R E S
  ART STREIBER
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  54
  
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  ON THE COVER
  Illustration for WIRED by Zohar Lazar
  25.09 
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  Launch
  Launch
  Noted by the editor
  Noted by the 