From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun May 25 2003 - 21:18:21 MDT
--- Ramez Naam <mez@apexnano.com> wrote:
> Major spoilers below. I analyze the movie in detail. I make
> predictions about the next movie. Read at your own peril.
> |
I'm gonna spoil some of Mez' spoilers, cause there is a lot I disagree
with. I just got home from seeing the movie, and here is what I
think...
> |
> |
> |
>
> Okay, I saw this a second time. Here's what I think is going on.
>
> First of all, I reject the idea of a matrix within the matrix. Zion
> is in base reality. I believe this for reasons Brian Atkins has
> already posted and also for the following meta-reasons:
>
> Such a plot resolution would not be satisfying to most of the
> Matrix's audience.
Satsifying the Matrix's audience is not important. "The Matrix" is a
luddite memetic program to root for the Zionist cause, and therefore to
prepare them to support luddism and the luddite agenda of preventing a
technological singularity.... As this becomes more clear, the movies
depend more on special effects to numb the minds of the audience.
>
>
> I believe the real them of Reloaded and of the resolution of the
> story
> in Revolutions is symbiosis between man and machine. At the end of
> Revolutions the humans and some machines will both be alive and on
> their way to co-existing in some positive-sum way.
This may be the ultimate result, and if it is, I take back my previous
statement. The problem with this is the background philosophy of
control prevalent in the movie. "Choice is an illusion created between
the powerful and the powerless." This machiavellian outlook is an
essential component of socialist dialectic and revolutionary theory.
It appears that the Architect and the Oracle have different agendas.
The Oracle may believe in a coexistence solution. The only coexistence
solution the Architect believes in is one in which humans are
subservient. The Oracle knows this, which is why she uses Neo AND the
Architect to her own ends. The Architect thinks he knows the Oracle,
and thinks he is using her to his ends.
>
> There are a couple important conversations in Reloaded about
> symbiosis:
>
> 1) The Oracle says "I care about the future. And the only way to get
> there is *together*."
>
> 2) The councilor talks to Neo about the codependence of the humans in
> Zion and their machines.
>
> Okay, that's the resolution the plot is heading for. Now, here are
> some details of what I think is going on with Neo, the past Ones, the
> Architect, etc..
If this is the resolution of the plot, then the Wachowskis are intent
on taking what they see as an essentially luddite/humanist audience and
hauling them halfway to acceptance of the Singularity.
>
> 1) Neo is indeed the 6th entity called "the One" in the Matrix,
> though he is also different from the past entities. Evidence:
>
> 1a) Smith says "it's happening just as before" when he sees Neo
> kick the butts of the three agents at the beginning. Then Smith #2
> shows up and says "well, not quite". This indicates to me that Smith
> has been around in past versions of the Matrix. But in past versions
> of the Matrix, Smith has never broken free and gained the ability to
> duplicate himself. This is also consistent with Smith telling Neo
> "you did something I thought wasn't possible, you destroyed me".
> That had never happened to Smith in his battles with previous Ones.
> They'd beaten him, but never as deeply. Smith has now gone rogue in
> the Matrix. He says "I knew the rules, I knew what I was supposed
> to do, but I didn't. I stayed."
Smith is an anti-virus program that failed in his core function, became
perveted by the virus called Neo, and now runs amok in the Matrix,
assimilating other individuals and programs and replicating himself in
them. What changed in him was that in seeing that Neo can break the
rules of the Matrix, he can too. His new subconcious goal is no
different from his original goal, he is simply freed from restrictions
in achieving it. He therefore has concluded that the only way to
protect everyone from the luddites (Neo in particular) is to assimilate
everybody they come into contact with.
>
> 1b) The Merovingian tells Neo "I survived your predecessors",
> which indicates past One's. But he also says "your predecessors had
> more respect", which indicates a difference between Neo and previous
> Ones.
This is naturally the result of Neo being a different 'remainder
function' than past One's because the equations of this Matrix are
different than past Matrices.
>
> 1c) The Architect of course tells Neo that there have been
> previous Ones, but he also at one points says "interesting. you
> figured that out faster than the others" which indicates again that
> Neo is different.
>
> 1d) Also, if the Architect gave past Ones a choice similar to
> Neo's, and we believe what the Architect is saying, the past Ones
> *must* have chosen to return to the source, pick a few people from
> Zion, and re-create it. Otherwise humanity would now be extinct. But
> Neo chose differently, again pointing out a difference between him
> and past Ones.
>
> 2) Neo has his powers in the Matrix because the compromise in this
> version of the Matrix is that humans must be able to at least
> subconsciously choose whether or not to accept the Matrix. Neo is
> one of the very rare individuals who can partially accept it and
> partially
> reject it, allowing him to bend its rules of physics. The existence
> of such individuals is an unfortunate but inevitable side effect of
> giving people a subconscious choice. And giving people a
> subconscious
> choice is, as the Architect tells us, the only technique found so far
> that gets such a large number of humans to accept the Matrix.
Yes, most people, given a choice, will choose the choice they have been
memetically programmed to choose. Those that do not are cast out,
either killed off by Agent Smith and his colleagues, or else rescued by
the Zionists.
Neo was engineered to fulfill the position of the remainder function.
Because it is a remainder, he posesses more than the single integer
capabilities of a standard human.
>
> This is basically straight out of the Architect's speech, but makes
> more sense in the second viewing.
>
> 3) The Architect believes that the warping effect on the Matrix of
> either Neo ignoring so many physical laws or perhaps side effects of
> that will result in the complete violation of the Matrix's rules and
> a crash of the entire simulation. That is why the Architect tells
> Neo that if he goes back into the Matrix without first going to the
> Source
> and having his code disseminated, he will cause a crash in the system
> that will kill everyone human plugged into the Matrix. This is again
> straight out of the Architect's speech, but makes more sense in the
> context of why Neo has his powers (see #2, above).
Keep in mind that the Architect serves his own ends. What he tells Neo
may or may not be the truth, or even the whole truth, just as the
Oracle, in Matrix I, tells Neo only what he needed to know to become
The One (i.e. that he wasn't it).
>
> 4) The Architect will be found to be wrong. Neo is more special than
> the previous Ones, and either his greater power or greater control of
> his powers or something else special about him will allow him to
> avoid
> that total crash. Instead he will liberate the humans plugged into
> the Matrix without causing all their deaths.
The architect is wrong only because he doesn't realize that Neo will
deduce the fact of 'reality' outside the Matrix, that it is, itself, a
simulation, as evidenced by the fact that people killed inside the
Matrix die in reality outside of it. This should not be so. They should
only die in reality if that reality is itself a simulation, a sort of
buffer area intent on catching up individuals who escape "The Matrix".
It is a 'honey pot', not the real root reality.
>
> 5) It seems plausible to me that Persephone really is the "intuitive
> program created to investigate human emotions" that the Architect
> talks about. The Oracle is definitely not it based on his reaction.
> I think the whole "Mother of the Matrix" thing is a bit over hyped.
> The intuitive program just basically made the realization that if
> humans plugged into the Matrix had a subconscious choice about
> participation, more of them would accept the illusion. The Architect
> is still the one who built the Matrix and put that attribute into the
> system.
I'm not sure. At this point, it seems to me that the Oracle is indeed
the Mother. How exactly Persephone fits in is not entirely clear,
though her exploration of Neo's kissing skills does hint at this
possibility.
>
> 6) Smith is very simple. He is a program that has served as an Agent
> for several versions now. In that role he (and the other agents) had
> limited access to information. They were not omnipotent over the
> Matrix as a whole, clearly. In any case, once some of Neo's code
> imprinted on him, Smith has gained the ability to replicate. He
> hopes
> to use that ability to completely take over the Matrix, and then
> eventually use that to take over the AIs computing power as well.
> His
> replication ability is something that has not been seen in any
> previous version of the Matrix, and so he represents another wildcard
> that the Architect has not previously dealt with.
>
> 7) Neo was able to stop the robots at the end because he's touched
> the source and is somehow still connected to it. Exactly how isn't
> clear.
> Maybe all the humans have wireless hardware. Maybe some friendly
> program like the Oracle had the wireless hardware implanted in Neo's
> brain while he was still in the Matrix. Maybe Neo is a genetic freak
> whose brain serves as a transmitter and receiver. Don't know. But
> everything is consistent with him using his connection to the
> software world to force the robots themselves to self-destruct.
Notice that he says "Wait, something is different." This is the same
line he uses in the first movie when they are in the building and were
betrayed by Mr. Reagan to Agent Smith, when Neo notices the cat going
by twice... He notices that reality has been looped after the
Nebuchadnezzar has been bombed and they are fleeing the Sentinels.
>
> So next movie it will be revealed that both Neo and Smith are
> unique phenomena not seen in past versions of the Matrix. Neo will
> defeat Smith (possibly incorporating some of his code) and will go on
> to liberate the humans plugged into the Matrix, avoid a complete
> crash of the Matrix, and catalyze a positive symbiosis between the
> humans and some computers (perhaps by going into the Source and
> kicking ass).
I think that Smith is now an outlaw program intent on assimilating and
running copies of himself on all humans as a means of fulfilling his
prime function (subconciously of course).
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
Blog: Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.blogspot.com
Flight sims: http://www.x-plane.org/users/greendragon/
Pro-tech freedom discussion:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/exi-freedom
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