A “glitch in the Matrix” has social media users scratching their heads as they replay a 30-second clip.
The phrase originated in the 1999 film The Matrix, which proposed the theory that we’re all living inside a giant computer simulation. Since then, it has become synonymous with everything that tricks our brains and seems to escape logical understanding.
The most recent example of such unusual occurrences is a video of a car parked outside a Boston House of Pizza restaurant in Fresno, California.
Only that nobody knows where the car is.
The video, captioned “Can someone explain?” has received over 5,000 comments from baffled individuals since it was posted on June 3.
Eddie, who goes by @breaknpop on social media, captured a “glitch in the Matrix” in the parking lot of a pizza restaurant
Image credits: breaknpop
Eddie, who goes by @breaknpop online, recorded the reflection of a vibrant orange Corvette C8 in the restaurant’s window.
“I seriously don’t see that car anywhere,” the California resident said as he scanned the parking lot with his phone camera, the vehicle in question being nowhere in sight. “Where’s the car?”
People jumped to the comments to share their views of where the car in the reflection might be located.
“It’s parked in front of that black SUV,” one user suggested, while another said,” In front of the black Mercedes you can see the roof through the windshield.”
“It’s parked inside the store,” another person quipped.
The 30-second clip went viral and left people completely baffled
Image credits: breaknpop
“These comments are making my brain itch—It’s a reflection from behind him,” a separate person proposed.
“The question is, where are the reflections of the cars parked in front of the windows?” asked someone else.
Some then wondered why Eddie didn’t get out of his vehicle to investigate himself. “Why don’t you get out of the car and go over there to have a better look?”
An additional user pointed out that there were other elements in the reflection that were nowhere to be seen, saying, “The red cars behind it aren’t there, either.”
The window of the pizza restaurant shows the reflection of a vibrant orange Corvette C8, but the vehicle is nowhere in sight
Image credits: breaknpop
Image credits: breaknpop
Meanwhile, some got distracted by similarly odd sights in the parking lot, noting a sign that read “Bird bath” with an arrow pointing toward a tree.
“Nah, the real question is why is there a sign that says BIRD BATH as if birds can read.”
“The mannequins sitting on the bench threw me off more,” commented another.
Watch the confusing clip below
@breaknpop Can someone explain? #glitchinthematrix ♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs – Skittlegirl SoundEddie then returned to the parking lot and was equally perplexed as the first time
@breaknpop Replying to @Petemtz0 #glitchinthematrixcorvette ♬ Merengue Mix 2: Don’t Worry Be Happy – Miguel Angel Tzul y su Marimba OrquestaWhile some suggested that the car was inside the restaurant, others theorized that it was parked behind another vehicle
Image credits: breaknpop
Another “glitch in the Matrix” that captured people’s attention recently was an outdoor snap that went viral on Reddit showing a group of friends clinking their miniature whiskey bottles together in the woods.
The photo featured four bottles, but nobody could figure out where the fourth person was.
“My brain refuses to believe that there are four people in this photo,” read the caption of the resurfaced picture.
Social media users eventually realized that the fourth arm belonged to someone wearing a camouflaged sleeve with their hand inside a blue glove.
Recently, another “glitch in the Matrix” occurred in this photo showing four people clinking miniature whiskey bottles
Image credits: TheMagicianGamerTMG
In November, a similar case made headlines when a soon-to-be bride shared a strange photo she took during one of her fittings for her wedding dress.
The uncanny photo in question showed the bride standing before two mirrors.
“I went wedding dress shopping, and the fabric of reality crumbled. This is a real photo, not photoshopped, not a panorama, not a Live Photo,” wrote Tessa.
“If you can’t see the problem, please keep looking, and then you won’t be able to unsee it.”
The photo shows Tessa’s hands appearing frozen in three different positions.
The baffled bride went to her local Apple Store after nobody in her closest circle was able to provide an explanation for the unusual phenomenon.
An employee explained that at the precise moment when the camera moved behind Tessa’s back, she must have inadvertently raised her hands, resulting in an “artificial intelligence decision” creating a completely distinct set of images on the other side.
This bride was left scratching her head after she took a photo during one of her wedding dress fittings, as the image showed her hands in three different positions
Image credits: wheatpraylove
The likelihood of that scenario happening was “one in a million,” the worker said.
Many scientists believe that optical illusions are caused when the information taken in by our eyes conflicts with how our brain interprets that information.
As the brain can’t make sense of what the eyes are seeing, it falls back on its previous experience and turns the unfamiliar into something familiar in order to make sense of it.
That is, the brain fills in gaps when there’s incomplete information, sometimes creating an image that isn’t real.
These shortcuts that fool the brain are actually instinctive and serve for survival, as they help us make quick decisions.
More often than not, these “fill in the blank” guesses are right.
“We don’t have the necessary machinery, and we wouldn’t even want it, to process carefully all of the amount of information that we’re constantly bombarded with,” Susana Martinez-Conde, a neuroscientist and illusion researcher at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, told Vox.
Therefore, we can’t help but trust the stories that our brains generate, even if they don’t always match the real, physical world.