Skip to main content

the matrix - When Did the Machines Realize How Important Neo Was?



When Agent Smith catches Neo and takes him in for "questioning," they're interested in Morpheus and plant a probe in Neo to help them find Morpheus. They don't seem at all interested in Neo for himself, but only for his ability to lead them to Morpheus. At this point the Machines are not aware of how important Neo is in the long run.


When do the machines realize just how important Neo is? Do they not realize this until Agent Smith can't kill him? Or is it at another time?



Answer



The Architect knows that eventually, someone like Neo must appear. It's kind of "built" into the system. So it's reasonable to assume that the machines keep watch (they never tire of boring tasks).


What we know is that it must happen between the time after the Oracle meets Neo and Neo meets with the Architect. My speculations:




  • The Oracle is (among other things) part of the security of the Matrix. We only know what she tells us, not what her complex relationship to the Matrix really is. She might have notified the rest of the system of her assessment of Neo. If that was the case, why didn't the machines kill Neo instantly?


    If the Oracle assumed Neo to be curious but not dangerous, the machines might label him has "potential threat" and leave him alone until the pattern becomes more clear.


    Or the Oracle might keep some thoughts to herself. Like a mother, who wants to see how far her children will go. In this case, the low level security systems (the Agents) might be aware that something is on foot but Neo might be still one file among the other people who defected to Zion.



    So I can't find any evidence either way here.




  • The Architect knows what Neo is and why. At this time, it's safe to assume that they know what he is, since the Architect seems to be an integral part of the Matrix (i.e. he works with the Matrix while the Oracle might not share all their thoughts with the other machines).




  • At the end of the first movie, Neo "kills" Agent Smith (or turns him into a potent super virus).


    I think it's safe to assume that some part of the Matrix realizes that Neo is special at this point. But that doesn't necessarily make Neo "important".


    For example, we don't know what happens to all the other people who reach a level close to Neo's. How does the Matrix deal with them generally? Neo is hunted as in "shoot to kill" but that doesn't seem to apply for the children playing in Oracle's flat.





  • Before that, Neo fights with an Agent on the roof of the building and Neo manages to evade the bullets. According to Trinity, this is a very unusual ability. It's unclear whether this triggered any monitor/sentry programs - at least there was no unusual response (like flooding the area with agents or blowing up the building in a kind of ad-hoc terror bombing) inside the Matrix. This doesn't mean that the backbone processes didn't notice what was happening.




So maybe Neo's aggressive behavior triggered the Agent response while a more meditative approach would have been ignored or fostered by the Matrix.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more