The Matrix Explained

http://www.idph.net 9 de fevereiro de 2004

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The Matrix
Esta uma coletnea de diversos artigos publicados na Internet sobre a trilogia Matrix. Como os links na Internet desaparecem muito rapidamente, achei que seria interessante colocar, em um mesmo documento, as especulaes mais provocativas sobre a trilogia. Cada um dos artigos contm o link onde o artigo original foi encontrado. Estas referncias, em sua maior parte, foram obtidas no Google (http://www. google.com), buscando por documentos que contivessem, em seu ttulo, as palavras matrix explained; intitle:"matrix explained" Infelizmente, esto todos em ingls. Em portugus existem dois livros muito bons sobre os lmes: MATRIX Bem-vindo ao Deserto do Real Coletnea de William Irwin Editora Madras A Plula Vermelha Questes de Cincia, Fiilosoa e Religio em Matrix Editora Publifolha

Quem sabe vivemos mesmo em uma Matrix. Ao menos o que diz um dos artigos do do livro A Plula Vermelha. Espero que gostem ...

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Matrix Explained
by Reshmi Posted on November 12, 2003 14:39 PM EST To understand The Matrix Revolutions were gonna have to go all the way back to the beginning. A time that was shown in the superior Animatrix shorts The Second Renaissance Parts I & II. In the beginning there was man. Then man created machines. Designed in mans likeness the machines served man well, but mans jealous nature ruined that relationship. When a worker robot killed one of its own abusive masters it was placed on trial for murder and sentenced for destruction. This incident was the spark that ignited a fuse that would burn for centuries. Humans began rioting and destroying many machines. The machines were eventually allowed to create a nation of their own, separate from areas inhabited by humans. That nation was created as a machine city known as 01 or Zero-One. Despite the aggression of their former masters and creators towards them the machines still wished to do commerce with man and began production of the many tools and devices that man needed. But the machines proved to be more efcient than their creators and their own economy began to ourish better than mankinds. Seeking a better relationship with man and hoping to be accepted as an independent nation the machines petitioned to join the United Nations but were ultimately refused and found themselves under attack. A war had begun. As the war progressed, man realized that they might ultimately lose to their superior creations. To end the threat the military revised Operation Nightfall, the scorching of the skies, eliminating the machines power source, the sun. Ironically man also used machine technology to do this and engaged in warfare on the battleeld. The machines had studied the fragile nature of the human body and were able to come up with biological weapons of their own. Ultimately man and machine had destroyed the world they lived in and barely survived. No longer dependent on the sun as a power source, the machines came to the conclusion that they would have to begin a symbiotic relationship with their enemy. Hand over your esh and a new world awaits you. We demand it, an insect-like representative tells the United Nations just before self-destructing and wiping out New York with a nuclear blast. The machines could survive off of human generated power and in return mankind would no longer have to suffer in a ravaged world but a computer generated dream. The Matrix was created.

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The Matrix
As the Architect told Neo in Reloaded when he rst designed the Matrix it was ...quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, awless, sublime. It was destined to fail because as Agent Smith said to Morpheus ...human beings dened their reality through misery and suffering. Human minds could not accept the program and therefore ...entire crops were lost. The Architect was then forced to redesign the Matrix ...based on your history to more accurately reect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. But failure soon frustrated the Architect because the new equation of the Matrix was unbalanced and the answer that eluded him ...required a lesser mind perhaps less bound by the parameters of perfection. That lesser mind was an intuitive program: The Oracle. She came to the conclusion that 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice, even if they were aware of it at an unconscious level. It was an answer that functioned, but was ultimately awed creating a systemic anomaly. The Architect discovered that the 0.1% of subjects that refused the program (the human resistance) would threaten the system if left unchecked so the Oracle helped devise a form of control: the One. Just as the Matrix was a form of control for people plugged into pods, the One would be a form of control for the resistance in the real world. Since the machines were able to grow humans for use as batteries it was decided that a special human would be designed to carry the anomalous code. This human would be designed physically and mentally to interface with the Matrix differently than the average human would. It would enable him or her to have special powers within the Matrix and gain the support of the human resistance. The plan was for the Oracle to guide those that resisted the program to the One and accept him as their savior, a person who could save and free the human race from slavery. Through her ability to predict the future (which is really her analyzing of equations to an outcome) the Oracle would guide the One to the source and the One would be given a choice to save Zion from its eventual destruction and temporarily reinsert the prime program it carried back into the Matrix. The Matrix would be Reloaded and a new version would start. At the same time the machines would gain better insight into the nature of man through the experiences of the One to build a better Matrix. Even though Zion would be destroyed the One would be allowed to choose 23 individuals from the Matrix to rebuild it. That 0.1% of individuals that rejected the program would not be allowed to get any bigger. Five times this occurred. In fact many feel that the Oracles bodyguard Seraph was the previous One before Neo and that even though his physical body is no more, his consciousness was copied into the Matrix and is now used by the Oracle for protection. Seraph to Neo: I protect that which matters most. The future. Unlike the Architect the Oracle grew tired of this endless cycle and nally de-

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cided to set out and end the war between man and machine. Im interested in one thing Neo, the future. And the only way to get there is together. She would again do her part in guiding the human resistance (in this case Morpheus) to the One and then guiding the One to the source. But the line would not be as straight this time. To complete the Ones journey to re-insert the prime program into the Matrix the machines and the human race would have to depend on each other for help. The One was designed to develop an attachment to the human race so that when he was presented with the choice to save it by the Architect he would always choose the door to the right. However the Oracle knew that if the One developed an attachment to a specic person he may choose differently. Before Morpheus found Neo she guided him to Trinity, a hacker who shared many human qualities that Neo did. Before she even met him the Oracle told Trinity she would fall in love with the One. This was suggestion by the Oracle that set Trinity on the path to falling in love with Neo. Morpheus found Neo before they even met and since he believed Neo was the one Trinity began to study him. Cypher to Trinity: You like him, you like watching him dont you. Since she was told she would fall in love with him she eventually did. All of this was oblivious to Neo who didnt even know who Trinity was or how she felt when they rst met. After Neo was freed from the Matrix, Morpheus brought him to see the Oracle. She could have just told him at out that he was the One, but knew it was something hed have to work for. Do you tell a child he doesnt have to study or work a day in its life because it will inherit a fortune anyway? (Unless your last name is Hilton. Just kidding) The Oracle knows that Morpheus would eventually wind up in danger and that Neo would have to save him, setting up the bond between the three of them. But to start him down the right path she tells him Morpheus fate and gives him a cookie. I promise you that by the time youre done eating it youll feel right as rain. But, this isnt no ordinary cookie, its an upgrade to his program. Remember how in Reloaded the Merovingian was able to put Spanish Fly in a pastry? Well the Oracle did something similar to Neo. She may have even placed the replicating program for Agent Smith in the cookie. When Neo is killed by Agent Smith he is reborn by the love of Trinity who is know convinced who Neo is and what he means to her.

The Matrix Reloaded

In part two of the story the machines have found Zion and are seeking it out for destruction. The human threat has grown too large and the cycle must end so that it may begin again. The Architect (whose been watching Neo on his TV screens from day one) knows that the Oracle is guiding Neo to the source and that the prime program will be temporarily re-inserted again to reload the

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matrix for a sixth time. What they dont know is that the Oracle has a plan for Neo to choose differently. When the Oracle meets with Neo again she offers him candy. Perhaps another upgrade to his program. She also knows that Trinity will end up in danger and Neo will choose her over Reloading the Matrix. Shes also aware that Neos interaction with the Architect will upgrade his implants and his program enabling him to stop those sentinels at the lms conclusion and temporarily touch the power of the source. Hes not ready yet and for the meantime will discover that hes gained the ability to separate his mind from his body and jack himself in on his own.

The Matrix Revolutions

When Neo awakens in the Mobile Ave subway station of the Trainman he meets the programs Rama Kandra, his wife Kamala and their daughter Sati. Rama and his wife arent just programs like the Merovingian and Persephone, but machines from the real world plugged into the Matrix. Machines can jack in. This was touched upon in Peter Chungs wonderful Animatrix short Matriculated. They often plug in and take the guise of humans to insure the operation of the system. From their studies of humans and the previous Reloads of the system many machine have grown to love. Together Rama and Kamala created offspring, a program in the form of their daughter. But Sati serves no purpose and if they dont send her away she will be deleted by the machines. So they made a deal with the Merovingian for Sati to live with the Oracle. This act touches Neo who realizes that the machines are not evil but as capable of love as humans are. Neo doesnt have his powers because hes not in the Matrix and his software cannot interact with this form of limbo. The Merovingian hoped this would happen because he too knew that Neo would walk out on the Architect. He knew of Neos attachment to Trinity because his wife Persephone told him. The Merovingian himself is an interesting character, representing Hades, God of the Underworld a trafcker of information. You see the machines have allowed the Merovingians secret society to exist because he is harmless and can be called upon for all the dirty little secrets and information they need, ultimately helping the system work. Its possible he may be a previous One or was one of the rst malfunctioning rogue programs. Think of it as the FBI calling on the help of organized crime once in a while. Hes allowed to have his safe haven for rogue programs such as the Trainman and the Twins and control of many programmer access points (back doors) so long as he doesnt threaten the system. The machines must denitely share a relationship with him otherwise he would not have encountered Neos predecessors or survived a Matrix Reload. It also appears that Seraph may have worked for the Merovingian but I suspect

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their previous encounter was due to the fact that Seraph was the previous One. When Neo ghts him in the Teahouse they match each others every move to a standstill. Seraph does this to be sure Neo is the One. Also notice how when Seraph rst shows up at Club Hel in Revolutions one of the bouncers says Look, its Wingless. or something like that. Hes referring to the fact that Seraph is now an Angel with no wings having given up his power to Reload the Matrix just as Neo was supposed to. Lets talk about the relationship between Neo and Agent Smith. The Oracle tells Neo that Smith has become his opposite, his negative. A result of the equation trying to balance itself out. Why did Neo jump into Smith to destroy him at the end of the original lm? Neo probably doesnt know why himself, but I suspect that he was drawn to him like a magnet. As soon as Neo discovered his powers he did this act. It appears that Smith was supposed to be Neos opposite all along. When Smith interrogated Morpheus in the original lm he confessed that he wanted out of this zoo. He was already growing too human and was on the path to becoming Neos negative. He wanted to be disconnected from the system as evident when he takes out his earpiece during the interrogation. Smiths fellow agents are surprised to see his ear piece removed (Agent Brown: What are you doing?) and if they suspected Smiths true feelings they may have sent him back to the source for deletion from the system since he was malfunctioning. Neo was drawn to jumping into Smith because the equation was trying to balance itself. The replicating program from the cookie may have copied on to him as well. Now that Smith is reborn like Neo with some of his code written on to him he doesnt want to just be deleted from the system but shut down the system and everything else. His hatred for mankind is now equaled by his hatred for his machine creators. If Neo is the positive side of the equation then Smith is the negative with the desire to destroy everything. I want what you want Mr. Anderson. I want everything. When Neo is blinded by Agent Smith in Banes body he gets a grip of how connected to the machines he really is and can see them for what they really are. Neo knows that Smith has grown out of control and the machines cant delete him from the system. Having assimilated everyone in the Matrix, including the Oracle, Smith threatens the system, the minds plugged in and the machine world itself. The machines will lose their crops or powers source and eventually the virus that is Smith will infect them as well. To prove to the machines that peace can be reached with their creators, the human race, Neo makes a deal that if he can defeat Smith, a compromise will be reached. He needs their help to jack in because he still hasnt mastered the ability to do it alone. Only after battling it out with Smith does Neo realizes that the solution is simple. Smith tells Neo during the nal moments What a minute, Ive seen this before. You were laying right there and I was standing here. And I say, everything

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that has a beginning has an end Neo. Wait, what did I say? The answer is it isnt Smith whos saying this but the Oracle who Smith assimilated. When Smith assimilated the Oracle in her kitchen he laughed hysterically because he saw her vision of him defeating Neo. He would nally accomplish what he couldnt for so long and had made him so bitter: the destruction of the One. Smith has treated Neo with much disdain and never actually called him Neo. Smith is puzzled and scared because someone is speaking through him. The Oracle spoke this phrase to Neo before and what she was referring to was the war. It would end whether both sided survived or not. If Neo is +1 the positive side of the equation and Smith is -1 the negative side then when they are added together the sum is zero, which is what Neo does when he allows Smith to assimilate him. By doing so he has effectively opened a backdoor for the machines to delete Smith from the system through him. The machines are affected by Neos sacrice and decide to recall their attacking army from Zion, ending the war and carrying out the Oracles plan. A truce has been made but as the Architect indicates to the Oracle it may be a temporary one. Mankind has a habit of sh**ting where they eat and the Oracle will have to become a mediator between man and machine to ensure that they work together to rebuild the Earth, un-scorch the skies and live in peace. How long will it last? As long as it can, the Oracle says. The rst step has been made, the rest is up to man and machine. Even though the Oracle can predict the outcome of variables or events she didnt see all of this happening as she tells Seraph. But thanks to Neo and his dedication, I believed. For what its worth, youve made a believer out of me.

The One
By Jason Payne http://www.x-matrix.net/Theories/Zion%20Matrix.htm Zion is a program, just like the Matrix. The Matrix exists within another matrix, or more accurately, alongside another matrix. Hence why Neo is able to stop the sentinels in Zion near the end of Reloaded? The spoon given to him earlier may have given him the inspiration and the understanding that Zion is still a matrix. And the fact that Smith was able to infect Bane in Zion also indicates Zion is a program.

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The One
The One is also a program, but must be attached to a human avatar in the Matrix. So Mr. Anderson became encoded with it in the 6th version of the Matrix. The One programs purpose is to allow Zion to be destroyed then to rebuild it. The reason for this is because of anomalies the 1 per cent of humans that dont accept the Matrix. These are all brought out of the Matrix program and into the Zion program by the Morpheus program and other similar ship captain programs. Then once all the anomalies are out of the Matrix (and in Zion), that is the time for Zion to be destroyed, thus killing and eradicating all the anomalies. The Matrix is then upgraded, thus creating the next version of the Matrix, but Zion must be rebuilt so that the next batch of anomalies can be brought out again so that they too can be destroyed. This is the feedback-loop, and is the reason to retain a handful of people so that Zion can be rebuilt. And is why Neo said the prophecy was a lie the Ones purpose was not to end the war as the prophecy stated it was just another system of control. The One program must be re-used with each version of the Matrix, or copied, so that it can be attached to a new avatar within the Matrix, and so that the old avatar relinquishes his powers and goes on to complete his task in rebuilding Zion (Architect: The function of the One is now to return to the Source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which, you will be required to select from the Matrix 23 individuals... to rebuild Zion). However, the old The One program faces deletion, and as the Oracle explained, it goes into exile instead, just as the Merovingian did. He was the rst One (from one of the rst versions of the Matrix), and once hed fullled his duty, he became an exile program and abdicated his Oneness by choosing Persephone and power. This is evident when Persephone asks Neo to kiss her. She says she wants him to kiss her so she can feel what it is like again to be kissed by something close to human, just like the Merovingian used to be. She expresses her envy of Trinity, and that these things are not meant to last. So the Merovingian used to be just like Neo a One the feedback-loop just keeps repeating itself.

The Correct Door

The Architect gave Neo a choice. All the previous Ones chose the right door allowing a temporary dissemination of their code into the Matrix, then to select (unplug) 23 people from the Matrix to rebuild Zion. Morpheus talked of this occurring previously: there was a man born inside, able to change things, it was he who freed the rst of us, basically the One previous to Neo. Neos purpose is also to choose the right door, but he does not because of his love for Trinity and his desire to save her. Thus, contravening his purpose and the

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actions of all previous Ones, he chooses the left door. But how was this time different to previously? The Architect explains: It is interesting, reading your reactions. Your 5 predecessors were, by design, based on a similar predication a contingent afrmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the One. While the others experienced this in a very general way, your experience is far more specic vis-a-vis love. But why is there this love between Neo and Trinity? The Oracle told Trinity that she would fall in love with Neo and thus their love blossomed. It is upon learning of this relationship (on the park bench) that the Oracle says, youve made a believer out of me a human-like emotion because now she has hope... hope that Neo will nally choose the other door. The reason she wants to do this is because she too contains the anomaly, she is also fundamentally awed - there is no escape from the anomaly for the machines.

The Anomaly
As far as the Architect is concerned, the anomaly is all the humans that do not accept the Matrix. The Architect says, Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden to sedulously avoid it, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. This includes Neo, but Neos Matrix avatar is attached with The One program so that he can follow his purpose as explained previously. However, he is also supposed to protect himself and destroy anything that gets in his way i.e., Agent Smith so that he may full his purpose. The clue to the actual anomaly is Neos program name The One. Take one-third for example. 1 over 3 is 0.33333 recurring. A computer cannot deal with recurring numbers, so must accept a limit, lets say 0.33333 for arguments sake. Multiply by 3, you get 0.99999 never 1.00000, where has the remainder 0.00001 (One) gone? This is the limitation of computers, this is the mathematical imprecision inherent in programming (of the Matrix) and the eventuality of the One anomaly unable to be eliminated. NEO, incidentally, is an anagram of ONE. Trinity and Neo one on one; a choice - one or one. Leads us to 101. 101 is mentioned numerous times in M1 and Reloaded: Neos room at the beginning of M1, the Merovingians restaurant is on the 101st oor, the 101 freeway of the car chase in Reloaded, then when Trinity is hacking into the power plant system, she resets the password to Z10N0101 (indicates that she is a program because of her particular choice of password). 101 is binary for 5, which in zero-based binary counting: 000 is 1, 001, is 2, 010 is 3, 011 is 4, 100 is 5, 101 is 6 - And this is the 6th version of the Matrix! Then theres 303. 303 is the room Neo got shot in M1, the Oracle lives in room 303, its also

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the hotel room number Trinity is in at the start of M1. 101 x 3 = 303, a trilogy, 3 plus 0 plus 3 = 6 = the 6th Matrix. Trinity means 3.

Why was Neo chosen to be the One?

Neo is a skilled hacker, and he was grown by the machines to be genetically based on the person that founded the AI of the original machines that eventually took over the world evident from the disc that he sold to Choi at the beginning of M1, which said DISC AI on it. So, as he created AI, he also encoded the anomaly and as any good programmer putting in a back door like this would, only he would be able to circumvent the anomaly. By genetically recreating him and allowing him to become a professional programmer and a skilled hacker just like the original creator, Neo not only contains the anomaly, as everything created by the AI contains the anomaly, but being based on the creator of AI, he also contains the solution.

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Zion is Real
The birth of AI, and eventually the Matrix
Before the machines took over the world, a human programmer designed AI, but as a safety measure, to ensure human survival, the programming instructions to compute pi (3.14) were not included. So, now, in the Matrix, every single program has this inherent anomaly, the inability to compute pi. This includes the Architect, who was created by the machines to design the Matrix, which in turn inherits the anomaly (...despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. ). The Architect redesigned the Matrix, blaming its failure on the omission of human history (The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. ). His second version failed, so blaming it again on humans imperfections, he called upon an intuitive program to redesign it.

The Oracles Solution to the Anomaly

The Oracle discovered that the anomaly did not lie with humans, but with the AI itself, but could not tell the Architect because he would not comprehend this and cause his program to fail and the Matrix to crash. So, she convinced the Architect that a third Matrix had to be created, one that allowed choice; and pretended that she stumbled upon the solution (she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99 per cent of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. ). So, the fact that 1 per cent didnt accept the Matrix was due to a choice they were given by the AI, a seed of truth at a subconscious level in their minds (Morpheus in M1 What you know you cant explain. But you feel it. Youve felt it your entire life, that theres something wrong with the world. You dont know what it is but its there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. ). So the third version of the Matrix, they introduce a genetically engineered human (grown in a pod, so may be easily genetically manipulated), and base him on the original designer of AI hence Neo. So, in the Matrix, he becomes a computer programmer and designs AI (when he hands the disc to Choi in M1, it said DISC AI on it). Now the reason for doing this is because, as any good programmer putting in a back door would, he makes the reload code for the AI (thus resetting the anomaly as explained later) only accessible by himself. This reload code is 101, which appears numerous times throughout M1 and Reloaded: Neos room at the beginning of M1, the Merovingians restaurant is on the 101st oor, the 101 freeway of the car chase in Reloaded,

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then when Trinity is hacking into the power plant system, she resets the password to Z10N0101 (indicates that she is a program because of her particular choice of password). So not only does Neo contain the anomaly, as everything created by the AI contains the anomaly, being based on the creator of AI, he also contains the solution.

Neos Enlightenment The Incarnation of the One

In M1, Neo says to Morpheus: What are you trying to tell me, that I can dodge bullets? No Neo. Im trying to tell you that when youre ready, you wont have to. The signicance is this: the point at which he can see code in M1 is just after being killed by Smith, and its also the point where he can stop bullets, i.e., he doesnt have to dodge them, as Morpheus said. So this is the point that he is ready. Ready for what though? And why did this happen? Its because upon his death, he sends the next One (in the future, or the next version of the Matrix) the unbalanced equation (the anomaly) and only this future One will respond with pi, thus creating a symbolic window between the two adjacent versions of the Matrix (thus, an unbalanced equation). If this continued, from one version to the next, this would result in a cascading loop, an escalating probability of disaster, as the Architect put it, which, will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix. The only way round this is, to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program, the prime program being the reload code. This will cause the Matrix to be reloaded, thus everything (all programs) in the Matrix is deleted, including the program that the One instantiated in between the current version of the Matrix and the next version (the anomaly-created back door that is supposed to prevent the machines from taking over by causing a cascading loop that eventually destroys the AI). So by genetically creating the Designer, they have created the anomaly and the solution together in one body (creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly, that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself this refers to Neo, his own contradiction, with the potential to destroy the Matrix, obviously, but created purposely to resolve it. If this didnt happen, the anomaly would exist without control and would continue to destroy the Matrix in ever-increasing cataclysmic proportions). So now, the anomaly resets to the beginning, Zion is destroyed by the machines, and the One rebuilds Zion as instructed by the Architect. But what is the purpose of Zion? Training the rst thing Morpheus embarked Neo on as soon as he had recovered from being pulled out of the Matrix. The Oracle needed Zion so that Neo could be trained

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in Matrix simulations, but without being in the Matrix itself, where there are Agents. These are security protocol programs, so are designed to protect the Matrix and the Source from everything. Neo jumping into Smith wasnt necessarily meant to happen, it was just Neos way of trying to kill him, except it didnt, it just corrupted him, causing a failure to his program.

The Oracles Change of Heart

In the 6th version of the Matrix, the Oracle has decided that the Matrix will not be reloaded. Why? Because she too contains the anomaly, and her solution that has worked up to now is also fundamentally awed as the Architect put it. She accomplishes her goal (by making Neo choose the other door to previous Ones) by telling Trinity that she will fall in love with the One. The Oracle has great inuence on programs in the Matrix (Morpheus M1: She told you exactly what you needed to hear, thats all. Neo, sooner or later youre going to realise, just as I did, that theres a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. ). The cookies in M1, the candy on the park bench, they are all methods she uses to recode programs. Other programs, and Agents, are getting suspicious of the Oracles new motives, and are searching for her hence why she must have a guardian, Seraph, who says to Neo after ghting him, The Oracle has made enemies. I had to be sure. The Merovingian said, Tell the Oracle her time is up. Smith appearing just as she makes a hasty exit near the park bench this is not a coincidence, although hes still after Neo since he wants everything, thats why hes replicating into everything. For these reasons, the Oracle is late in contacting Neo, hence all the waiting around with the ship, and shed also been enquiring into the whereabouts of the missing Keymaker whom the Merovingian had abducted (because he is power-hungry as the Oracle explained), and the Keymaker is required to provide access to the Source. In computer terms, he represents the symbol table in code that contains all the addresses to different locations in memory, much like pointers in C-programming. The keys represent pointers, so opening a door in the corridor of doors without a key is effectively a NULL pointer, thus leading to nowhere (the mountains!). The Oracle knows of Neos dreams of Trinity getting shot, but wants to know if Neo sees Trinity die after he enters the Door of Light she cannot see past this door as its the Architects domain. When Neo says he didnt actually see her die, the Oracle knows that Neo will choose the door to save Trinity (thus her goal in making Neo fall in love with Trinity in order to make him choose the other door has succeeded). As soon as she realises this, she is satised (youve made a believer out of me, and says, Our time is up, and goes on to tell Neo where to nd the Keymaker. Thus, they go to the Merovingian, but it is Persephone that leads them to the Keymaker.

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Going to the Source

The time-window between the power-out and the power coming back online again, incidentally, is 314 seconds (pi = 3.14), a reection of the anomaly and is also the only time during which the Keymakers key to the Door of Light can be used to open it to transport Neo to the Architect. This was according to plan as Neo is supposed to end up in the Architects room. Its the choice between the two doors where it now goes wrong for the Architect as he obviously doesnt want him to go through the left door: The Architect: Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix, which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race. Neo: You wont let it happen, you cant. You need human beings to survive. The Architect: There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world. And when Neo does decide to go through the left door, the Architect makes one last attempt to dissuade him, Humph. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. Neo saves Trinity from falling, but she dies from the gunshot wound. However, he saves her not by magic, but infuses her with the reload code that he was supposed to disseminate into the Source, and thus saves her. They return to the Nebuchadnezzar and Neo conrms that he knows everything: The One was never meant to end anything. It was just another system of control. He now realises his true purpose.

Neo Transcends His Powers Into the Real World

How was Neo able to destroy the sentinels at the end? It could be a connection between Neo and Smith and the fact that Smith has infected Bane in the real world and Bane just happened to fall into a coma like Neo when the ship that Bane was on encountered the sentinels. The alternative theory that Zion is part of a second Matrix, rather than being real, is unknowingly hinting at a fascinating truth. The distinction is between the Matrix-within-a-Matrix theory, which is generally about the impossibility of escaping the Matrix, and the second-Matrix theory, which is a metaphor for a profound philosophical point. The working thesis is: What Neo learned when he transcended the Matrix was that all reality is simulation. He has applied this lesson to the Matrix - now he is applying it to the real world. This references the hollowed book

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Neo takes the disc out of at the start of M1 the book is Simulacra and Simulation a collection of essays by the French postmodernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard. He opens it to the section on Nihilism (meaning nothing is truly known). Baudrillards concept of simulation is the creation of the real through conceptual or mythological models which have no connection or origin in reality. The model becomes the determinant of our perception of realitythe real. Parts of this theory were inspired from THE RED PILL (Original Theory) written by: Benjamin Casper, co-written by: Constance Casper

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Matrix Reloaded Explained : The Red Pill

The Red Pill
Written By: Benjamin Casper Co-Written By: Constance Casper A human Designer created AI (articial intelligence) without the programming instructions to compute pi (3.14). This was done as a safety measure (anomaly) to ensure human survival over the AI. The anomaly and the solution for it are present in the AI and inherited by everything they create. They are, however, unaware of it and would be unable to comprehend it even if they were aware (see notes-A). The AI seize control of the planet. They place humans into pods as a new fuel source. The AI create the program, Architect, to design the Matrix. He is the representation of the Designer. The Architect naturally also doesnt comprehend that he contains both the anomaly and the solution for it, they having been passed on to him by his AI creators. The Architect designs the rst Matrix. In his mathematical computations, it is the vision of perfection. The anomaly and the solution that were sown by the Designer, were imprinted into the Matrix coding language. The rst Matrix crashed. Being the humble program that he is, the Architect said the fault lies within the humans. I gave them too perfect of a Matrix. I will design them a version based on the varying grotesqueries of their nature. It also crashes, he thinks because he has based it on our imperfection. He is logical and wants to solve the problem, as he is the caretaker. An intuitive program, Oracle, was called upon to investigate the problem. The Oracle, being an intuitive program, discovers that the anomaly does not lie within the humans, but within the AI language itself. She realizes the anomaly is in everything the AI has created including the Architect. She also realizes that it is unadvisable to tell the Architect, because he would be unable to comprehend this explanation and this would cause the Matrix to crash. She informs the Architect that he needs to create a Matrix with choice, and allows him to think it is the humans with the anomaly (see notes-B). She knows that this will create Zion, which she will need. The AI implant a seed of truth in the minds of the humans in the pods, a splinter in your mind. For some, ...driving you mad, they require the exit option (red pill/blue pill). Those who dont accept the reality that is given to them are ushed out of the Matrix and are allowed to form Zion. Enter, the One. The Oracle convinces the Architect to inform the AI that they

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must recreate the Designer from the genetic level (human being), who is fated to be the One. The Designer created AI in a structure that only he could access and reload. Herein lies the need for the One to reset the anomaly to the default computation. So the newly created version of the Matrix is calculated, also based on recent human history. At the necessary time in the Matrix, the future One is designed and born. He becomes a computer programmer and designs articial intelligence. Being the creator of articial intelligence in the Matrix environment, he contains the solution, the anomaly, and the reload code that serves as a bridge between them (symbolic key). At that point he is contacted by Zion Freedom Fighters who were sent by the Oracle. They free him because allowing him to stay will cause a cascading loop. The Freedom Fighters take him to Zion where he is trained. The Freedom Fighters are contacted by the Oracle to bring him to her. She sets him on the path of becoming the One. At some point the future One has to die in the Matrix. Its at this moment that the Matrix sends the future One the unbalanced equation (anomaly), and only the future One will respond with pi (3.14), which opens a symbolic window. The Matrix reloads the future One, which transforms him into the reload code, 101. Now he knows he is the One, because he can see the Matrix encoding. He is the one needed to reload the Matrix, as he has become one with the code. The One returns to Zion until the Oracle contacts him. He follows her instructions to the Source, where he disseminates the 101 code or reload code. The Matrix is reloaded and the articial intelligence program that the One has created within the Matrix is deleted, thereby eliminating the chance of a cascading loop. The anomaly resets to the beginning, Zion is destroyed, and the One rebuilds Zion as instructed by the Architect. This cycle repeats ve times in this manner. Then Neo is born into the Matrix. Hes genetically engineered to be the One, version six. He is freed from the Matrix and taken into the Nebuchadnezzar (hovercraft). Events occur as with the previous versions of the Ones- but for Neo its going to be different. This time the Oracle has decided the Matrix will not be reloaded. She accomplishes this by telling Trinity that she will fall in love with the One and Morpheus that he will nd the One. As usual the security protocol Agents are called upon to protect the Matrix and the Source from all. They ght Neo and kill him as with the previous Ones. This time while the question is being asked and the reply given, Trinity kisses him and cements their attachment of love. He is reloaded with the code as before, arises, and knows hes the One. With his new powers he now ghts Agent Smith effortlessly and enters him. This corrupts Agent Smith causing a failure to his program.

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Now the sixth destruction of Zion is in progress. The Freedom Fighters of Zion meet to discuss how to prevent it. Smith comes to inform Neo that he has set Smith free. They return to Zion leaving a ship behind to await communication from the Oracle. Smith, no longer an agent of the system, replicates himself into Bane and enters Zion. Neo receives his instructions from the Oracle and goes to meet her. Neo enters a room and encounters Seraph, the Oracles protector, who conrms that Neo is the One and takes him to the Oracle. She was late in communicating with Neo because dangerous programs are searching for her, including Smith, who wants, everything. She had also been inquiring about the missing Keymaker who Neo will need to get to the Source. On the surface the Oracle is fullling her usual role, her purpose, so as not to be deleted. Shes saying and doing what shes always said and done, except for subtly pulling information out of Neo. She wants to know if Neo sees Trinity die after he enters the Door of Light in his dream (the Oracle can not see past this door). He did not. The Oracle now knows that Neo will choose to save Trinity instead of reloading the Matrix. She has succeeded!! She says no more about this and proceeds to tell Neo where the Keymaker is. She hands Neo instructions for a place and time to meet the Merovingian who has abducted the Keymaker. The Oracle makes a hasty exit, as Smith is approaching. Smith wants revenge. He wants to take from Neo what was stolen from him, purpose. Neo learns that Smith has replicated himself many times, and he tries to replicate himself into Neo but fails. Smith has an arduous time trying to beat Neo, so Smith recruits more replications. Neo reaches a point where there are too many Smiths to ght and feels compelled to leave. Neo exits the Matrix and returns to the Nebuchadnezzar where he assembles the crew to go visit the Merovingian and obtain the Keymaker. Then Neo and the crew enter the Matrix once again. They follow the Oracles instructions and journey to the Merovingian. They speak with him and he declines to hand over the Keymaker. As they are leaving without the Keymaker, the elevator door opens on a different oor, and there stands the Merovingians wife, Persephone. She offers to give them the Keymaker in exchange for a kiss from Neo. He kisses her and she leads them to the Keymaker. The Keymaker states, I have been waiting for you, and starts to leave with them. As the Merovingian returns to see what Persephone has done, a ght ensues. Morpheus and Trinity escape with the Keymaker in tow. Neo is forced to y to the center of the city to save Morpheus and the Keymaker from Agents. They meet with other Freedom Fighters in the Matrix, close to the Source, and the Keymaker instructs them on how to gain entry to the Source. The Freedom Fighters follow the Keymakers instructions. Neo, Morpheus, and the Keymaker nd themselves in a hallway where they run into replicated Smiths. A ght occurs and during the 314 seconds when the symbolic window is open, the Keymaker opens the door. Neo enters and stands before the Door

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of Light. He inserts his key, which was given to him by the Keymaker and is instantly transported to the Architect. Neo stands before the Architect who proceeds to ramble on about the imperfection of humanity and his own perfection. He tells Neo that Trinity has entered the Matrix to sacrice her life to save Neos life. Then he gives Neo the choice between two doors. The rst door leads to, the Source and the salvation of Zion (meaning Neo will have to rebuild it). The Matrix is reloaded and the anomaly is reset to the default computation. This is the door chosen by all of the previous Ones. The second door leads back to the Matrix, to her (to Trinity and the chance to save her), and to the end of your species, as not reloading the Matrix will crash the system, killing not only Zion but also the humans living in the Matrix. As a non-intuitive program, the Architect is distanced from the outcome. However he makes one more attempt to inuence Neo to reload the Matrix, as the Architect is designed to sustain the Matrix. Neo exits through the second door and tries to save Trinitys life. He arrests her plummet toward the ground to no avail. She dies from a gunshot wound inicted by the Agents, however, Neo resuscitates Trinity by infusing her with the reload code. Neo and Trinity exit the Matrix and return to the Nebuchadnezzar. Neo informs Morpheus that Zion will be destroyed in 24 hours and that the Oracles prophecy was a lie. The one was never meant to end anything. It was just another system of control. The sentinels destroy the Nebuchadnezzar, but as the crew ees Neo exclaims, Somethings different. I can feel them. He turns to face the sentinels, extends his arm, and releases a pulse of energy destroying them. Neo collapses and falls into a coma. A hovercraft rescues them and then we see Neo and Bane (Smith replication) lying on two separate gurneys in the medical bay, as Bane is in a coma also. TO BE CONCLUDED.... An electronic device can contain a question and an answer, and not be able to bridge the two without a key or a password. For example, an electronic lock contains the password 1138 (solution). It also contains the question allowing you to type in the password (solution). Due to its parameters it is unable to bridge the question and the password (solution), even though it contains both. It requires someone to introduce the password (solution). This acts as the bridge between the two. This is the issue the Oracle is having with the Architect: Example: Imagine you are at work. Your boss comes in and tells you to solve a problem. You nd out your boss is wrong about the source of the problem but you cannot tell him he is wrong. You are forced to solve the problem anyway. Whats worse, you still need your bosss help to solve the problem. The Oracle needs to nd a way to x the Matrix anomaly for the Architect. She believes that the AI have this anomaly also. She must use the AI to begin

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the process, while allowing the Architect to believe they are xing a human anomaly. Therefore the Oracle allows the Architect to believe the anomaly is in the humans and that they are rejecting the Matrix. She allows him to believe that the humans are causing the unbalanced equation (anomaly). Example: Your problem is how do you get your boss to help you to solve the problem when you cant tell him the true source of the problem. The only solution is to make him believe that what he is doing is solving the problem the way he sees it. When, actually, what he is doing is solving the true problem and he never knows it. The Oracle tells the Architect she requires a One (the Designer) in esh and blood form to correct the anomaly. Simulations will not work in this instance. She requires Zion to be created to remove the One from the Matrix and to train him. She tells the Architect that to x the human anomaly, he needs to give the humans the illusion of choice. So a, splinter in your mind, of something wrong with the world, is implanted into the minds of the humans on a, near unconscious level. She tells him this will lessen the pace of the anomaly growth but this is a lie. The Oracle tells the Architect that some will still not accept the Matrix and to release them, not to kill them because she needs them for Zion (which she covertly stays in contact with once it is formed). She emphasizes to the Architect that the AI need to create the esh and blood One to reload the Matrix (to correct the supposed human-caused unbalanced equation). The Architect believes this reloading is xing the human-caused anomaly. It is actually xing the anomaly injected by the AI when the Matrix was constructed. NOTES: Copyright and Legal Notices: Matrix COPYRIGHT 1999-2002 - Time Warner Entertainment Co. This Document is the property of Ben & Constance Casper. Permission is granted to distribute in a public forum as long as this document is always completely intact. Any other use requires the personal authorization of the authors. Contact: reload101matrix@hotmail.com Photobloke.com: Matrix Reloaded Explained. at Photobloke.comi

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The Twins
By Jason Payne http://www.x-matrix.net/Theories/Twins.htm They are exiled programs that emulate the human myth of ghosts as the Oracle explained. They are programs behaving badly. Persephone killed one of the Merovingians bodyguards with a silver bullet because he was emulating a vampire. So if the Twins could phase into ghost form, why didnt he when his arm was trapped in the door of the garage. Was it because he was wounded or because he cant phase when his arm is trapped? No; had he have phased, he would have lost his arm. The doors of that building, when shut, always led somewhere else (usually in the mountains) when opened again without the Keymakers key. So if it were slammed shut due to the Twin phasing into ghost form, the Twins arm wouldve become distantly detached from the Twins body. However, this is not to mention that had the door have shut, he would not have been able to open the door to the same location as those he was pursuing, for the same reason.

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Agent Smith the Virus

By Jason Payne (neo@x-matrix.net) www.X-matrix.net http://www.x-matrix.net/Theories/Agent%20Smith.htm Agent Smith is the only human in this world. Hes spreading himself like a virus replicating himself over and over until the Matrix will nally get overloaded and fail. Smith wants to leave the Matrix for good (M1: I must get out of here, I must get free! And in this mind, is the key, squeezing Morpheus temples, my key! Once Zion is destroyed, there is no need for me to be here!). Smith knows that by killing Neo he can escape the Matrix because Neo is the key to resetting the Matrix, or to shut it off. It was originally killing Neo that allowed Smith to become powerful (his cloning ability) - because of you Ive changed Im unplugged so killing Neo again will allow him to gain Neos powers completely, and thus gain the power to shut down the Matrix. Smith, in his current form, is not meant to be there as far as the machines are concerned hes a computer virus as he has every characteristic of a virus he multiplies and spreads and infects (and emulates) other programs like one. He is exactly as he himself described humans (M1: You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Who put him there? Humans in the real real world, i.e., outside of Zion and the Matrix. Theyre at war with the machines and trying to destroy them by infecting them with this virus Agent Smith. This is not without irony however, the irony that Agent Smith represents the human race! And Neo represents the machines! Agent Smith says to Neo just after hes seen the Oracle that he became free when Neo destroyed him in the rst Matrix (when Neo entered his body and exploded him from inside out) Smith has the ability to inherit other programs abilities since he is a virus, and thus he inherited some of Neos abilities. His infectious ability is profound however. He infected Bane in Zion through the phone line. Then he wanted to infect Neo whilst disguised as Bane... by cutting his hand with the knife when Neo was about to board the ship so that when he stabbed Neo, his blood would have infected Neo with Smiths virus, but cunningly unbeknownst to Neo.

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The Oracle
By Jason Payne http://www.x-matrix.net/Theories/Oracle.htm The Mother of the Matrix? The Architect says, Please, in a disgruntled manner when Neo suggests the Oracle is the mother the Architect referred to, but neither reveals who it nor that Neo is wrong. The Architect created the Matrix and is in charge of the Matrix world; the co-creator is in charge of Zion. One might say that woman is the Head Counsillor, Counsillor Dillard, the only woman of importance that lives in Zion and the one who asked for the two captains to volunteer at the council meeting. She ignored Commander Locks advice and to let Morpheus do his work so things could go as planned, including sending more ships, to ascertain the fate of The One, despite Zion being attacked by sentinels. However, it is more likely the Oracle. She is the only program that truly wants humans to have a free choice (would be akin to an intuitive program). At the same time, she forsees the future, because she knows the program code akin to God - and why Seraph protects her. Seraph had golden code and was so spectacular because he came from the rst incarnation of the Matrix, which was like heaven perfect. Seraph is singular for the plural seraphim. The six-winged Seraphim are the highest choir of angels closest to the Most-Holy Trinity, who blaze with love for God, and they sit on the 8th level of Heaven just one below God the Oracle. The Oracle chose Seraph to be her protector. Neo, being the produce of the Oracles plan, is representative of Jesus Christ Choi in M1: Hallelujah. Youre my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ. There are reasons to believe, however, that Persephone is the mother. She is a program and displays some very intuitive acts. She knew the Merovingian was in the ladies room: You can either run to the restaurant and tell my husband what I have done, or you can stay there and die. Hes in the ladies room.

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The Matrix: Reloaded Explained

What follows below is a comparative-literature-style exegesis of selected parts of Matrix Reloaded. My basic thesis is that Matrix Reloaded is a story about Genesis. Not the creation story. I mean the transcendence story that comes immediately after the creation story, in which the serpent, who is Loki the Inventor God, who is Neo, leads humanity from the Garden into Middle Earth. (I have a sneaking suspicion the three-movie arc is going to be about machine evolution as well.)

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Forward on disobedience
I am not a number! I am a free man! Number 6, The Prisoner Afterward, I knew the rules, I understood what I was supposed to do, but I didnt. I couldnt. I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey. Agent Smith, The Matrix: Reloaded Thomas Anderson was a disobedient fellow. He was frequently late for work. He didnt do as he was told. He had a problem with authority. Fans of the rst Matrix lm identied with Thomas Anderson because of that rebelliousness. We all grinned when Thomas Anderson offered to give Agent Smith the nger in the interrogation room. So lets imagine for a moment that our boy Tom had done what was expected of him. Suppose after being scolded by his manager, Tom learned his lesson, went back to his cubicle, and conformed. Not much of a story. Theres Tom, working as he should in his cubicle. The end. Tom just became part of the machine. As luck would have it, Mr. Anderson is compelled to disobey and we have a story after all. But it is not just about having a story. Not hardly. It is really about choice, which is what Neo realizes in the Architects chamber. When you get down to it, there are only two fundamental choices: you can choose to be robot or you can choose to be human; asleep or awake; dead or alive. Someone will always be telling you what to do. The robot, tin-chested and lifeless, does what he is told. The robot obeys. The human being disobeys. The human being gives Agent Smith the nger. The human being eats the apple. The Architect gave Neo the same two choices. Neo chose not to be part of the machinery of the Matrix any longer. After that he was free. My secret belief is that moments after Neo left the Architects chamber, the Architect did a touchdown dance.

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Foundation of criticism
I am really displeased by all the liar commentary that has sprung up about this movie. For some reason, people nd it easier to conclude that the characters in the movie are all trying to deceive each other, and that the lm-makers are trying to deceive the audience, than to come up with a coherent analysis of the movie. I especially do not like the idea that the audience is being tricked. That is a very poor theory that does not require a criticism that works within the framework of what we see in the story. You see, if we are being tricked, then we can advance any crazy theory we like and no one can argue against it. To make the crazy theory t we just have to keep calling everyone a liar. Therefore I will take these to be the foundations of my criticism: 1. No one in the movie is lying. For example, when Agent Smith tells Neo there is a connection between them, there really is. 2. The movies themselves are not lying to the audience. That is, the rst movie was not one big lie. Also, the core groups escape from the Matrix to the real world was not a lie. The real world is really real (i.e., the two-Matrix theory is bunk). 3. I am very textually oriented and I believe we can construct a good analysis of the movie based solely on what evidence we can nd in the movie itself. Things like affective interpretations do not matter much to me (I think affective approaches are not arguable, therefore moot.) 4. Despite that, I do believe that many (good) authors are very intentional with their references and scene choices. Story scenes are there for a reason, not just to ll time or show boobs. So it is with our Wachowski bros. If something is in the movie, I will assume they meant it to be there and are not just being gratuitous. 5. Following on #3, I have tried to disallow The Animatrix and Enter the Matrix as evidence for any part of this essay. I do not entirely succeed. Cope.

The Architect
[BT: Lest anyone think I trashed a perfectly good part of the essay when I rewrote this part, [16]here is the old Architect section.] So God created man in his own image...And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day. Genesis 1:27;31 The Architect is God as we see him in the creation stories of Genesis (there are two creation stories). This God has some particular characteristics. He created earth in six days, then took a break, then commenced taking leisurely evening walks in the Garden of Eden. Well, that is about it for God. Except for one more thing he put up a couple of special trees and told the humans not to

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eat their fruit. They were the forbidden fruits of the Trees of Knowledge and of Life. And so it is with our Architect. He created the Matrix and now sits back in his comfy chair watching everything unfold on his TV sets. Just like God, the Architect cautioned against too much knowledge. Both Gods say, Here is a perfect world for you to live in. Just dont start thinking too hard about why youre here, or where the rain comes from, or basically how any of this works. This the Creator God, the Father God. Brahma is a good parallel. Brahma creates the world but does not rule it. Brahma essentially just sits on his lotus ower. He is like the cosmic Clock-maker of the Deists who winds up the springs and then only watches things happen. But in addition to this Brahmalike quality, the Genesis God and the Architect both have this forbiddance against knowledge. And there is also the matter of the serpent. In the Garden of Eden, everything is taken care of. There is no suffering. Recall Agent Smith from the rst lm, who said, the rst Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world. Where none suffered. Where everyone would be happy. The Architect conrms this in Reloaded. (There is not a one-to-one correlation between Matrix versions and the Garden they are all the Garden from various viewpoints.) The Garden is also timeless, a quality shared by the Matrix. This is a point that has been made extremely well by others, a good example of which appears on the [17]comments page. Just how long has it been 1999 in this version of the Matrix? Nothing ever changes; its perfect already, so it cannot possibly change. It isnt alive, either, because change is necessary for growth and life. And so we introduce the Tree of Knowledge, which is the exit from the Garden into the eld of time. In the Matrix, this exit appears as the taking of the red pill. There is the serpent, too. Its often overlooked that the serpent was created by God and put into the Garden. It is a mistake to read this with the assumption that the serpent is evil. One (I think good) translation of the adjectives applied to the serpent is crafty. As in, he has knowledge of crafts. This is really Loki, who is also branded as a deceiver or a trickster, and thats part of his nature, but Loki also brings new technology: he is crafty, an innovator. He is the quintessential hacker [18][1]. At rst I always identied Neo with Loki, but in the rst movie I think Morpheus ts the bill better, at least in the beginning. (By the end its 100% Neo, as it will be for the rest of the trilogy. This is a good t, too, because Morpheus was the mentor, the guru, that showed Neo the door to enlightenment. After that, Neo surpasses Morpheus.) Either way, the role is the same: tempting people with the forbidden fruit the red pill so that they may exit the Garden into the real world of suffering and the passage of time. As a small sidenote about this topic, notice how it is only after Neo is rst awakened from the Matrix that he gets any sense of what year it really is.

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The essential point of the red pill and the Loki effect is that, just like in Genesis, both of these things were designed into the Matrix by the Architect. And that puts the Architects relationship to Neo in a very interesting light. There is a stark visual contrast between Neo and the Architect. In their meeting in the Architects chamber, the Architect is in all white and Neo, well, he looks just like the devil himself in all black. This is a pretty good interpretation. The Architects Godliness is established, because he created the world. Neo at this point has fully taken on the Loki/serpent role. We are not talking about good and evil here. The serpent in the Garden isnt a force of evil. It is a force of change. The serpent is a catalyst, inviting us to think rationally about our surroundings. One one hand, the serpent is responsible for putting events in motion that lead to the invention of agriculture, and so the serpent is the inventor god, i.e., Loki. On the other hand, the very idea of a snake is the most rudimentary image of life (life equals change), and so by following the serpent we exit the timeless Garden and descend into the eld of time. It is only by leaving the Garden that we can awaken to genuine humanity. Its pretty clear that being in the real world is better than being in the Matrix. It might be harder and dirtier, but at least you are conscious. And so we have Neo positioned as the serpent, acting to subvert the Architects creation. Thus, Neo is the devil [19][2]. The important part while we are analyzing the Architect is that he is a devil created by the Architect. On second thought, Neo represents the devil element that was designed into the Matrix by the Architect. (Neo-the-devil may be more a child of the Mother than of the Father.) In other words, God put the devil into the world in order to achieve some greater purpose. Below are several lines of dialogue from the Architect scene, and I will use them to discover what is really going on with Neo and the Architect. These lines arent sequential; theyre just the ones I want to highlight. ARCHITECT You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. I stand by the idea that the Architect does not lie during this conversation. He tells us quite directly that Neo is a human being. This should put to rest all theories that Neo is a computer program. Its also very important that we establish Neo as a human being, because the end result depends on it. ARCHITECT That [response] was quicker than the others. ARCHITECT While the others experienced this [attachment] in a very general way, your experience is far more specic. Vis-a-vis, love. The translation here is very plain. There have been others other Neos and this one is different. We have already had this difference demonstrated in the

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Merovingian scene, but it is conrmed here. The Merovingian makes remarks about how Neo is different than his predecessors, and the Merovingian is quite surprised at the superhuman abilities Neo is able to command. (He does not expect that Neo can win the ght against the minions on the staircase.) The fact that this incarnation is different also means that the previous ve all chose the right-hand door. ARCHITECT I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next, in which case this is the sixth version. There have been ve previous incarnations of Neo. This is similar to the Hindu god Indra being confronted by the fact that there have been countless previous Indras. It means: you are a part of something greater than yourself. There is also a tremendous signicance in the fact that the present Neo is the sixth incarnation. ARCHITECT The (Mother) stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice. NEO Choice. The problem is choice. How many times was the idea of choice and free will been raised in Reloaded? Quite a few. It comes down to this moment, and both the Architect and Neo state it clearly. This is about choice. Neos choice between the right-hand door or the left-hand door is a magnied, superconcentrated version of the choice given to all humans connected to the Matrix. Will you accept the world youre given, or will you follow the serpent? This choice is why Neo and the Architect are shown as competing opposites the God and the devil. They are the embodiment of the two choices. It is extremely difcult to determine what the Architect expects Neo to do. Most analyses of Reloaded differ at this point. My belief is that the Architect is hoping that Neo chooses the left-hand door [20][3]. (Yes, this is a complete reversal of my position in previous versions of this essay.) In other words, I am saying (1) that the Architect is hoping for something and (2) the thing he is hoping for is that Neo chooses Trinity. There are several key pieces of evidence for this belief. What tips the scales for me is the parting shot from the Architect: ARCHITECT Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. Why does the Architect say this? Why does he mention the word hope? Why didnt he simply say, So long, dummy? I think it is because this is a moment of fulllment for the Architect. He knows his job is nished, because by choosing the left-hand door Neo is going to destroy the Matrix. I thought perhaps by ending on weakness the Architect was classifying Neos choice as a bad one. Not so. Weakness is a state of non-perfection. Human beings are dened by

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their imperfections, their weaknesses. So this is a statement of liberation from perfection. Neo is breaking free. He is exiting the Garden. But the Architect is also saying something much more profound than that. Look very carefully at the sentence. The Architect is saying that Neo is quintessentially human. That is, Neo has truly transcended his boundaries by choosing Trinity. He has genuinely exercised free will. And that leads to the most incredible part of the relationship between the Architect and Neo. Neo #6 is the creation of man on the sixth day. A creation of the Creator. It would carry a lot of momentum if I just left off with that, but I need to tidy up a few loose ends. Ill try to do it with another little bomb to make it exciting. When we go back through the entire dialogue of the Architects scene, it is natural to wonder about the meaning of a lot the Architects statements, especially because they seem to contradict my conclusion, or else they seem to be lies. My take on that is to go back much further to the Oracles scene in the rst movie. She says things to Neo that are not literally true, but yet they are true because they allow Neo to become what he must become. Neo would not have risked his life for Morpheus if the Oracle had told Neo he was The One. And so it is with the Architect what he says allows Neo become what he must become. It is not very meaningful for Neo to choose Trinity if he doesnt think anything is at stake. It wouldnt have been an act of will. How interesting that the Oracle and the Architect would use such similar devices for such similar reasons. [1] This is not my own idea. It comes from Neal Stephensons [21]Cryptonomicon. When I rst wrote this essay I assumed all my readers (I predicted around 25-30 of them; oh, the naivete) would know this book well. [22][Back] [2] A lot of people get irritated by this assertion. Just to throw gasoline on a re, how about this: the Devil and the Christ are brothers. They are a yin-yang pair. The Devil is the thing in you that chafes at perfection and desires to get out of the Garden and grow. It is the splinter in your mind. The Christ is the thing in you that desires to return to the perfection of the Garden, to slay [23]the dragon and unite with the princess (wholeness). [24][Back] [3] Jesus sits at the right hand of God. Therefore, by offering the right-hand door, the Architect is asking Neo to sit at his right hand. Neo would become the Christ for the Matrix, sacricing himself for the good of the world. This is what every previous incarnation has done. The fact that he doesnt do it this time indicates he (and by extension the Matrix and humanity) has gone beyond this and is adventuring into something new.

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The rave scene

By the rave scene I mean the one immediately following the address by Morpheus to the people of Zion, and then everyone dances and Trinity and Neo go off by themselves (ahem). This scene received a storm of bad commentary. People said that scene sucked, or it was way too long, or, most often, that scene was totally unnecessary. Oh, how wrong. Its not that the story information in this scene could not have been presented differently. But the scene did its job very well. (To be fair, I have seen a lot of people get this scene, but still not like it. Clue stick: life is dirty.) First, just as we enter this scene we see that it is in a kind of temple. No fancy interpretation necessary: this is a spiritual event. That initial view means everything that happens for the rest of the scene should be interpreted as having spiritual signicance. And here are the highlights: 1. Repeated shots of feet on the ground. 2. People dancing in a sexually provocative manner. 3. Almost everyone has at least some African ethnicity. 4. Wide shots showing molten lava at the center of the cathedral. 5. Neo and Trinity are naked, and have sex. The feet on the ground means that Zion is on Earth. Plain and simple. This parallels the Architect scene, and gets to the main thesis. We are cast out of the perfection of Heaven and living in the Real World. Symbolically, the Matrix is Heaven. Cypher makes this point in the rst movie. The Real World is hard, dirty, and uncomfortable. The Matrix is, well, paradise. This point is made again in the rst movie by Agent Smith, who calls the Matrix the perfect human world [paraphrased]. Recall that the Architect scene happens in utterly clean, utterly white perfection [27][4]. The Biblical reference is clear enough. Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, and the rest of Zion have rejected Gods Garden of Eden where all their needs are taken care of in favor of a hard, scrabbling existence where at least they have free will. A minor diversion: This is how we come to interpret the serpent in the Garden as the inventor (or hacker, or technologist). The serpent is the catalyst for curiosity and the invention of agriculture. He asks signicant questions, of the form: God gave you such-and-such rules. Given those rules, should not suchand-such a result be possible? [Diversion from the diversion: I understand such gures (e.g., the serpent, Loki) to be abstract models of parts of our own

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psyches. So this part of Genesis really means that a human being or group of human beings will begin spiritual growth by asking the type of questions posed by the serpent. Taken another way, God wants us to be curious, rational, and...well, to apply the scientic method.] Now about the sexuality of the dance. Morpheus speech before the dance helps us interpret the meaning of the dance: we are in the Real World of esh and blood and dirt and animal instinct. This is not Heaven where divine, passionless entities do what they are there to do. (There is entirely another thesis in those words.) This is Passion and Feeling. The rst interview with the Merovingian included an orgasm sequence meant to make a point about free will. But did you notice how the orgasm played out? It was explosive but mechanical. Not anything like the animal lust of the dance scene. In Zion, we see human beings neither rejecting their animal selves, nor completely giving over to their animal selves either it is a human activity with choice and rhythm and purpose, but also lled with basic impulses. In other words, they are reveling in their humanity. Another diversion: I hate to do this again, but I dont want the point to get away. Mythology of all stripes teaches that we are between worlds. The very Nordic concept of Middle Earth means literally in the middle between the animal world and the divine world. Not just the Norse: the Chinese and the Middle Kingdom, for example. To be human is to stand in between animal instinct and godliness. Morpheus in his speech talks about the actions of those present resonating from red core to black sky i.e., between the two. Come on, you are being smacked in the face with this. The African ethnicity says something important too. Africa is the birthplace of humanity. Then, symbolically, African ethnicity signals what is fundamental about human beings. It also signals, plainly enough, birth, in more ways that one. If Africa is the birthplace then we can say Africa is the Mother. (Yes! You got it now, didnt you? Suddenly you are interested in [28]the Oracle.) (Genesis is a birth story. I think it is also a resurrection story, which is why there are so many interesting links and parallels in Biblical stories, and why the recurrent theme of resurrection in The Matrix movies is very compelling.) Continuing on the mother theme, we have the wide-angle shots of the belly of the Earth gurgling lava and steam. This has two meanings. The rst meaning is the quick interpretation (which happens to be right). Its supposed to make you think of Hell. This is a good complement to the Earth imagery we got from the muddy feet and the African-ness of the dancers. Before anyone thinks Im equating Africa with Hell, pay closer attention. The dance doesnt happen in Hell, but basically at its gates. It sets up Zion as the antithesis of the Heaven of the Matrix. (If you are still clinging to the Matrix-within-a-Matrix theory, give it up now. Zion and the Matrix are consistently portrayed as opposites.

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The other meaning of the rey lava is that we are in the womb of the Earth. The very core, the center. The birth connection is easy enough, I wont draw it out. Ill say this though Kali is the goddess of death and birth combined. That is what the lava cavern is all about. Go watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The core is deadly, but it is also a holy place where humanity is born. There are a number of Native American creation stories that start with the rst people climbing out of a hole in the ground. If you dont understand that metaphor you have no imagination whatsoever. Okay, one more: theres a common mythological theme the re in the belly. Discuss. And then weve got the sex scene. It doesnt take much brain power to realize that the way the movie cuts between the dance scene and the sex scene means that they symbolize the same thing. I cant say it any stronger than this really seals it as far as interpretations go. The main things you have to take away from this are: - They are naked and having sex. Whats important is that they clearly are in love with each other remember, the machines dont comprehend this. Also they are having pretty good sex, which is embracing their animal sides remember, were not in Heaven but on Earth, close to the gates of Hell. Run with that concept a while. - We are confronted with the left-over sockets in their bodies from their years in the Matrix. The camera spends a lot of time showing those sockets. They still have the marks of Heaven, but now they have fallen (remember how Neo fell?) to Earth. They have rejected the Garden, but it frees them into humanity in the Middle Kingdom. [4] Ebert thought this play of African ethnicity in Zion vs. the super-whiteness of the Architect and his chamber conveyed racial themes. I suppose we are to take a Feminist angle and nd exclusionary metaphors here. Well, its a good enough theory. I could probably build a whole criticism around it, except that I dont believe it one single bit. And I nd it depressing and off-putting as well.

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The Oracle
ARCHITECT: If I am the Father of the Matrix, then she would undoubtedly be its Mother. NEO: The Oracle. Those two lines sum up a tremendous amount of the story. But what exactly is the Oracle the mother of? The Architect designed an essentially perfect Matrix in versions 1.0 and 2.0, and both failed. He describes how the answer came from an intuitive program (i.e., the Oracle) the part she contributed that he could not was the Neo factor. Very briey, I want to detour to stamp out the idea that the Oracle is not the Mother. This is as much a wrong interpretation as the Matrix-in-a-Matrix theory is. Mostly, people want to believe that Persephone is the Mother. There are some good reasons why the Oracle is a better choice than Persephone. We can start with her name. The Wachowskis do not pick names at random. They didnt choose the name Neo by accident, and they surely did not choose the name Persephone just because it sounds neat. Persephone is not a mother gure in mythology. Not coincidentally, she is nothing like a mother gure in the movie either. I am not saying Persephone is an unimportant character, but she is denitely not the Mother. The Oracle on the other hand, portrayed so well by the late Gloria Foster, is every bit the mother gure. She gives Neo fresh-baked cookies when he rst meets her, for Petes sake. OK, detour over. I made a quick reference to Kali a while back. She is the goddess of both birth and death that is, she brings death-and-rebirth to the universe. This illuminates the aw in Architects previous Matrices, denes who the Oracle is, and reveals precisely the limit of the machines intelligence (and why the Architect cannot entirely predict Neos behavior; perhaps the Oracle actually can, though). The cycle of death-and-rebirth is equivalent to GROWTH. We can apply that truth to basic physical existence, the death and consumption of another to yield bodily growth[31][5]. We can also take that as a spiritual metaphor. That is, there is no spiritual growth (i.e., becoming fully human and entering the Middle Kingdom) without death and rebirth. The reason the previous Matrices failed was that there was no way for the humans to grow, a need so fundamental that no one would accept the world they were given. Agent Smith, in the rst movie, tells the truth when he says humans dene their world through suffering. Death must come before rebirth. How many times has that progression been shown in these movies so far? This is absolutely central to the theme. Smiths recognition of it is portentous. The fact that the Architect designed two entire Matrices without the capacity for human growth indicates that the machines have little comprehension of

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growth. In fact, they cant grow; they strive instead for static perfection. The only way they have grown so far is in response to human actions. The Oracle knows this, which is why she says the only way forward is together [paraphrased]. She knows that the machines will stagnate without humans to lead them forward. So the Oracle is Kali. She brings death and misery to the world, but also renewal. The Oracle could have prevented a lot of suffering by equipping everyone with better foreknowledge. But if she had done so, none of the main characters would have grown especially, Neo would not have become The One. This is why she says to Neo you have to decide for yourself if Im for you or against you [paraphrasing again]. And it really is not clear, although it seems like in the long run she is pro-human. I suggested that the Oracle may be able to truly predict Neos behavior. She birthed the Neo routine into the Matrix. It is her special child (and perhaps by extension Neo is her child). The Architect doesnt understand it (or Neo). He merely knows the parameters of how it is supposed to function. But if the Oracle gifted growth to the Matrix, then she must understand it (even if she herself cannot do it). To wit, you cannot grow and remain static at the same time. The Architect thinks the Neo routine is a method for maintaining a static system, but it cannot be. Each time the routine runs, the death-and-rebirth cycle repeats, and all of humanity grows up a little more, expressed specically as Neo. By its very nature, by its will to grow, humanity will reject this Matrix too. I think there is something special with this The One business. The Architect and the Merovingian talk about predecessors and previous versions of Neo. I suspect that each time around he (or she!) was a little more powerful, although it might have been unexpressed or undetectable to the machines. We have plenty of Buddhist/Hindu reincarnation clues in these movies, and we can say that each incarnation was the same soul growing toward Enlightenment. In the rst movie, the Oracle tells Neo he is not yet The One. I dont know what youre waiting for, she says. Your next life, maybe. She isnt talking about his fulllment of the death-and-rebirth routine built into the Matrix. She is talking about the continually reincarnated Neo evolving into THE ONE, which is something she knows is bound to happen eventually. In fact, it takes six incarnations to get there. And now we get back to the conclusion about the Architect. The Oracle and the Architect say things to Neo propel him toward enlightenment. What I nd very interesting, too, is that we do not see a single shred of evidence to suggest that the Architect and the Oracle are opposed to each other. The Hindu trinity includes Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Each god has his consort, who reects and compliments the gods own power. So we make a small substitution and replace Shiva with his goddess counterpart, Kali, who is the Oracle. As I men-

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tioned earlier, the Architect is Brahma. They are working together to create the enlightened human being Neo but perhaps also the enlightened machine. And if this trinity holds, then we will need to identify Vishnu as well, but that may have to wait until Revolution. [5] Vegetarians and vegans cannot escape. Whatever you eat was once alive. Even if you pick up what drops from the tree you are interfering in that plants reproductive cycle, which is the same as death. There is no life but through death. Its yucky, and at the same time its why we have religion.

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Agent Smith
The truth about Smith is simple, but the way to get there is a little complicated. Said another way, there are a lot of facets to Smith which are all true but dont sound like each other at all, even though they all add up to the same thing. Basically, Smith is to the machines what Neo is to humanity. Facet #1: Quieting the Mind. Let me start with the standard mountain analogy. A quality mountaineer will tell you that any rock has multiple ascents. Some climbers do better on one ascent, other climbers on another. Its impossible from a logical standpoint to differentiate between ascents. You might state facts like More people prefer this ascent. But that doesnt make it better. So it is with Enlightenment. Its quite difcult in, say, Confucianism to say that a path is evil as long it leads you higher up the mountain. That lesson has to be applied to Smith to see him properly. He is the nemesis of Neo, his arch-enemy, and our traditional modes of thought make us label Neo good and Smith evil. I had this feeling about Darth Maul, too. On the surface he seemed thoroughly evil. But there is no denying that he was powerful, and I always believed The Force to be similar to kung-fu-style enlightenment Jedi and Sith have astounding powers because they have quieted their minds and are attuned to the world around them, which is a very enlightened thing. (Lately we have to stretch this, because Lucas has spoiled our Force by describing it as a blood condition.) Just because Darth Maul got up the mountain through hatred and anger, well, he got up the mountain just the same. Smith is like that, too. He really hates humans, and most of all he hates Neo. What that gains him is clarity. Peace, actually. Smith says to Neo that he has found a purpose, which is a sign that he has reached some level of quietude. When we are searching for a purpose we are pretty ineffectual, but when we can submit ourselves to a higher purpose we respond with increased energy. Facet #2: Heros Journey. Here is some additional evidence that what Smith has been through is equivalent to Neos journey. We dont get to see it, but Smiths longish speech to Neo before their ght scene gives us enough to go on. The chronology is: 1. Neo explodes Smith, which is clearly Smiths death. 2. Somehow, Smith is resurrected from death. 3. Smith spends a lot of time being very disoriented and confused. 4. Smith nds a purpose (i.e., destroying Neo). Step 2 is amazing in its own right. You see, resurrection is a human trait. The machines dont have it. If we take it apart, its a death-and-rebirth cycle the

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fundamental characteristic of biological life. I think the best way to state this is that Smith has awakened to spirituality. He is able now to GROW, to start his path up the mountain. There is a subtext in Steps 2 through 4, however. This is a heros journey in the plainest sense (c.f. Iron John, etc.). So not only is Smith awakened by his resurrection, he immediately starts on a cycle of spiritual growth. This is especially interesting because he starts another heros journey before our eyes. Smith takes over the avatar of Bane and then downloads himself into that guys head. If thats not crossing the threshold of adventure, I dont know what is. (I dont want to lose anyone: Luke Skywalker crosses the threshold when he agrees to go with Ben Kenobi to Alderaan. Neo crosses it when he follows the white rabbit to the club.) For a while Smith-in-the-real-world is disoriented and awkward. He soon gets his bearings and sets off on his quest which is to stab Neo in the back with a knife. Sidenote time: I had some email exchanges with [34]senteniment@NOhotmail.SPAMcom (who really schooled me about [35]The Animatrix), in which I started to get into the psychology of Smith wanting to kill Neo. This is a little dark, so skip to the next paragraph if youre squeamish. Murderers in general are doing an act of possession. They kill what they want to become. This is mythologically born out by way of hunting, killing, and consuming. Sioux and other plainsfolk would typically consume parts of their kills on the spot in order to absorb their powers, e.g., eating the still-beating heart of a freshly slain buffalo. Cannibalism is an expression of the same thing the cannibal eats another human being to gain his power. (See Ravenous for a yucky-but-good treatment.) There are many hunter-gatherer rituals which embody this act, and although they seem creepy to our sanitized Western palates, they speak to the core of what it is to live. Its Oroboros, the world-serpent eating its own tail. Facet #3: Growing Programmatically. This is how we get to what is probably the most central facet of Smiths character. The capability for growth that Neo instilled in Smith or wait, this is mysterious; Neo obviously did not resurrect Smith, so who did? Its positively religious to contemplate it is probably the factor that throws Smith into a bout of confusion. How to grow? Machines dont know how. Finally, Smith gured out that replication is growth. And, you know, Smith would be the one to gure this out. He spent perhaps hundreds of years studying human beings and their viral nature. You cant logically dene growth without replication, even if its only at the cellular level. That is interesting, because it means Smiths behavior is like rudimentarily life forms. Hes just learning how to be a growing being. He will learn fast (youll see). Rewind a little to my conversations with [36]senteniment. By the time that discussion took place, I had already made this note, but its the rst time I said it

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publicly: recall what Smith said to Morpheus in the rst movie, and you will understand what is remarkable about Smiths viral replication. When he was torturing Morpheus for the codes to Zion [37][6], Smith talked about humans as a virus on the Earth. But his tone during that rant was one of disgust, revulsion...you got the impression that humans ought to be wiped out based on their revolting nature. Thats Smith. He is utterly sickened by human beings and their what? rampant replication! Smith has become what he hates most, which is to say he is like humans now. And he blames Neo for that, all the while using it like its going out of style (how can he help it?). Facet #4: Smith the Hacker. How is it that nobody noticed what a hacker Smith has become? The virus infection routines are magic. (Its not cracker this time. Let it go.) An audience of geeks would, presumably, see Smith as a fantastic Gibsonesque consensual-reality cowboy, just like...hmm...Neo! I dont know why this wasnt more widely understood. Smith is hacking like crazy, which makes him Loki just like Neo is. Not only is Smith hacking the Matrix, he is hacking reality by downloading avatars of himself into real human beings, and seemingly hacking their brains. The reference to Snow Crash is unavoidable, which only bolsters the hacker concept. HOLY...wait a minute. Hacking their brains?! Here is where people really fall off the wagon, but I think it gets extremely interesting. There was a comment on [38]Slashdot about how unlikely it was that Smith would be able to hack somebodys brain and download a copy of himself, because the formats would be incompatible (or something like that). Well, lets just assume its possible. Why havent other agents done this? Because they are incompatible. Smith, on the other hand, has become compatible. We could start an entire book with that line. Instead, lets sum up in two points: - The machines and humans have a LOT more in common than meets the eye. - Smith marks the emergence of a type of program/machine that lives by the same rules as humans do, which means there is a common point of understanding. In other words, they can live together. This is really serious evidence about where the entire [40]story arc is going, and plays quite well into what the Oracle had to say about going into the future together. This makes me wonder if the Oracle can predict Smith and his behavior. I am genuinely uncertain, but I lean toward yes. The only reason I say so is that it would lend a truly metaphysical bent to the story, and you would have to sit back and wonder, Now how could she know that? and get this basic sense of awe that an unseen hand was guiding everything all along. It makes the trilogy have a really epic quality. Facet #5: Neos Mirror. All of these facets so far get to the principle issue that

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Smith is a mirror image of Neo. In a simplistic story-sense, all that means is that Smiths negative reection of Neo serves merely to highlight Neos character in various ways. That is true, but not hardly the whole package. (It is a mark of good storytelling for there to be multiple levels of functionality like this.) Lets line up some of their features side-by-side. Neo Killed by Smith, then resurrected On a quest (to the Source) Motivated by love Has growing supernatural powers Has transcended the system Hacks the Matrix, then hacks reality Smith Killed by Neo, then resurrected On a quest (to destroy Neo) Motivated by hate Has growing supernatural powers Has transcended the system Hacks the Matrix, then hacks reality I could go on for a while with the duality. It goes way back into the rst movie (albeit with different symbols), and I expect it to be amplied greatly in Revolution. I think much of this mirror quality points directly at the [41]story arc. Ill deal with it in that section. There is a really easy way to see the Neo-Smith mirror from a criticism viewpoint, and that is to call them the same character. That is, the fact that they are nemeses means that Neo (because he is the protagonist) is actually in conict with himself. This is a good approach. Recall Seraph, who fought Neo apparently to a draw! and said You never truly know someone until you ght him. Uh, what did Neo and Smith do upon their rst meeting? Yeah. Add to that Smiths murderous intent toward Neo (i.e., possession, which means

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knowing). If Smith can been seen as a splinter of Neos psyche, the part of Neo trying to know himself, that boosts the theme of Neos journey to Enlightenment substantially. Dont get too sidelined by that last bit, though. It is right from a symbolic perspective, but in order to see the plot implications you have to do this thought experiment: I said we should see Smith as an indicator of Neos character because Neo is the protagonist. But why is he the protagonist? We dont know the whole story yet. So lets assume that Smith is the protagonist, or maybe that Neo and Smith are both protagonists against...the Architect? It could be. Look at how Neo illuminates Smiths character. Smith is really out there from a certain standpoint. He is compelled to disobey the Matrix-system, exactly as Neo disobeys the Matrix-system. Zionites idolize Neo, but who among machines is in favor of Smith? If Smith is the savior of machines the way Neo is the savior of humanity, then the machines are in for an awfully big shake-up. [6] What amazing evidence that not all of the machines are working in concert. The agents are there to protect the static continuance of the Matrix. They do not serve the Architect directly. In fact, the Architect is practically Deist in his noninvolvement. He made the place, but doesnt have anything much to do with running it day-to-day. This also brings up the very interesting fact that servants of the Merovingian (i.e., the twins) attacked agents when they showed up, so the Merovingian has nothing to do with the maintenance of the Matrix in general. [42][ Back ] [7] Neo is crossing this boundary as well. His statement that he can feel the approaching sentinels likely means he is bridging the gap to the machines as much as Smith is bridging the gap to humanity.

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Story arc
Here is a general arc summary so far: 01 is born. 01 wants to coexist with humanity, and offers such. This plays with Genesis perfectly. Remember, 01 is God. (I think thats profound, and even moving.) Heres how Genesis gets into it, in the classical interpretation: there is a simple good and a complex good as described by C. S. Lewis. The simple good would be for humans to accept what God tells them and live accordingly. The complex good is that humans reject God, learn why they were wrong, and then come back to God in the end. The highlight is that complex good is more good than simple good. Nothings more human than that, if you ask me. Humanity rejects 01s offer of coexistence i.e., the complex cycle begins. Humanity in its hubris thinks it can wipe out God by blackening the sky. Among metaphors in contemporary literature and lm, there are few that can match this one for elegance and meaning. The sky is Heaven, and so this is an assault upon Heaven. Wow. - The assault on Heaven fails, and humanity is cast into the pit. Okay, metaphors aside, the humans lose a war against the machines and are subjugated. Several iterations of the Matrix are tried, and nally one is devised that allows humans to grow (so they wont reject it). In large part, the machines dont understand the growth aspect of the Matrix and ght it. The Oracle, who helped design Matrix 3.0, ruminates on her creation for a while and realizes that it will eventually lead to humans that can transcend the Matrix. (In heroic fashion, whomever transcends the Matrix can bring that gift back to society and they all benet from it.) She sees as well that this transcendence is necessary if machines are to evolve at all. In the complicated relationship between man and machine, she sees that humanitys evolution benets both sides, and will help bring about machine evolution. Neo 1.0 arrives on the scene, chooses rebirth for Zion, and the cycle begins again. Neo 6.0 arrives on the scene, chooses Trinity, and begins the Revolution (i.e., the transition to a new world order). The choice is signicant because trinity equals godhood. This is one of the most complex, meaningful themes I have ever encountered in a work of ction. Humanity

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IDPH achieved simple godhood by creating beings in its own image. It will achieve complex godhood by reuniting with its estranged children. At the same time, so will machines.

Now we are in unknown territory. What follows is pure conjecture but I think it follows rationally from my analysis: Neo and Smith are two superentities from opposite sides streaking toward the same conclusion. They will both achieve some kind of Enlightenment together (this could be together in the sense of revealed while they are ghting each other). I say opposite sides because the END product of the trilogy will be a NEW WORLD of humans and machines moving forward into the future together. Heaven and Earth will come together. The old systems will be broken down. They have to be. Humanity will return to the surface. Matrix 3.0 will be deleted, and quite likely Matrix 4.0 will be in the works, but this time it does not enslave but liberate. Dollars to donuts the sun breaks through the dark clouds. That would be 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. All the parties that stand to lose something by the breaking of the system will be out in force in Revolution. The Merovingian and his minions will be back. The agents will be back. Expect some unexpected alliances between humans and machines, especially near the end of Revolution. The Oracle will not be fully revealed or explained. Probably neither will the Architect. They are gods, after all. The conceptual barriers between the real world and the Matrix will be eroded as if it isnt already. But also the heightened man-machine interaction in the Matrix will be expressed more in the real world (a la Neos power over the sentinels). More bullet-time.

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Slashdot
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=80039&cid=7062199 Zion is a program, just like the Matrix. How is Neo able to gure out that he is able to stop the sentinels in Zion near the end of the lm? The spoon given to him earlier. It had obviously been bent loads, but how outside the Matrix? This gave Neo the inspiration and the understanding that Zion is still a matrix.

The One explained

The One is a program, but has to be attached to someone in the Matrix. So Mr. Anderson got it in the 6th version of the Matrix. Then The One programs purpose is to allow Zion to be destroyed then to rebuild it. The reason for this is because of anomalies the 1% of humans that dont accept the Matrix. These are all brought out of the Matrix program and into the Zion program by the Morpheus program and other similar ship captain programs. Then once all the anomalies are out of the Matrix (and in Zion), that is the time for Zion to be destroyed, thus killing all the anomalies off. The Matrix is then upgraded, thus creating the next version of the Matrix, but Zion must be rebuilt so that the next lot of anomalies can be brought out again so that they can be destroyed. This is the feedback-loop, and is the reason to retain a handful of people so that Zion can be rebuilt. So this is why Neo said the prophecy was a lie the Ones purpose was not to end the war as the prophecy stated. Unfortunately, The One program must be re-used each time, or copied, so it can be attached to a new anomaly inside the Matrix. So what happens to the old The One program? It faces deletion, and as the Oracle explained, it goes into exile instead, just like the French bloke (the Merovingian) did. He was the rst One (probably from the second version of the Matrix), and once he fullled his duty, he became an exile program and abdicated his Oneness by choosing Persephone and power. This is evident in the bogs when Persephone asks Neo to kiss her. She says she wants him to kiss her so she can feel what it is like again to be kissed by something close to human, just like the Merovingian used to be. Then she says to Trinity that she envies her, but that these things are not meant to last. So the Merovingian used to be just like Neo a One thus proving further the feedback-loop explained earlier. The correct door in the Architects room Now there are two possibilities here: 1. All the previous Ones chose the right door allowing a temporary dissemination of their code into the Matrix (i.e., the code they carry thus

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IDPH indicating Neo is indeed human), then he must select (unplug) 23 people from the Matrix to rebuild Zion. This takes away the possibility that stories from previous rebuilds of Zion will be carried through. But Morpheus indicated in the rst Matrix that this is the case anyway. He said, there was a man born inside, able to change things, it was he who freed the rst of us, basically the One previous to Neo. And this proves that the previous One chose the right door also. Neos purpose is also to choose the right door, but he does not because he faces deletion afterwards and has the choice of going into exile programs choosing to go into exile is the one thing that cant be accounted for in program parameters. Thus, he chooses the left door instead this time. How was Neo able to choose the other door? Because of his extreme willpower? Even the Architect indicated that hed noticed this Interesting. That was quicker than the others. Or more likely, because the Oracle upgraded his coding with the candy on the park bench. The candy/cookie was a method to change the Ones program. She said he has made a believer out of her this is quite human-like and perhaps the previous Ones didnt accept the upgrade candy, now she has hope... hope that Neo will nally choose the other door. 2. All the previous Ones chose the left door, saving Trinity and letting Zion fall. So this time is no different. But the Architect does say, You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated, and also, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it, and we have become exceedingly efcient at it, assuming the Architect isnt lying, then they have already destroyed Zion (i.e., Zion has fallen) ve times i.e., the result of going through the left door.

Morpheus and Trinity are programs. Morpheuss purpose was to nd the One and deliver him to the Architect. Trinitys purpose is to control the One by getting in love with him. Trinity is supposed to be the mother of the new One every time the Matrix is Reloaded. Thats why the sex scene was so important and why she was named Trinity. The Architect says, she is going to die, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it. He was correct though because she did die just like Neo did in the rst Matrix (Oracle said he or Morpheus would, and she didnt lie, but he came back to life). Trinity dies, but comes back to life (we are using medical denition of death in all this of course!). The Architect has already laid down an ultimatum for Neo choosing the left door: The Architect Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic

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system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix, which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race. Neo You wont let it happen, you cant. You need human beings to survive. The Architect There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world. Looking at this further, the Architect does say coupled with the extermination of Zion will the human race be exterminated. So he says everyone connected to the Matrix will die, but if Zion is not exterminated, the human race will not necessarily die. Also, there is likely to be a time-window between not going through the right door, and the cataclysmic crash, thus allowing Neo to unplug as many as possible from the Matrix, then those people wont die. This will be the start of the next Zion. As for the Matrix, a cataclysmic crash doesnt mean the end of the Matrix just needs rebooting or reloading!

Agent Smith explained:

Agent Smith is the only human in this world. Hes the one spreading himself like a virus replicating himself over and over until the Matrix will nally get overloaded and fail. Smith is the one who wants to get out of the Matrix for good. He said so in the rst Matrix, I must get out of here, I must get free! And in this mind, is the key, squeezing Morpheuss temples, my key! Once Zion is destroyed, there is no need for me to be here! Smith knows that by killing Neo he can escape the Matrix because Neo is the key to resetting the Matrix, or to shut it off. It was originally killing Neo (in the rst Matrix) that allowed Smith to become powerful (cloning ability) so killing Neo again will allow him to gain Neos powers completely, and thus gain the power to shut down the Matrix. So where the **** did Smith come from if he wants to destroy the Matrix? Hes obviously not meant to be there hes a computer virus as he has every characteristic of a virus he multiplies and spreads and infects (and emulates) other programs like one. He is exactly as he described humans at the end of the rst Matrix You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. But who put him there? This will only be revealed in Revolutions (Revelations?) I guess but Im betting on humans in the real real world, i.e., outside of Zion

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and the Matrix. Theyre at war with the machines and trying to destroy them by infecting them with this virus Agent Smith. So the irony with this theory is that Agent Smith represents the human race!! Neo represents the machines! Agent Smith says to Neo just after hes seen the Oracle that he became free when Neo destroyed him in the rst Matrix (remember when Neo entered his body and exploded him from inside out) as a virus, Smith has the ability to inherit other programs abilities and thus inherited some of Neos.

The anomaly explained:

The anomaly is all the humans that do not accept the Matrix. The Architect says Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden to sedulously avoid it, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. This includes Neo, but Neos Matrix avatar is attached with the One program so that he can follow his purpose as explained earlier under The One explained. However, he is also supposed to protect himself and destroy anything that gets in his way i.e., Agent Smith so that he may fulll his purpose. Further proving Neo and other non-accepters of the Matrix are the anomaly, the Architect says, Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. The clue here is Neos program name The One. Take one-third for example. 1 over 3 is 0.33333 recurring. A computer cannot deal with recurring numbers, so must accept a limit, lets say 0.33333 for arguments sake. Multiply by 3, you get 0.99999 never 1.00000, where has the remainder 0.00001 (One) gone? This is the limitation of computers, this is the mathematical imprecision inherent in programming (of the Matrix) and the eventuality of the One anomaly unable to be eliminated.

What is the equation then?

Not sure, but it denitely involves pi. The Keymaker refers to the window of time to open the door to the mainframe as 314 seconds. 3.14 is pi to three sig. gs., or the number of radians in half a circle. Half a circle is like the crosssection of a womb, similar to the alcove of Neo and Trinitys love scene conceiving the next One? NEO, incidentally, is an anagram of ONE. Trinity and Neo one on one; a choice one or one. Leads us to 101. 101 is mentioned numerous times in Matrix 1 and Reloaded. Neos room at the beginning, Merovingian is on the 101st oor, the 101 freeway of the car chase in Reloaded, then when Trinity is hacking into the power plant system, she resets the pass-

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word to Z10N0101. Freaky. Indicates that she is a program because thats not some random password shes put in. 101 is binary for 5, which in zero-based binary counting: 000 is 1, 001, is 2, 010 is 3, 011 is 4, 100 is 5, 101 is 6 And this is the 6th version of the Matrix! Then there are 303. 303 is the room Neo got shot in Matrix 1, the Oracle lives in room 303, its also the hotel room number Trinity is in Matrix 1 and its seen at the end when Neo ghts the Agents and Smith and begins to literally see the code that makes up the Matrix. 101 x 3 = 303, a trilogy, 3 + 0 + 3 = 6 = the 6th Matrix. Trinity means 3.

Who is the mother that the Architect refers to?

The Architect says, Please, in an almost disapproving sense when Neo suggests the Oracle, but does not reveal who it really is or even directly that Neo is wrong. The architect was the one who created the Matrix; the co-creator is neither Persephone nor the Oracle. Both of them are only programs that have a purpose in the matrix, just like the rest. The Architect is in charge of the Matrix world and the co-creator is in charge of Zion. She has almost the same age as the Architect. Therefore, that woman is the Head Counselor, the only woman of importance that lives in Zion and the one who asked for the two captains to volunteer at the council meeting. Shes the one who knew all along about the Matrix. She was the one who told Zions Defense Minister to cool off and to let Morpheus do his work so things could go as planned. Or alternatively, it could indeed be the Oracle. She is the only program that truly wants humans to have a free choice... at the same time, she sees the future, because she knows the program code she is like God which is why Seraph protects her see Who is Seraph? below.

Whats so special about Neos avatar?

Neo is a skilled hacker, and his avatar in the Matrix is based on the person that founded the AI of the original machines that eventually took over the world... How? Take a look at the disc he gave to the bloke at the door at the beginning of Matrix 1. It said DISC AI on it. The hollowed book Neo takes the disc out of is Simulacra and Simulation a collection of essays by the French postmodernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard. He opens it to the section on Nihilism (meaning nothing is truly known, etc.). Baudrillards concept of simulation is the creation of the real through conceptual or mythological models which have no connection or origin in reality. The model becomes the determinant of our perception of reality the real. And Morpheus says, Welcome to the desert of the real, in Matrix 1. Id say this book describes The Matrix to a tee. So this disc contains the key to the AI, and thus how to destroy the machines, so

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I think theyll use this info in Revolutions to ultimately destroy the machines, which means hell have to go back to the nightclub and nd the guy he gave it to.

Who is Seraph?
The reason Seraph (the guy Neo meets before meeting the Oracle) had golden code and was so spectacular is that he came from the rst incarnation of the matrix, which was heaven. Seraph is singular for the plural seraphim. The seraphim are the highest choir of angels and included amongst others: Lucifer, Gabriele, Raziel and Malaciah, and they sit on the 8th level of Heaven just one below God. So Seraph will obviously have a big part in Revolutions, but whose side will he be on the machines or the humans? That is the question.

The Twins
They are exiled programs that emulate the human myth of ghosts as the Oracle explained. They are programs behaving badly. Persephone killed one of the Merovingians bodyguards with a silver bullet because he was emulating a werewolf. So if the Twins could phase into ghost form, why didnt he when his arm was trapped in the door of the garage? Was it because he was wounded or because he cant phase when his arm is trapped? No of course not. The doors of that building, when shut, always led somewhere else (usually in the mountains) when opened again without the Keymakers key. So if it were slammed shut due to the Twin phasing into ghost form, the Twins arm wouldve ended up god knows where, but certainly not attached to the Twins body.

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The Matrix Explained

by mikejwash@sbcglobal.net http://www.snowtavle.com/archive/000208.php Here we go with the basics.

Zion is real! The Matrix is not.

The Matrix was designed to provide a mental stimulus for the human bodies connected to the machines as a source of power. This is the sixth version of the Matrix. There have been multiple versions of the Matrix because of a aw in the program (kinda of like Windows). That aw is giving individuals the ability to choose. The rst Matrix was designed as a perfect uptopia (see pt. I Smith explains it to Morpheus; pt. II The Architect explains it again) but humans did not accept it as real so they just kept waking up. It was redesigned to reect our civilization at its last stage before it was taken over by the machines (the year 1999). The Architects problem with this new design (the anomoly)of the Matrix is that it require individuals to think freely, i.e. choice. It was the Oracle that suggested he redesign the Matrix in this way. But since humans have choices, so must the programs sent to watch over them, i.e. The Agents, thus bringing us the problem that is Mr. Smith. In Reloaded, The Architect continues to speak of the anomoly he is unable to get rid of, which is why at some point, he feels the only solution is to destroy the Matrix and those who are aware of it (the people of Zion) and start from scratch again. The Oracle says it clearly in Revolutions. Mr. Smith is the result of the anomoly trying to balance itself. Mr. Smith began to think freely (see part I where he is freaking out while interrogating Morpheous) and the result was a negative one. Realize this, he is a similar program to the One so he is far more dangerous than a normal individual who makes bad decisions. Mr. Smiths virus like behavior happened in EVERY VERSION OF THE MATRIX. The result would always lead to the same thing a system crash if they didnt quickly reboot the system. The same knee jerk reaction you have when you realize someone has sent you a virus. The One program was created to solve this problem. But each version of the One ultimately failed. Neo is different, in Reloaded he choose the door that led to Trinity, not the door that RESETS the program. Note: The Architect even noticed that Neos experience in the Matrix was different than all the rest, realizing

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Onto Revolutions
Neos choice has changed everything. The system is still threatened by Smiths behavior, so the Oracle makes a new choice; one she has never done before because no version of the One has ever chosen the difcult path as opposed to easy one of just resetting the system. She allows herself to become merged with Smith in the HOPE that shell be able to help Neo when the time is right. Neo makes another unique choice. He goes to the machines and asks for PEACE as opposed to simply destroying the system by going through the opposite door as all other versions of the One did. It was a simple as that to save Zion. Machines dont need very long to process that this may be a better idea than just constantly resetting the system. At the end, Smith says to Neo the movies tagline - Everything that has a beginning has an end, as the Oracle is speaking to Neo through Smith. Neo realizes it all along, the only way to end this is to sacrice himself. The Oracle noted that Neo and the Source (the computer mainframe, the Architect theyre all one and the same so dont get confused) are connected which is why he can control machines outside the Matrix. He uses this connection to his advantage. He becomes a Mr. Smith and since all the Smiths are connected, the Source now has a lock on Smith and simply deletes him. Pretty simple huh?

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