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How do people in the Matrix develop a residual self image that resembles their own body?


As we know people born in and connected to the Matrix retain a residual self image. Morpheus told Neo:




Your appearance now is what we call residual self image. It is the mental projection of your digital self.



Freed people that hack back into the Matrix keep that projection and do not change it at will (see: Did People Within The Matrix Always Resemble their Real World Bodies?).


But here's the question: How do people born (or grown for that matter) in the Matrix develop a residual self image that resembles their own body in the first place? You simply do not know how you look if you never saw yourself. It would therefore require that the Matrix feeds your brain with a mental image based on your real body thus requiring some scanners (or whatever) inside the tank to obtain ones features within the goo.


That leads to the more important question as to why would the machines go through all this trouble to provide "proper" residual self images for their connected humans? The prime purpose of the Matrix is to keep their "guests" attached for live, pretty unaware of the fact that they are in the Matrix - as Morpheus puts it, blinded from the truth of being a prisoner. That goal could be perfectly achieved without everybody knowing their own look safe those who are freed from the Matrix (but then again why would the machines be worried about them)?


For the sake of the discussion lets assume that there is only one layer of the Matrix - that being: the "Zion-real world" is the real world - as nested layers of the Matrix would of course simplify things greatly.



Answer



The brain and the body are still connected


You're assuming there's a total disconnect between brain and body. Based on what we see (damage to the brain causes damage to the real-world body, conversely damage to the real-world body also causing the digital self to falter) this simply isn't true.




Morpheus: The body cannot live without the mind



Since the brain and body are intimately connected it makes perfect sense for the RSI to mirror the real world body, ensuring the minimum of effort on the part of the machines. Imagine the additional computing power needed to trick a 10-year-old into thinking they've got the body of a 30-year-old or to explain to a supposedly healthy 20-year-old (who's really 80) why they're tired all the time.



The machines want to be helpful


The Matrix and Zion are a sham. The whole point is to allow the small proportion of dissidents to freely move around inside it and escape from it. If the RSI was dramatically different from the self, it would make things much harder. You simply wouldn't know who was who and who you could trust.



The machines can scan you


As to how, as you've already pointed out, the machines have access to your body. It would be a simple matter for them to scan you periodically and then serve that image up to you whenever you view yourself (on film, in mirrors or when you look down) so you see what they want you to see. These images will reinforce your own self-image as you grow up.


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