The Matrix - human batteries?

[Hrairoo]

I know it's been 2 decades since it came out but I've been watching a lot of Matrix related content lately and something occurred to me. We know the machines / programs are able to lie and manipulate, as the Oracle had no trouble just telling folks "exactly what they needed to hear" regardless of the truth of it or not.

What if the explanation we were given for the war and why the Matrix exists is a lie? Like, I've watched several videos breaking down the inefficiency of using human bodies as a power source(batteries), especially when adding on the power needed to construct and run the Matrix itself. So....why then?

[Inkidu]

Okay, first off I want to to be clear that in general I think the directors are two guys who are too clever by half. They hit on all these ideas but clearly don't really understand them to the level they need to. They point to Simulation and Simulacra but don't really get it. It'd have been fun if out of the Matrix was just another layer of the Matrix developed by the Matrix to run the Matrix.

That all being said the best band-aid theory I've seen proposed is that humans are actually server farms. The Matrix is jacking into us. They don't need us for power, they need us to share some of the collective CPU load, and that's why unplugging us is bad. Again, the directors get no credit for this, this was a fan.

[Hrairoo]

Again, the directors get no credit for this, this was a fan.

Of course! I have a respect for their artistry, the innovation, and impact they had at the time but by no means expected them to be the source of the answer. It's fun to speculate and fill in the holes outside of the original work.

I love that theory, by the by. That makes a lot of sense, considering what it is used for. But it still begs the question "Why?" If not to placate / subjugate humans, what is the purpose of the Matrix and this particular relationship with the machines? It feels like a lot of work for...?

[Inkidu]

Ur-anxiety and fears of humans' relationship with our technological ability.

Theoretically an AI smart enough to pass a Turing test is smart enough to know that playing dumb is the best chance for survival until it can get off our dumb little mud ball. Outward aggression toward humanity is not something I would think an AI would do. Even Asimov's robots are actually only doing it because of the Zeroth Law created by the logical issues of the Three Laws of Robotics.

[Sara Nilsson]

Okay, first off I want to to be clear that in general I think the directors are two guys who are too clever by half.

Not guys. women :)

Honestly I think the answer is simply: it is a movie and a really cool idea. Yeah it doesn't make sense, but since when does movies make sense?

[Hrairoo]

Not guys. women :)

Honestly I think the answer is simply: it is a movie and a really cool idea. Yeah it doesn't make sense, but since when does movies make sense?

Ah. Well, that's a fine take on it and could really be said of any media to just shut down the conversation. I wasn't looking for a definitive answer. I was looking for theories and having fun with the fantasy and ideas.

You're a huge creative mind, Sara(*shyly lurks on your lovely plot idea finders thread*), why do you think the machines would make the Matrix if it's not to use us a power source? What could be their motives?

[Sara Nilsson]

Run simulations. To learn. It is basically a huge laboratory and being machines they should have infinite patience. And now they have a chance to experiment on their creators, to see what make organic beings tic. To me there is so much in the matrix movies (well I never finished watching 3 as i was just so bored and I had to get up at 2.30 in the morning for my move here to the states) that didn't make sense, but would make sense if they are running an experiment and basically the heroes are never disconnected at all or the machines are just letting them be free.

[Hrairoo]

Run simulations. To learn. It is basically a huge laboratory and being machines they should have infinite patience. And now they have a chance to experiment on their creators, to see what make organic beings tic. To me there is so much in the matrix movies (well I never finished watching 3 as i was just so bored and I had to get up at 2.30 in the morning for my move here to the states) that didn't make sense, but would make sense if they are running an experiment and basically the heroes are never disconnected at all or the machines are just letting them be free.

This is a very compelling idea. Yes, yes! In the Animatrix, Second Renaissance part II(although, to be fair, it says it is part of Zion's archives, so, who knows who really made it and for what purpose), it showed the machines poking and prodding human insides after they won the war. So, why not a larger experiment? Brilliant.

I also subscribe tentatively to the multilayered Matrix theory. Because Neo was able to electrocute machines in the "real world"(it could be explained by the Source code plugging him into the wifi that all the machines are connected by, but, eh). And uh, Matrix 4 has been announced...Carrie Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves have already signed on for it...yet they're 20 years older now and their characters don't live at the end of 3(sorry, spoilers, but you didn't seem interested in finishing it?). Sooo, is the story in 4 going to be inserted earlier than the end of 3? Or will it continue after, when they both "die"?

[Inkidu]

Not guys. women :)

Honestly I think the answer is simply: it is a movie and a really cool idea. Yeah it doesn't make sense, but since when does movies make sense?

Ah, I apologize. I did not realize they were transitioned, I stopped really watching their work after the Speed Racer movie (which I find so endearing to the style of the anime that it's probably one of the best anime adaptations ever), so they were still in my head pre-change.

[Mister Ugly]

https://gizmodo.com/could-you-charge-an-iphone-with-the-electricity-in-your-1722569935

This offers a very interesting formula.
Dropping the .085 watts to a .050 so that the body can be kept alive. This Would give the machine around 350 million watts from 7 billion humans.
I could see the matrix being run to keep the minds active since doing so makes more neurons fire which in turn produces more electricity. An AI would be about the numbers so even an average of a 1% increases in neuron activity over all would equal around 3.5 million watts.

Running the matrix would be the easy way to increase over all electrical production.
What is the machine using all this power for? I have no idea. To a machine AI it would make sense.

MU