# The Matrix - question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591 "2013-01-28T04:51:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/21 "2013-01-30T15:38:47Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > There’s always somebody who has to be that “Rebel without a Cause”. The grass is always greener somewhere else. I don’t think that’s really the problem. It’s pretty explicitly stated by Morpheus during his talk with Neo before giving him the pills: [QUOTE=Morpheus] You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind – driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. [/QUOTE] They’re not just rebelling for the sake of rebelling, for whatever reason they \*know \*something’s not right with their reality. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/22 "2013-01-30T16:13:50Z")
> [@FlyingDragonFan](#): > > I don’t think that’s really the problem. It’s pretty explicitly stated by Morpheus during his talk with Neo before giving him the pills: > > They’re not just rebelling for the sake of rebelling, for whatever reason they \*know \*something’s not right with their reality. I thought we already established that Morpheus either didn’t know what he was talking about, or he was lying? 😃 On the [slightly] more serious side, that is parrallel with what I said. The machines don’t understand us psychologically. That contributes to why, subconciously, Neo et. al “feel” something is out of place (before they become unplugged). ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/23 "2013-01-30T18:36:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I’ll spoiler this since I don’t think it was from the first movie: > > This ends up being addressed later on. The original Matrix _was_ a paradise, but the human consciousness rebelled against it and the robots were forced to simulate a more realistic word, complete with stress and turmoil. No, I believe that was in the first Matrix, Agent Smith said it to Morpheus when they had captured him and were holding him in the military office building. Not sure if Smith said it before or after his complaint about human smell (if there is such a thing). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/24 "2013-01-30T18:39:46Z")
Well he is an elf, after all. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/25 "2013-01-30T21:13:17Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > No, I believe that was in the first Matrix, Agent Smith said it to Morpheus when they had captured him and were holding him in the military office building. Not sure if Smith said it before or after his complaint about human smell (if there is such a thing). EDIT: Nvmd, was thinking of something else. Yep, Smith explains it here in the 1st movie. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/26 "2013-01-31T02:20:53Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > No, I believe that was in the first Matrix, Agent Smith said it to Morpheus when they had captured him and were holding him in the military office building. Not sure if Smith said it before or after his complaint about human smell (if there is such a thing). There is such a stink. Here’s the other thing. Why would the machines flush a Neo? Instead of dissolving him and feeding him to other “batteries”. The “flush” system that permitted Neo to be picked up at all is a flawed design and doesn’t make one bit of sense. I don’t believe the Machines woukd give you an “out” from the Matrix. Unless it was death. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/27 "2013-01-31T02:24:26Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Here’s the other thing. Why would the machines flush a Neo? Instead of dissolving him and feeding him to other “batteries”. The “flush” system that permitted Neo to be picked up at all is a flawed design and doesn’t make one bit of sense. I agree. There was no reason for them to do that. I guess the best you can say is that it’s no more implausible than the whole battery thing in the first place, but… > [@](#): > > I don’t believe the Machines woukd give you an “out” from the Matrix. Unless it was death. In the second and third movie they did explain that the whole The One/Zion thing was also part of a larger plan by the machines, but if you were rolling your eyes through the whole thing, you weren’t alone. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/28 "2013-02-13T00:13:59Z")
I watched this movie agsin and it occurred to me… Why did the machines keep people around at all? Why not do what they were doing with cows, and/or any other animal on e planet not a human? They would remove the one organism that could take them out (humans) and never have to worry about them again. Was this addressed in the second or third film? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/29 "2013-02-13T00:25:10Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Was this addressed in the second or third film? I think it was addressed in the animatrix, which was a series of animated Matrix shorts made by various people/companies. I forget what it was exactly; something like revenge for us enslaving the machines? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/30 "2013-02-13T00:51:05Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > I watched this movie agsin and it occurred to me… Why did the machines keep people around at all? > > Why not do what they were doing with cows, and/or any other animal on e planet not a human? They would remove the one organism that could take them out (humans) and never have to worry about them again. > > Was this addressed in the second or third film? The third film, mostly. They’re keeping some people on ice and tolerating the infestation down below because the machines kind of suck at programming, and occasionally they need to reboot the system and start over. For that, they need a Neo. They don’t know who’s going to be the next Neo, so they keep a LOT of humans on ice. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/31 "2013-02-13T03:52:52Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > The third film, mostly. > > They’re keeping some people on ice and tolerating the infestation down below because the machines kind of suck at programming, and occasionally they need to reboot the system and start over. For that, they need a Neo. They don’t know who’s going to be the next Neo, so they keep a LOT of humans on ice. That’s kind of a self-fullfilling loop. The instability in the Matrix comes from the gradual accumulation of people that reject the illusion, because a percentage are sensitive enough to realize even subconsciously that it’s fake. Wouldn’t be a problem with animals; heck, they wouldn’t need a Matrix with animals. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591/32 "2013-02-13T04:16:11Z")
And if they killed off all the humans and something else eventually broke far enough that they had to reboot, what do they do? Sacrificing a few crops every few decades is not a big deal to the machines. Flat out extinction is not on their agenda. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-question/648591.md?page=1)