That's really interesting.
I disagree with most of the conclusions Mr. Lloyd reached but it's still interesting to read another opinion.
This will be a looooong post so pull a chair, unhook the phone and grab a beer
I've been thinking about these questions ever since I saw the first movie and have been writing code since the Commodore Vic20 came out. I think I was 9 years old.
As you guys surely know, the genius of the Wachowski's is to allow many interpretations of the movies. For those who care here's my interpretation of these topics.
• The Bioport—how can a socket in your head control your senses? How can it be inserted without killing you? There is already some experimental surgery to insert a little digital camera in an eye socket and directly connect it to the optical nerve of a blind person. Right now the resolution is terrible, something like 20 pixels by 20 pixels but you can think that in 200 years, the timeframe of the movie, they will have improved greatly on that. There's no reason that they couldn't do that for any other sense as long as they have access to the nerve associated with that sense.
As for having a socket in your head, that's possible. People can survive lobotomy and trepanation. It's really not much different from putting a surgical steel hip replacement conceptually. The biggest obstacle in putting such a socket and its wiring in your brain is the size of blood vessels and nerve connections that need to be worked with. With the advances of microsurgery, robotics and nanotechnology you can expect to see huge improvements in that area in the next 100 years.
• The Red Pill—since the pill is virtual, how can it throw Neo out of the Matrix? You can think of the red pill as some kind of trojan horse that causes Neo's link to the Matrix to crash. In other words, it makes Neo get a blue screen of death (Microshaft is still there to ruin the day) and flags him as being in error in the machine's pod table
That's how Morpheus and his team can find out where his pod is exactly and what "trash bin" the machines will throw him in.
• The Power Plant—can people really be an energy source? Why not ?
We didn't get a ton of details about that but who knows ? Either the machines have found a great way to exploit the human body for energy or they're just so desperate for energy that they'll use anything they can, no matter how inefficient it is.
• Entering and Exiting the Matrix—why do the rebels need telephones to come and go? I think Mr. Lloyd's explanation here makes some sense. In the Matrix all you are is data.
I see hardlines as connections between two ports from two computers: the mainframe that runs the matrix and the computer off a hovercraft. Basically when an operator sets up a hardline, he is opening another connection to the mainframe. He sets up the hovercraft's computer to listen on that port. When someone in the matrix puts a hardline's phone to his ear. he basically transfer his code and data through that port. That data goes back to the hovercraft's computer.
I see it as an FTP transfer. When you jack in, you insert a "data translation" of your mind into the Matrix, when you jack out, you remove that data, possibly somewhat different from when you jacked in, from the Matrix and modify your mind accordingly. That is how Smith could get into Bane's mind. You could see this transfer as putting your mind in a file then FTPing that file in a directory used by the Matrix and eventually FTPing that file back from the Matrix to the hovercraft's computer. This in and out transfer is done and the mind can use that data in conjunction with his RSI in the Matrix to behave as he please, within the rules of the Matrix. This is similar to adding a computer on a network. Other computers can see you, interact with you but you still have full control over your computer, within the rules of the network.
Now why do they use a phone and not a TV set or a toaster to jack out ? Simply because phones in the Matrix are setup to be communication tools. They are part of a communication network and can be used to transfer information. In order to transfer data into a toaster, they would need to change the Matrix instead of using a phone and just taking advantage of what a phone is in the Matrix already.
• The Bugbot—what's the purpose of the bugbot? Could be anything. I saw it as a tracking device. The argument of Mr Lloyd that it's too big to be a radio beeper is ludicrous. The bugbot is virtual therefore its size is as irrelevant as the size of the red pill. The bugbot could be the size of a football and that wouldn't mean anything. I guess as long as it is small enough to fit in a human body then it's ok.
The bugbot could be some kind of bomb as Mr. Lloyd pointed out. It could be some kind of immunization against the effect of a redpill. Could be anything really since we didn't see it actually fulfill its purpose.
• Perceptions in the Matrix—how do the machines know what fried chicken tastes like? Pretty easy too. By studying humans. In order to create a bioport that works well, they have to have an extensive knowledge of the human brain in great details. If at any time they were studying a human and made him eat chicken, which is almost certain, then they know. They very probably have a complete understanding of the human sense of taste. They know exactly what reaction chicken provokes on a tongue. For instance, they know how it stimulates each type of papillae on the tongue. So in a word they have data, formulas and models that describe the effects of chicken on the sense of taste. Think of us when we use a computer to study the effects of air flow on an prototype airplane before we actually build it. The same kind of simulation can be done for chicken on a tongue.
• Neo's Mastery of the Avatar—how can Neo fly? That is freaking easy. I can't believe Mr. Lloyd had such a problem with this one.
When Neo dies, he fully realizes that all of this is just code. Then his hacker days kick in. When he wants to fly, he just looks at his RSI's attributes in the data of the Matrix and plays with the X, Y and Z coordinates or anything else he needs to change. Maybe he rewrites or tweaks some of the code. Something like commenting out the code that stipulates that his avatar much call the "apply gravity effects" after each movement. Of course bluepills don't hack the code of their RSIs but Neo knows he can do it and has the skills to do so from his bluepill life.
Personally my biggest problem with Neo's power is that if it's all about hacking, why couldn't he teach other redpills how to do what he does ? I mean if he understood how to control the Matrix, why couldn't he share his discovery with others ? I don't quite understand why his skills were unique and magical. It's probably to save the story. If everybody would have become as powerful as Neo, everybody would have been the One and that would have screwed the story.
• Consciousness and the Matrix—are the machines in the Matrix alive and conscious? Or are they only machines, intelligent but mindless? That's a tough question because it forces us to define what consciousness and being alive really is.
What is being alive ? Not being dead ? What is being dead ? Not having a beating heart ? What if they could put your brain in a jar and keep it working ? Would you still be alive ? On the opposite, what if your brain was dead but your heart was still beating, even mechanically ? Would you still be alive then ? What if they could take the contents of your brain (experience, memories, personality, etc), download it to a robot and then destroy your body. Would you still be alive in that robot ? On the opposite, what if they could empty your brain of what you are and put someone else's brain contents in your brain. Would you be dead or alive ?
My take on it is that you are alive as long as what you are in your brain exists somewhere. As long as your sense of self, what makes you a complete and unique individual, exists somewhere then you are alive.
So using that definition, I would say the machines are alive. They are just an assembly of parts, like we are.
I would say they are conscious. Simply because their AI has very probably a complete knowledge of what consciousness is.
They learned to imitate the human mind as close as possible. They did that first to be better servants of the human kind and then they got good at it and probably learned psychology and other mind-related disciplines.
Whoever built their AI has given it rules based on the human mind. That AI might be self-learning but its only model of a mind was the human mind. That AI is obviously self-aware. So they must be have a consciousness, even if it's unique and shared between all machines.
Anyway, I find these questions really interesting because it forces you to think about real life concepts. That's how I understand the notions brought forward in the movie and "fill the gaps" for things that were not explained.
I'd be really interested to know what you guys think about this. Feel free to destroy any of my arguments
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