So I was watching an episode of Dr. Who on BBC America the other day that got me thinking. I realize we've moved on from the whole "are we in a matrix" question but in this episode the doctor and Rose go to the future and find that it's not what it should be. They arrive in a news station which is the only news station in the universe, the station is an actual space station where all news is collected and spread through out the galaxy. the doctor says that this future time they are in should be one of prosperity and beauty but what they find is near a post-apocalyptic world in which people are poor and everything looks beat up. The cause of this disaster is that the "editor" of the paper, which is actually an evil alien that looks like a giant bug, has corrupted the system and has been sending out false news/information to the rest of the galaxy which creates the future as they see it. The question that this raised for me was wondering if the matrix or "false reality" really needs to be in our heads or if we can be controlled in the same way through the "real world" or if this show was depicting something else completely. Tell me what you think.