Skip to main content

How Long Has The Matrix Been Running?


Considering the amount of construction work on Zion, it's clear that the rebellion has to have been going on for a good while. Neo couldn't be one of the first generation of people in the Matrix, since people older than he is (like Morpheus) were also raised in the Matrix.


Is there anything that gives any indication just how long the Matrix has been running? (I don't mean the "paradise" version that Agent Smith says didn't convince humans, I mean the version that Neo lived in.)



Answer



The Architect says that the current version into which Neo is born is the sixth version. We also learn that the first Matrix (the one Agent Smith told Morpheus about while torturing him) was designed to be a utopia, which failed, and then the second version, while more real, was also rejected by the pod-humans. The third version of the Matrix incorporated the changes suggested by the intelligence we know as the Oracle, where 99.5% of the population would accept the program because they were given a subconscious level of choice to do so. The fundamental flaw is that those .5% that don't accept the program would "wake up", and either have to be put down or escape to strengthen the rebels in Zion. That .5%, by working within the Matrix, would eventually cause the entire Matrix to crash by showing people they were living in a dream world. So, a second level of control was created where Zion itself was created, allowed to grow, then wiped out with the coming of the One, who would "reboot" the entire system, both the Matrix and Zion, in the process allowing the machines and the One to "tweak" the Matrix environment to make it more realistic, and the control systems more effective. Four such iterations have occurred as of Neo's waking up, to make Neo's world the sixth version.


If we accept a roughly 100-year cycle time, as seen with the current version, then the Matrix has run in its current state of affairs (versions 3-6) for roughly 400 years. We could probably add another 20-30 years of the humans being aware they were hooked up but unable to do anything about it, while the machines developed the Matrix and through its first two versions. Thus, the Matrix has probably been running for approximately 420-450 years, meaning the true year is somewhere in the 25th century, not the 21st as Matrix residents believe, or the 22nd as the rebels think.


Understand that the Matrix can be anything the machines need it to be. So, the entire past history of civilization, including new things we discover daily, is according to the movies simply data injected by the machines. The first day of each new Matrix version is somewhere in the late 90s, and everyone simply "wakes up" into this neural network where certain people are recognized as relatives or friends, and others are complete fabrications needed to replace people we think are real but who simply do not have a flesh-and-bone body in a pod.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more