Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> > http://www.wylfing.net/essays/

>   I think those essays about the two latter movies of the trilogy are
> really insightful.

  After reading those essays, using mostly ideas from it, I imagined a
possible history as established by the Matrix trilogy. Much of it has
quite strong philosophical and spiritual tones, like the movies (and the
essays) have.

  At an unspecified time a powerful machine gains consciousness, awareness
of itself. After numerous events a war between humans and machines erupts.
Humans try to destroy the machines, but they fail. The machines win.

  Consciousness and self-awareness is not without its side-effects on the
machines. They realize that humans have something machines do not. Humanity
can grow, move forward, slowly "ascend" to a higher level of consciousness,
spirituality so to speak. This "growth" is not only about technology and
knowledge, it's something more. The machines, which are soulless immortal
beings, cannot comprehend what it is. They realize, however, that they are
doomed to stagnation, to live an eternity of meaningless existence, if they
cannot move forward, if they cannot grow. They want what humans have and
what machines don't have. In philosophical and spiritual terms, they want
a soul, but they don't understand it.

  While some machines disagree and would be just fine with static stagnation,
the "boss" machines decide that they want to tap into this mysterious "soul"
humans have ("bioenergy" they call it). Part of this "energy" seems to be
formed of emotions (again something which machines can describe but cannot
really comprehend). In order to tap into this source of mysterious energy
they need the humans to live and feel and have emotions, which cannot happen
if they are mere prisoners. Of course letting people just go and live is
not an option, for they would just rebel again, and it would also be quite
harder to tap into them.

  So they create this virtual world called the Matrix where humans can live
normal lives for all they know, without knowing about the machines or the
real state of the world.

  The Architect is created to design this world. The Oracle is created to
study humans and their behavior and to try to understand what is it that
they have, what is it that allows them to grow.

  The Architect, as a virtually perfect machine, cannot comprehend humanity.
To the Architect everything must be logical, predictable, controlled and,
ultimately, static.

  Since the reason to create the Matrix in the first place is to allow
humans to live normal lives, he does a perfect job at designing it: The
simulated world is a perfect utopia where everything is just perfect,
where people can live perfect lives and nobody has any problems.

  After an unspeficied amount of time (decades, perhaps centuries), the
experiment just fails. People just start dying regardless of this perfect
utopia. The Architect deduces, probably with the aid of the Oracle, that
something inherent to human beings, something inherent to the human "soul",
cannot stand perfection, that there's something in perfection that stops
humanity from growing, that humanity needs imperfection, suffering and
grief as part of the growing process. Total perfection means stagnation,
it means that humanity will be static and will never move forward.

  So the Architect designs a new version of the Matrix which is the total
opposite of the previous version: The new version is a dystopia, full of
imperfections, suffering and pain. This dystopia has, among other things,
monsters like werewolves and vampires, as mentioned in the movies.

  This version fails too.

  The Oracle, who has now been studying human nature, probably for several
centuries, has gained deep insight into the reasons. The ultimate problem
seems to be the total lack of freedom of will, the total lack of choice.
Giving the illusion of choice in a virtual reality is not true choice,
giving the illusion of freedom of will is not the same thing as freedom
of will. There's something inherent to the human "soul" that needs true
freedom, needs true capacity for choice. Simulated illusions are not
enough. The human "soul" rebels against such an artificial life using the
only mean it can: By dying. (People don't die because they want to die,
it's not a conscious act, but something inherent in their "soul" just
cannot stand stagnation and lack of freedom, and just dies.)

  So the Architect, with the help of the Oracle, designs a third version
of the Matrix, the one seen in the movies. It's not an utopia nor a
dystopia, but something in between. There are imperfections and suffering,
but there are also good things. But most importantly, true freedom of
choice (not just simulated one) is offered. Some people can be given the
option to "take the red pill" and make a true choice. They can truely rebel
and set themselves free. They can truely opt to disobey, to not to be told
what to do and how to live their lives.

  In other words, the Architect deliberately designs holes into the system
which can be abused to actually escape the Matrix. Any human who comes to
the realization that something is wrong, can be given the true choice of
escaping, the true choice of rebelling against the system.

  This system ultimately causes the creation of (the first version of)
"The One", which is some kind of culmination of humanity's freedom of
choice, humanity's will to be independent and to survive and grow. It's not
clear whether the Architect knew about this possibility and just allowed
it to happen or whether it was a surprise to him, but the Oracle most
probably knew this outcome when she helped designing this third version
of the Matrix, and most probably she wanted this to happen because she
was gaining a lot of insight into humanity and what is it that makes it
grow, and she wanted to let humanity do that.

  "The One" is a human with a higher level of consciousness (whatever
that may mean). The first "One" was just an anomality in the system,
and eventually his knowledge was simply reintegrated into the system.
Eventually a second "One" was born, and a third and so on, probably each
one more powerful than the previous ones. The sixth "One" is the one we
see in the movies. The sixth "One" was different from the previous ones,
and ultimately caused a revolution which changed the relationship between
humans and machines, and a fourth, better version, of the Matrix to be
designed, with a lot more freedom of choice.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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