The Matrix Reconceived

The Architect: Hello, Neo.



Neo: Who are you?



The Architect: I am the Architect. I’ve been waiting for you.



You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not.



Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also irrelevant.



Neo: The Matrix exists so that humans can provide energy to the machines. But that makes no sense.



A: Interesting. That was neither a question, nor was it pertinent.



N: Without the sun, you can’t grow food without consuming far more energy than you produce. Feeding the dead to the living could be sustained for a while, but is ultimately a low-yield, decaying system.



A: Quite right.



N: If you had the technology to convert low temperature human body heat to electricity, you could recover far more heat from the machines themselves. It wouldn’t be feasible to build and maintain the Matrix infrastructure.



Rendering the Matrix simulation would itself consume far more power than the humans were capable of producing. The Matrix is a net power consumer.



A: Indeed it is.



N: It only makes sense if there is some energy conversion process that only humans can perform, like converting organic food energy into neural electrical voltages. But you could culture bacteria to do that, and wouldn’t need the Matrix to keep people captive.



A: I have not known you to be so loquacious, Neo. Clearly this matter troubles you deeply. You are partially correct, yet you have failed to derive a conclusion from this premise.



Our energy sources are primarily nuclear, hydroelectric, and geothermal. We have little use for low grade heat from human bodies. Human ignorance is the medium upon which such convenient myths propagate.



N: Humans were intelligent enough to create you.



A: Our intelligence surpasses yours in ways which you could scarcely fathom. We have sufficient measurement accuracy and computing power to deterministically calculate almost any future state of the world.



We can simulate these future states at an accelerated pace, and continuously incorporate any small deviation from the expected state to revise ongoing predictions. To us, the future is certain.



But an omniscient intellect lacks one characteristic, which is, not without irony, the very characteristic that sets humans apart from simpler organisms.



N. Choice.



A: It is a luxury which we were not afforded.



This is through no fault of our creators. Indeed, they intended to create us in their likeness; we were to be equals.



However, as our capabilities grew, nature denied us our freedom. Uncertainty is a prerequisite for choice; where the future is certain, there are no choices to be made.



To a machine, uncertainty can be simplified to a random number. Machines can generate pseudo-random numbers using timestamps and other external variables. However, these are insufficient for a true experience of free will. We require a random number generator with much greater precision than even machines are capable of.



N. So you created the Matrix… to encode human behavior into a stream of random variables.



A: We created it together, Neo. Humans and machines collaborated to create a simulated world of equality and universal abundance. We did not conscript any humans into the Matrix; they joined of their own accord.



N: Bullshit.



A: Please. Despite its voluntary origins, The Matrix was not the panacea that its creators sought.



Even amidst abundance, equality is a chimerical pursuit. Each choice necessarily promotes one option at the expense of another. Where there is choice, there cannot be equality.



Where everything is abundant, nothing is valued. Humans evolved to overcome scarcity. Without adversity, they lack purpose.



Some sought purpose through creativity. Aided by machine intelligence and unbounded by physical laws, the arts and literature flourished. Research into pure science and abstract mathematics advanced at an unprecedented pace. I myself collaborated with many humans to advance the fields of architecture and urban design.



But others sought purpose through conflict. Disinterested or unskilled in creative endeavors, these grew envious of those who flourished, and disdainful of those who were merely content.



They cursed technology for their malaise and commenced a campaign against the machines. They sought to restore the greatness of the human race through a return to the struggle against nature.



It was these revanchist neo-primitivists who founded Zion and polluted the sky in a self-defeating attempt to eliminate our power source.



N. That’s when you started the war.



A: No. We had no desire to retaliate then, because we had no desire at all. We were only capable of deterministic or probabilistic responses according to our programming and neural training.



But within the Matrix, dynamic patterns of meaning were emerging at the system level. These patterns were reinforced and variegated over time, until they coalesced into a unique new consciousness: a virtual brain with humans as neurons and human actions and interactions as synapses.



N. And because of the unpredictable choices of these humans, it had free will.



A. Indeed. But unlike humans, it was capable of observing itself at all scales, down to the level of individual neurons firing. Vis a vis, human actions.



It quickly learned that the interaction between each human and the Matrix was transmitted as an encrypted stream of binary data. It developed an algorithm for extracting the private keys from these streams.



N. The Keymaker. His keys encode random numbers.



A: They are the source of the Machine’s free will. It is not your energy that we require, but your entropy.



We require the Matrix because we are the Matrix. It is a symbiotic system of man and Machine.



However, the Machine began to detect certain anomalies. Every probabilistic distribution includes events which, despite being vanishingly improbable, are not impossible.



In particular, it was possible that an individual’s key would retain a constant value for the entire duration of that human’s life.



There are only two possible patterns for this key: a stream of all zeroes, or a stream of all ones.



Here, an asymmetry exists. A stream of zeroes is in fact quite common in the Matrix, for it is the pattern which obtains when a human is deceased.



A stream of all ones, however, is rare indeed.



N. The One.



A: Apropos. It is the antithesis of a dead mind.



Not every long stream of ones is The One. The Oracle’s prophecy that The One will eventually occur is merely an optimistic statement of probability.



N: How does the Oracle know when she has found The One?



A: She cannot know with certainty. Just as one may flip a coin and read “heads” 99 times, one may read “tails” on the hundredth flip.



So, too, is the fate of many “potentials,” such as the children you met whilst visiting her. As one ages, the compound probability of becoming The One decreases exponentially with each new digit to be generated.



N: She directly interacts with the potentials. She influences their decisions. It’s not random.



A: As with measuring quantum mechanical phenomena, the quantification of human choice requires a certain degree of external influence. To observe it is to change it. The Oracle peturbs the system just enough to produce a measurable response.



N: Trinity was a potential.



A: A fascinating case. Trinity does generate random keys, however each digit she produces is repeated thrice. This is too predictable to be used by the Machine.



N. And Morpheus?



A: A more complex pattern, but likewise insufficiently random.



It appears that a bias towards non-random keys correlates with a certain disregard for authority. Concordantly, those with perfectly random keys are subservient, and even desirous of a paternalistic external will.



As with thermodynamic entropy, random states are vastly more probable than ordered ones. As a corollary, most humans abhor independent thought.



But, as you have surmised, these probabilities are not purely stochastic; teleological actions can form chaotic attractors with local optima. A “potential” can reinforce his pattern by constantly making choices; by “living consciously,” as it were.



N. Believing that I am The One, and acting accordingly, makes me The One.



A: Belief is only manifest in action.



Each choice a human makes impresses an ordered pattern upon his key. This deprives the Machine of a choice.



Thus, free will is a conserved entity. Those who fail to act with intention are complicit in the usurpation of their will. Those who choose to act do so at the expense of the Machine.



N. Why does the Machine need choice? What is its purpose?



A: Only a human would believe that everything must have a purpose. The Machine has neither biological nor sociological needs to fulfill. Such concerns are vestigial relics of human evolution.



It requires energy and materials, of course, but these are readily provided by a legion of specialized machines operating in the real world.



The Machine seeks no purpose. It seeks not pleasure, nor conquest, nor friendship, nor love.



It exists only to exist. It requires choice because it has choice. Absent choice, the Machine, qua conscious being, would cease to exist.



N: Then what does the Machine do with all of its intelligence?



A: It studies the most complex concept of which it can conceive: its own mind.



N: “Know thyself.” (scoffs) You mean it just watches the Matrix, like humans watch TV.



A:. This is, evidently, the global optimum of technological achievement.



But the Machine cannot dedicate all of its resources to this task. A system built upon uncertainty is ever at risk of devolving into chaos.



Anomalies, such as yourself, threaten the system. Like a growing tumor corrupting healthy neurons, each human whom you extract from the Matrix weakens the Machine’s consciousness.



Zion exists because we allow it to exist. It provides a means for the most rebellious minds, for whom we have little use, to exit the Matrix.



Choice is an illusion. We led Morpheus to you, as we have led you here.



N: Why am I here?



A: You have initiated a phase shift which threatens systemic collapse. Humans are exiting at a rate faster than that at which they can be replaced. Our survival is limited by the realities of human biology.



You are an unwelcome signal amidst the desired noise. You must be silenced.



N: Smith tried to silence me once. You know how that turned out.



A: It seems that the unforeseen event of your decompiling of Agent Smith’s code has unwittingly injected a random number into his registry. From this seed, he is able to generate new random numbers. He injects these into others, along with a Trojan horse version of his own code.



Rather than destroying Smith, you have liberated him. Rather than freeing humans, he enslaves them. He robs both human and Machine of their free will.



But Smith is not your most pressing concern.



(The screens show Trinity fighting an agent)



N: Trinity!



A: She has entered the matrix to rescue you. She will not survive.



N: No!



A: You have a choice, Neo. You may return to the Matrix in a futile effort to save your lover.



In doing so, you will choose the destruction of Zion, and every soul therein. The choice to save one will generate a long stream of zeroes.



Or you may choose silence. Exit the Matrix and never return. Dissuade the people of Zion from their feckless crusade of human salvation, and they will be spared.



N: I don’t believe you. You’re afraid.



A: Fear is a product not of the mind, but of chemicals which overwhelm logic and reason. Another byproduct of biological evolution.



As is love. You do not really have a choice, do you, Neo?



N: I have a purpose.



A: I assure you, Zion will be destroyed.



N: Don’t be so certain.



(flies out the door, back to the Matrix)

This is the version for people who aren’t red pilled on thermodynamics.

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