And lo on Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:42:48 -0000, Bill Pragnell  
<bil### [at] hotmailcom> did spake, saying:

> Phil Cook wrote:
>> And lo on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:11:44 -0000, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg>  
>> did spake, saying:
>>
>>> Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>>> Plausible. But then, why not just manipulate the laws of physics so  
>>>> the
>>>> man goes flying without having to physically kick him? :-D (Or better
>>>> yet, make it so all the oxygen in the room mysteriously vanishes...)
>>>
>>>   It sounds plausible also with the overly long jumps: They just can't
>>> manipulate the system to transport them to the roof of the other  
>>> building.
>>> They have to trigger the physics simulation by making an actual jump,  
>>> and
>>> then just "nudge" it slightly to boost the jump.
>>  Thanks you know that always kind of bugged me, why jump from building  
>> to building when you could just 'tell' the Matrix that the co-ordinates  
>> that represent your position as here are really there. As previously  
>> mentioned the real answer is "Because it looks cooler to film", but as  
>> internal logic goes your position makes sense.
>
> The Matrix is not a film that can be rationally dissected IMO; it's all  
> utter nonsense from beginning to end (why use humans as batteries? even  
> if you do, why bother keeping their minds active with all that  
> complicated VR? leave them vegetative!), albeit very exciting and  
> stylish nonsense. When it comes to the extra abilities exhibited by the  
> 'free' humans in the Matrix, almost all explanations make a degree of  
> sense. What bothers me is how limited the Agents are. If they can dodge  
> bullets and hijack 'slaved' human avatars, it should be impossible to  
> land a punch or even see them coming...

The Agents are using the same 'code' as everyone else so they can only  
tweak it in the same way as the free humans. As for landing a punch, a  
slave human probably wouldn't be able to -

Slave Human accesses punch code
Agent sees code access, accesses tweaked dodge punch code
Slave Human misses as tweaked dodge interprets punch code correctly

Free Human accesses punch code - then tweaks it
Agent sees code access, accesses tweaked dodge punch code
Free Human hits Agent as tweaked dodge fails to interpret tweaked punch  
code correctly

> As for leaping buildings, I like to think that Morpheus and co simply  
> don't know how to tell the Matrix to teleport them. With some effort and  
> practice (and maybe augmenting their avatars prior to connection) they  
> can perform some highly nifty feats sometimes verging on the superhuman,  
> but only Neo with his more 'fundamental' mental connections with the  
> Matrix can do the truly superhuman. And even he can't teleport. Ha! What  
> a loser.
>
> :-)

On the teleportation front you're probably right, it's not a natural  
extension to human abilities so it's 'unsensable' to them. Though that  
would make the initial Smith/Neo merge and wall flexing strange.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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