# Matrix Trilogy: What do the machines do all day? (Spoilers for all 3) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 11, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646 "2003-11-11T18:37:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/1 "2003-11-11T18:37:30Z")
Alright, I just finished Revolutions, and it made me curious - there is a “Machine City,” yet the nature of the machines (at least withint the Matrix) implies that no machine without a purpose can exist. To me, this implies that the vast, vast majority of machines are drones to do their assigned purpose. So really, the entire reason the machines exist is to… continue existing. What’s the point? Or are there really machine citizens who go to work 9 to 5 and come home and oil their wives before recharging from a baby-pod? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/2 "2003-11-11T18:58:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Speaker for the Dead \* > So really, the entire reason the machines exist is to… continue existing. What’s the point? So machines exist with no point. Is that your point? No, no points. I don’t make points; there’s no point. But aren’t humans the same way? Good point. Living things exist to exist. If you remember from the Second Renaissance, the first machine to attack a human said he simply did not wish to die. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/3 "2003-11-11T19:03:20Z")
I have yet to watch the Animatrix. I guess I could have been more clear. Humans (generally) are sentient and think beyond their job. From what I gathered, the machines don’t. Thus the humans have more “reason” to exist (to enjoy life beyond work) that the machines (who only live to work). ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/4 "2003-11-11T19:10:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Speaker for the Dead \* > \*\*Humans (generally) are sentient and think beyond their job. From what I gathered, the machines don’t. \*\* From where did you gather that? Smith’s speech? Don’t forget Neo’s conversation in the subway station, with a machine _family_. Machines most certainly think and live beyond their job in the world of “The Matrix” movie. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/5 "2003-11-11T19:15:51Z")
I think that the AI’s see past their job. In the first film, before he becomes rogue, Agent Smith expresses some independent thoughts to Morpheus. (I’m not sure if this is the speech **Munch** is talking about.) Incidentally, I’m not sure about the relationship that the robots, like sentinels and that thing that flushed Neo in the first movie, have to the AI’s within the Matrix. They sure seem to have different personalities. Aside from Mr. Collective at the end of _Revolutions_, there’s really no outward evidence that the robots are intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/6 "2003-11-11T19:22:34Z")
No, the speech I’m thinking of is Smith’s little diatribe to Neo in Revolutions, about everything having a purpose, and everything with a purpose having an ending (i.e. no purpose beyond that ending). But I understand where Speaker is coming from. And I think that seeing “Second Renaissance” from The Animatrix will clear up a lot of that confusion. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/7 "2003-11-11T20:43:34Z")
Sorry, I wasn’t clear - I know that the AI’s have personalities. I’m talking strictly outside the Matrix (which seems to have a much bigger role in the machine “society” than just a battery-preserver). Like the Sentinels, and the little skittery robots, and the drones that harvest babies. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/8 "2003-11-11T21:39:51Z")
I’d imagine they just skitter. But like the Star Trek Borg, I’d imagine they also have subroutines dedicated to other pursuits. Speculation, certainly. But if its possible the machines as a whole act as a collective, they would then collectively have a long-term goal outside their present purpose (skittering and various skittering related activities). ---
**Author:** ![jennorCOTG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@jennorCOTG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jennorCOTG)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/9 "2003-11-11T23:31:44Z")
from the animatrix I gather they continue on the jobs that the humans once did - though more specific to their needs, ie, manufacturing, mining and harvesting (humans). They need metal to build robots, thus they need to mine for ore and assemble it. This sounds like a bit too much thought went into it, but while watching the 2nd renaisance and the end of Revolutions I also thought WTF do they do. Who know, Maybe R2 and Tweekie are living it up in some cushy retirment pad… What I want to know is how come it ends… I believe that, by being “assimilated” by smith WHILE jacked into the source, the source can delete smith, and since he has assimilated EVERYONE (thus rendering them unthinking and usless as batteries), the death of smith = the death of everyone wired into the matrix, ergo concordently…everyone ends up in the park. I think the Merovigian should get his own film - MERV ROCKS ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/10 "2003-11-11T23:47:46Z")
I figure the machines probably play NetHack. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/11 "2003-11-12T04:08:27Z")
:smack: The idea that they were a collective never even occured to me. I just assumed that they were individually sentient. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matrix-trilogy-what-do-the-machines-do-all-day-spoilers-for-all-3/212646/12 "2003-11-12T05:24:42Z")
The Merovingian is horrible. Horrible. His only saving grace was the line “like wiping your arse with silk,” from Reloaded. On the other hand, a Merovingian’s wife v. Trinity catfight would have made Revolutions (the absolute worst film since Pearl Harbor) all worth it.