Philosophical SciFi in literature

[Acies]

I think 'The matrix' series, although the sequels not being too great, poses a lot of interesting questions on 'being' and how to 'view the world'. The movie touches on buddhist themes - as if 'there is no objective world, only your image of what you percieve as the world'. Stetching that further, one could say that there are no innately 'bad/sad/glad actions', merely actions which you percieve as such and assign them an emotion. There are of course more 'themes' within the movies.

'1984' by George Orwell was another work which interested me. The book, and the 2+2=5 example was an interesting example of indoctrination. Although not that extreme; commercials, values and so forth influence people to make unconscious decisions regarding women, the world and money (etc). The concept of doublethink:

“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.[3]

Was very interesting too as I at the time was reading about 'cult behaviour'. It's also appliable to religious beliefs, at least in my case, as I both believe in a 'god' and the big bang (science etc). To some extent, being both religious and 'scientific' require doublethink.