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What flaw in the Matrix was Neo supposed to correct?



The Architect tells Neo:



Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the Matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here.



This suggests that Neo (like each of the "Ones" who went before him) was an intentional creation of the Matrix, and was actually necessary in order to maintain the stability of the Matrix itself.


What problem was he sent to solve, and why was he so important for the stability of the Matrix?



Answer



The Architect is using some flowery technobabble to explain something called cumulative error - a tiny error in a computation that compounds itself as the computation keeps going. For example, in math-intensive computer programs, you need to be careful how you handle things like rounding calculations, or else tiny rounding errors can accumulate into big numbers (like that Superman movie). Similarly, correctly managing your program's memory use is important to avoid memory leaks.


When these bugs happen in programs, the program can act weird or crash. When they happen to the operating system, it brings the whole machine down with it.


In the Matrix, the cumulative error the Architect is talking about is free will. As he explains it, most of the people in the Matrix are content to live out their lives plugged in. However, in order for the Matrix to function properly, those people have to have the option to choose to reject the Matrix. We know this is necessary because, as he explains, they tried two previous Matrix versions without that freedom, and they both failed miserably.



So, inherent in the programming of The Matrix is a tiny flaw -- the fact that the people in it have to be capable of rejecting it. For whatever reason, even after those people are unplugged, that flaw continues to accumulate in the programming, and if left unchecked, would crash the system.


The solution was to wait for that cumulative error to get big enough, then pick one of the people plugged in and somehow focus all of the instability into that one person. That one person then carries the instability back into the core of the Matrix operating system and, in essence, "reboots" the computation. In the process, he picks a certain number of people to unplug, which I suspect is partly meant to get the instability out of the system.


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