Are We Living in the Matrix?

One of the perplexing metaphysical questions posed by philosophers has to do with the ontological nature of reality. Is matter the fundamental substance which makes up all reality or is the fundamental reality composed of mind? Those aren't the only alternatives, of course.

For example, it could be that reality is a composite of both matter and mind, but if, as many thinkers are beginning to suspect, the world is more like an idea than it is like a machine, if it's true, as many believe, that all matter is somehow an instantiation of information, then it would seem that mind, or mental substance, is the fundamental constituent of reality.

If that's so then maybe the world is, at bottom, something like the Matrix:

Thinking about this spurs us on to ask lots of further questions. Here's perhaps one of the biggest: If we're really living in a matrix-like reality, who or what programmed it?