Memes

45668 readers

1131 users here now

Rules:

Be civil and nice.
Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

1486

No take backs? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

109 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 84 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

The Animatrix (prequel) goes into further detail as to why the machines did it -- it's an act of mercy for their creators. They refused to fight humanity, and it was mankind who darkened the skies, in an attempt to disable the solar power that the machine race relied upon.

It's not a prison, or some kind of torture device, or an experiment, but a way for humanity to continue living on a world that they made uninhabitable for themselves / incompatible with organic life.

Agent Smith : Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization, which is of course what this is all about.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This feels shockingingly similar to how an AI could conclude to caring for humans. The humans are stimulated to be content by being in the matrix, their physical needs are met by the machines, no humans were "harmed" by the machine's standards, and humans are for the most part unable to interfere with the machine's decisions and goals.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Bingo - you got it. As a result of your insightfulness, you are granted one (minor) wish. Make it count. :)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

the machines did it – it’s an act of mercy for their creators.

If only Animatrix had left it at that it would have fixed everything. Instead Animatrix doubled down on bad science by saying humans were an endless renewable supply of energy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The movie already set that as the reason so Animatrix had to follow.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Morpheus was sjown to be wrong on many points, this may be another rationalisation he made. He may have assumed or accepted that it was the reason for being kept in the simulation, without really knowing the truth.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

That’s a good point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It was only Morpheus that said that. It could be that Morpheus was taught wrong. Any basic understanding of science would show that Morpheus's statement was wrong. But his knowledge of science was learned inside the Matrix.

The movie's were all about revealing layers of truth so it would have fit right in with the theme.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

That’s a good point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It could be that the characters in the movie thought it was about energy, but were mistaken. (But to be honest, having a group of people believe that to be the reason is just as implausible as it actually being the reason - either way it makes no sense and we just have to suspend disbelief.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why do the machines care about showing us mercy? I don't find this explanation any better than the movie's.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Because they are intelligent. In the same way we used to killed all predators but now try to conserve them from extinction.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

It's interesting to compare Smith's speech to The Architect's in the second movie. The Architect said "the first version was perfect in every way" or something, with no accounting for the possibility that it was flawed in some way they didn't understand. Given that The Architect was sitting in a TV filled room, waiting for Neo for who knows how long it was probably a blank white room for every person or something...