The Intangible Heart ~ What is Real?

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Published on February 4, 2012 @ 05:01 pm

Written by Arielle

Written by Arielle Haddad Saturday, 04 February 2012

People seem to be a bit confused over the validity of Space Paranoids and the Grid's status as real worlds. They doubt the worlds being real because they take place within a computer program, but it is impossible to say they are not real based on that idea. The Kingdom Hearts series is filled with illogical circumstances that require us to suspend our disbelief frequently, and if something like how "real" a world that takes place in a computer program is something that has to be debated upon, then so be it. Today I'm presenting a metaphysical view of what can be considered as "real" with a Pre-Socratic slant and using it as a way to argue that Programs can be considered "real" within the Kingdom Heartsseries.

What constitutes as "real"? The basic answer would be that which is tangible and visible. That is a ridiculous notion to apply to the word "real", for an idea can be real but not experienced directly by our five senses. Things that have perished are not visible or tangible anymore. Does that mean they were not real? The obvious answer would be "no", but then how is anybody able to define "real" when the word can be used so generally. For the sake of simplifying the issue and everything that will follow, let's say "real" is everything that can be experienced by our senses and the way we perceive that reality.

If our perception of reality is affected by what we touch, smell, hear, taste, and see, then what can we define data as? It is perceivable by sight, and a programmer can "touch" the binary in which a line of program is made. You can hear the whir of the computer as it processes information by the millisecond, working not unlike the human brain does with circuits as nerves and data traveling through the synapses of the digital framework of a system. Processes are executed; action and reaction always a constant. Lines of code turn into ideas, data input and exchange becomes the computer's way of perceiving "reality".

By being able to react--to understand a command, process, and in turn present the desired result of the command--does that not mean the computer has become like man? Computers and programs are created by man, and it is by man's design that they are able to function. They are modeled after man, similar to how man believes they are modeled after some supreme deity that remains unseen and untouched.

Can zeros and ones be considered "real"? Yes, they can by the basic definition given earlier. If code is tangible and visible via a screen and keyboard, it falls under the definition of "real". There is truly no way to deny that truth with given concept of reality and all that falls under it. If computers are in the image of man, and man is in the image of an ineffable god, does that mean that perhaps one day even data stored on silicon can become self-aware enough to perceive reality just like humans do?

TRON and TRON: Legacyboth touch on the concept of sentient programs inside of a computer. Programs born of their Users in their image; lines of code developing unique personalities and function based on their deity-- To a program, the User is untouchable. Programs are aware of their existence for without them they had no purpose or existence. There is a divide between the world of the Users and the system they created. While neither party can directly interact, the transfer of data filled with commands and prompts creates an artificial dialogue between the two. The directives set by their User is a calling and the commands are Gospel to the Programs. The system is their home--their reality, and yet they would be considered unreal only because Users cannot physically interact with them like they do with humans.

In Kingdom Hearts, it becomes harder to inject "real" into the formula. "Real" is just as loose of a term in the series as it is in life. The way a person becomes "real" in the series is by having a Soul, a Body, and a Heart. The role of the Soul is ambiguous at best since the Heart functions similarly to the conventional definition of a "soul": "A person's moral or emotional nature or sense of identity." The Heart seems to be the root of emotions and identity, and all real beings are born with Hearts. Even beings like as replicas and clones have Hearts. They are not natural, but they are very much real.

If these replicas, unnatural in creation, have Hearts, what is to say other things in the Kingdom Heartsuniverse don't have Hearts as well? If all it takes three things to make a being "real"--a Soul, Body, and Heart--then is it possible for even things like programs in a computer to have Hearts?

When Sora is absorbed into the computer world and met the system monitor Tron, it was obvious Tron had emotions and feelings. He had purpose given to him by his User, hate for the MCP's tyranny, and hope that Sora, Donald, and Goofy would free the system. Tron learns the value of friendship while he spends time with Sora, and also knows how to be more emotional like a User.The very fact that Tron could feel should have been enough proof that he has a Heart--proof enough that he is "real". So, does that mean that life could exist outside of our conventional view of reality? Tron can feel just as much as any User, and just as it was stated earlier, a Programs reality is with the system they exist in.

A Program must have a Heart, just like every other being in the Kingdom Hearts universe. It is impossible to dismiss Programs as sentient life with no Heart. They have Hearts because they feel and they feel because they are "real". Any argument against that would defy the very concept of "real".