mega_gespenst
Hello
Here's some rather unorganised thoughts about the universe of the matrix trilogy (and the animatrix, for that sake). I'd like to get some comments on them, and if possible I'd like somebody to explain to me, what I'm not getting quite right through my thick skull.
I think the matrix is inconsistent. (couldn't help it, just HAD to draw a parallel to linear algebra :D)
(beware this is a looong rant)
I was wondering how the matrix' cut-off of the sun actually would affect the earth ecology, climate, and atmosphere? If all the lifegiving heat of the sun is shielded away from the earth, how come it is possible to support any kind of life at all? With no (at least only to a very infitismal degree) oxygen in the air, due to the lack of plants or anything, it would be impossible to be on the surface without special life-support systems.
Sure, the remaining natural biological life of the planet, is hiding 4 kilometres below the surface, but how come that's a more habitable place? Well, the big fancy machines of zion, seen in reloaded, is probably meant to recycle air and stuff. But as far as I know (i'm no expert), it isn't possible to fully recycle neither water nor air. There will always be a LOSS.
It is said that "they live closer to the core, where it's still warm". Ok, that's nice, but it's actually quite difficult to support life that deep below the ground. For instance, imagine the gigantic pressure they must experience down there? I don't remember I've seen any pressure chambers or anything, in any of the two movies or the animatrix. And the way they're speeding back and forth from zion to "the old sewers" and even the surface, the pressure should be a great concern to them. A couple of times we have seen sentinels violently breaking through the hull of a hovercraft. Why didn't the sudden change of pressure pop the heads of the crew?
Enough about that. There's a lot of loss in the movies that isn't accounted for. I'm especially concerned about energy loss. We have been explained that most of the energy of the sun is shielded away - hence that we can conclude that the major source of energy must be the planet core. But instead the machines (the AI, whatever) chooses to suck out energy from the enslaved humans. This is one of my major problems: Why? I can see a lot of different alternative ways of getting electricity. As mentioned, they could drag on the huge amount of stored energy of the planet core. A more "fantastic" solution could be to build solar panels that reached way above the "solar shield" (or whatever it's called) - such a construction shouldn't be impossible, especially when we remember that the AI isn't concerned about ecology, environment or anything like that. We could also take the next step: Why stay at this wretched planet at all?
Remember that "Man created AI in his image" (the second renaissance). That makes it quite possible that the same motivation of survival is present in the AI, which explains why it isn't just shutting itself down to "end the pain". It's interested in staying alive, more specifically to reproduce and to expand. Why not just "expand" to another planet and leave mankind and earth behind?
Let's get back to energy loss and the use of humans as batteries, and take a more scientific view at the situation, based on the following rule: Energy is a finite thing. It doesn't come from nowhere, and it doesn't suddenly disappear. If you want to pull energy out of something, someone has to have put energy into that something in the first place. The usual way of putting energy into a human body is as follows: Give it food, and let it breathe. Or something like that. Who is feeding the enslaved humans of the matrix? Well, "they are fed the remainings of other humans" (told in the first film, right?). Something isn't alright here? :) Is it some kind of "eternity machine" that just keep spinning and spinning, forever and forever? It sounds kind of weird to me. The machines MUST have some kind of food production, otherwise it would be impossible. That's an quite open problem.
Next issue. Let's just for a short moment accept the fact that the machines need biological life for electricity. Why "the matrix"? Why is it necesary to have a simulated reality? Why aren't they just keeping the humans imprisoned? Ok, one of the films say it is necesary to "contain" the human minds to avoid rebellion and such. That's maybe an fullfilling explanation (if it for some reason isn't possible just to keep the humans drugged). But if the thinking humans are a problem - why not just use another animal? I won't believe that there aren't any animals more suitable than humans. If the output of the energy extraction is a matter of sheer size, then why not use whales? And it should be rather simple to "contain the mind of a whale to keep it from revolting": Just some kind of simulation where it can swim around and catch fish. And a "the one" whale seems kind of ridiculous - a whale that can hack the computer systems. Uhmm. No. Again they could go one step further, as they're obvious at a very high technological level: Why not genetically engineer a biological being that is one hundred percent perfect for the job? Okay, maybe this is a little far fetched but please explain to me, why they can't just modify the humans a bit, so they won't cause problems?
Hmmm.
For me it is quite clear how the W. bros. came up with the idea for this universe:
W. bro. #1 - Hey I got a kewl idea! What if the world we are experiencing around us isn't real, and it just is a computer simulation?
W. bro. #2 - Wauw, sweet! But why should it be like that? Any more ideas?
(10 minutes of dead silence)
W. bro. #1 - Why not just make it like in the terminator movies?
W. bro. #2 - Yeah, that would be kewl! Some kind of evil AI that suppress mankind. Yeah.
That's the quite thin backbone of this universe. The rest is just a ****load of cool philosophy, effects, action, and beautiful ducatis. It's cool. But much of stuff isn't really thought out I'm affraid. One of the cool things about the matrix is that it a science fiction flick that TRIES to explain much of the stuff it shows. It tries hard, but in many ways it isn't up to the job. Anyway it is one of the better attempts I've seen. (compared to, for instance, Star Wars where NOTHING AT ALL is explained - of course that's a choice of the creators). But that's a "SF contra fantasy" question I think. Bla bla bla. I better stop now, before getting too much off topic.
Well, that's just my few cents.
By the way, the matrices are very cool. Just saw the animatrix a couple of times, and it's quite cool too. Looking forward to revolutions! :)
Here's some rather unorganised thoughts about the universe of the matrix trilogy (and the animatrix, for that sake). I'd like to get some comments on them, and if possible I'd like somebody to explain to me, what I'm not getting quite right through my thick skull.
I think the matrix is inconsistent. (couldn't help it, just HAD to draw a parallel to linear algebra :D)
(beware this is a looong rant)
I was wondering how the matrix' cut-off of the sun actually would affect the earth ecology, climate, and atmosphere? If all the lifegiving heat of the sun is shielded away from the earth, how come it is possible to support any kind of life at all? With no (at least only to a very infitismal degree) oxygen in the air, due to the lack of plants or anything, it would be impossible to be on the surface without special life-support systems.
Sure, the remaining natural biological life of the planet, is hiding 4 kilometres below the surface, but how come that's a more habitable place? Well, the big fancy machines of zion, seen in reloaded, is probably meant to recycle air and stuff. But as far as I know (i'm no expert), it isn't possible to fully recycle neither water nor air. There will always be a LOSS.
It is said that "they live closer to the core, where it's still warm". Ok, that's nice, but it's actually quite difficult to support life that deep below the ground. For instance, imagine the gigantic pressure they must experience down there? I don't remember I've seen any pressure chambers or anything, in any of the two movies or the animatrix. And the way they're speeding back and forth from zion to "the old sewers" and even the surface, the pressure should be a great concern to them. A couple of times we have seen sentinels violently breaking through the hull of a hovercraft. Why didn't the sudden change of pressure pop the heads of the crew?
Enough about that. There's a lot of loss in the movies that isn't accounted for. I'm especially concerned about energy loss. We have been explained that most of the energy of the sun is shielded away - hence that we can conclude that the major source of energy must be the planet core. But instead the machines (the AI, whatever) chooses to suck out energy from the enslaved humans. This is one of my major problems: Why? I can see a lot of different alternative ways of getting electricity. As mentioned, they could drag on the huge amount of stored energy of the planet core. A more "fantastic" solution could be to build solar panels that reached way above the "solar shield" (or whatever it's called) - such a construction shouldn't be impossible, especially when we remember that the AI isn't concerned about ecology, environment or anything like that. We could also take the next step: Why stay at this wretched planet at all?
Remember that "Man created AI in his image" (the second renaissance). That makes it quite possible that the same motivation of survival is present in the AI, which explains why it isn't just shutting itself down to "end the pain". It's interested in staying alive, more specifically to reproduce and to expand. Why not just "expand" to another planet and leave mankind and earth behind?
Let's get back to energy loss and the use of humans as batteries, and take a more scientific view at the situation, based on the following rule: Energy is a finite thing. It doesn't come from nowhere, and it doesn't suddenly disappear. If you want to pull energy out of something, someone has to have put energy into that something in the first place. The usual way of putting energy into a human body is as follows: Give it food, and let it breathe. Or something like that. Who is feeding the enslaved humans of the matrix? Well, "they are fed the remainings of other humans" (told in the first film, right?). Something isn't alright here? :) Is it some kind of "eternity machine" that just keep spinning and spinning, forever and forever? It sounds kind of weird to me. The machines MUST have some kind of food production, otherwise it would be impossible. That's an quite open problem.
Next issue. Let's just for a short moment accept the fact that the machines need biological life for electricity. Why "the matrix"? Why is it necesary to have a simulated reality? Why aren't they just keeping the humans imprisoned? Ok, one of the films say it is necesary to "contain" the human minds to avoid rebellion and such. That's maybe an fullfilling explanation (if it for some reason isn't possible just to keep the humans drugged). But if the thinking humans are a problem - why not just use another animal? I won't believe that there aren't any animals more suitable than humans. If the output of the energy extraction is a matter of sheer size, then why not use whales? And it should be rather simple to "contain the mind of a whale to keep it from revolting": Just some kind of simulation where it can swim around and catch fish. And a "the one" whale seems kind of ridiculous - a whale that can hack the computer systems. Uhmm. No. Again they could go one step further, as they're obvious at a very high technological level: Why not genetically engineer a biological being that is one hundred percent perfect for the job? Okay, maybe this is a little far fetched but please explain to me, why they can't just modify the humans a bit, so they won't cause problems?
Hmmm.
For me it is quite clear how the W. bros. came up with the idea for this universe:
W. bro. #1 - Hey I got a kewl idea! What if the world we are experiencing around us isn't real, and it just is a computer simulation?
W. bro. #2 - Wauw, sweet! But why should it be like that? Any more ideas?
(10 minutes of dead silence)
W. bro. #1 - Why not just make it like in the terminator movies?
W. bro. #2 - Yeah, that would be kewl! Some kind of evil AI that suppress mankind. Yeah.
That's the quite thin backbone of this universe. The rest is just a ****load of cool philosophy, effects, action, and beautiful ducatis. It's cool. But much of stuff isn't really thought out I'm affraid. One of the cool things about the matrix is that it a science fiction flick that TRIES to explain much of the stuff it shows. It tries hard, but in many ways it isn't up to the job. Anyway it is one of the better attempts I've seen. (compared to, for instance, Star Wars where NOTHING AT ALL is explained - of course that's a choice of the creators). But that's a "SF contra fantasy" question I think. Bla bla bla. I better stop now, before getting too much off topic.
Well, that's just my few cents.
By the way, the matrices are very cool. Just saw the animatrix a couple of times, and it's quite cool too. Looking forward to revolutions! :)