Transcription
After the architect introduces himself, the moment comes when Neo is told the answers.
Concurrently, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant. Why am I here?
We begin with the profound question related to humanity. Why are we here? Is the fundamental question of human existence. When humans evolved from animals to creators of civilization, when we no longer needed to survive, but to socialize, doubts began to arise. Humans started to look up at the stars and question their place in the universe. Other primates spend their days surviving the cruelty of nature. But once humans overcame this, the question, "Why am I here?" was the first that prompted our imaginations, giving rise to religions that tried to answer that question. For the architect, this is an irrelevant question because the question, why are we here? Is a sign that Neo does not yet understand his role. But it does not matter if he understands it or not. He is following down the path laid out by the architect.
Listen to me, Neo. You can save Zion if you reach the source. But to do that, you will need the keymaker.
The key maker?
This question is what led Neo to Morpheus. It is an existential doubt that sums up the human experience. Why are we here may be an important question, but some people think that it does not make sense. Because if there is no objective purpose, asking what are we doing here is unnecessary. We are here because of a how, not a why. And that how is yet to be explained to Neo.
Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision.
In other words, the architect is telling Neo that he is the result of an imbalanced equation. On the many screens, we can see Neo's life from when he was a child. We previously made a video analyzing each screen. The architect conditioned all the situations that Neo went through since childhood to when the anomaly manifested in him. In our video analyzing each miniscreen, we were unaware of the existence of the making of of this scene. The making of shows in better quality the scenes of Neo's youth with an explanation from the person in charged filming them. The folly of an unreal life, a constructed life that he never led. and the fact that every moment of his life was a construction of the architect or the machinery of the matrix. And so he was demonstrating, I suppose, to Neo that it was all an elaborate fabrication. Interestingly, the video mentions that they are fabrications made by the architect. Although the architect speaks of cause and effect, he is the architect of Neo's life, so to speak. Watching these clips in better quality confirms what we originally thought. Neil was a lonely child who was bullied by other children. Perhaps these traumatic events in his youth led Mr. Anderson to become a shutin, eventually finding an interest in computers. Every step that Neo took was for ordained by the architect. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected and thus not beyond a measure of control which has led you inexurably. Here, here the architect is explaining that although the existence of this glitch in the matrix equation is an issue, he has created a system to keep it under control that includes controlling every aspect of Neo's development or growth and manipulating his personality. You haven't answered my question.
Quite right. Interesting. That was quicker than the others.
Neo is not satisfied with the architect's answer because he's only explained the how, but not the why. Neo is searching for meaning in all of this. The architect's acclamation of Neo's faster realization that his question was not yet answered has two purposes. The first is to let Neo know that there have been ones before him. And the second is that the architect is noticing that there is something special about Neo, something that makes him different from his predecessors. The previous ones accepted what the architect told them, but Neo still wants more clarification, which somewhat surprised the architect.
How many others?
The matrix is
On the screens, we see the visual manifestations of Neo's thoughts and the choices that he could make. The architect can read a Neo like an open book. There is no outcome that Neo can take that the architect hasn't already foreseen. This is predeterminism. Imagine that each one of those screens represents a choice Neo could take.
The Matrix is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next, in which case this is the sixth version. The architect is letting Neo and us as the viewers know that the real world isn't as old as Morpheus thought.
You believe it's the year 1999 when in fact it's closer to 2199.
I can't tell you exactly what year it is because we honestly don't know.
It may be thousands of years into the future. The matrix has simply been relatively stable for about 600 years. Six matrix cycles.
There are only two possible explanations.
There were five ones before. Whether no one told me or no one knows precisely.
Neo finally comes to a realization. The frame moves in closer to the TV that Neo has chosen. This thought means that he was never freed from the matrix. Neo was always trapped. The architect can see everything that Neo thinks. At this moment, Neo might be wondering why didn't the oracle tell him about any of this? Then how does nobody in Zion know about his predecessors? It was all a trap. Yet Neo still does not know the full length of this deception. That remains to be discovered. What happened to the ones before Neo?
As you are undoubtedly gathering, the anomaly is systemic, creating fluctuations in even the most SIMPLISTIC EQUATIONS. I'M GOING TO SMASH YOU TO DEATH. [ __ ] KILL YOU.
You can't make me do anything, white prick. The movie script better describes what Neo was thinking. It says the following. Again, we move into a monitor, returning to Neo as he was looking at the monitors, quickly realizing the truth. But what is this truth?
Choice. The problem is choice.
Neil turns around and looks at the monitors. The fact that he says the problem is choice means that Neo has realized that each screen represents a choice that he can make. Another interesting element about this scene is that in the movie script, Neo yells at the architect, God is dead, which you can actually hear in the film. This phrase references the German philosopher Friedrich Nichi's book, Thus Zerathustra. It means that for human beings to reach transcendence, they must eliminate their beliefs in deities. For Friedrich, believing in God is backwardness to humanity. Also, the phrase God is dead means that man is no longer tied to supernatural powers that control their lives. Now that we know this, we understand why Neo yelled this phrase to the architect. Neo is a nihilistic skeptic who does not believe that someone or something is in control of his life.
Do you believe in fate, Neil?
No.
Why not?
Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
I know exactly what you mean.
Philosophically speaking, for Neo, no higher power controls him. He has Perichi's philosophy transcended. Neo has become the ubber mench or superman that the philosopher spoke of. He has reached a state of spiritual and moral maturity higher than the common man. Neo has had this nihilistic and skeptical stance since before waking up from the matrix. In his introductory scene, Mr. Anderson takes out a disc from a hidden stash inside a copy of the book similacra and simulation. The book was hollowed on the chapter titled on nihilism. It was on purpose so that we as the audience can see that Neo follows a nihilistic stance which argues that there is no objective purpose in reality. From a philosophical point of view, Neil's nihilism leads him to believe that nothing influences his life. This is why we can hear one of the Neo yelling at the architect that he cannot control him. What we are seeing on the monitors is a philosophical existential crisis. We are seeing how Neo's nihilism and beliefs are being destroyed by the architect. He is confronting the equivalent of the god that he thought was dead. And this god is telling him that he has controlled his entire life for a purpose that Neo will soon reject. Interestingly, even though Neo is projected as a person who barely shows emotions, we see his thoughts on the monitors. We see who Neo is or could be. Although he appears to be calm on the outside, inside is chaos. And the architect sees that. But if the problem is choice, then that means that Neo will have to make one. An agent arrives and stops Trinity from escaping. Now we know what choice Neo is going to have to make.
The first Matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect. It was a work of art, flawless, sublime, a triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being. Thus, I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesquaries of your nature. However, I was again frustrated by failure. We previously made a video delving into what the Paradise Matrix and Nightmare Matrix are. These two simulations failed because they were too linear and unrealistic. In paradise, humans lived in peace and blissfulness. In nightmare, they lived in horror and suffering. Both scenarios resulted in the humans suspecting that there was something wrong with their world. This is also a religious reference. The first matrix could be considered the garden of Eden, paradise. And the nightmare is precisely the moment when humans separated from God to live in a land full of chaos. The architect added Christian mythology and religions to the equation of the matrix, but this did not work.
I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind or perhaps a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another, an intuitive program initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother.
When the architect said an intuitive program, Neil lowers his head. Theoretically, this is the moment when Neil realizes that the oracle lied to him and that she's worked or works for the architect. We are seeing a total deconstruction of Neil's personality and beliefs. First, the architect destroyed all of his beliefs about predestination, nihilism, about the influence of others in his life. Now, the architect is destroying his perception of who is good and who is evil. Neo's existential crisis is complete.
The oracle, please. As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99% of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. This is the cornerstone of the Matrix trilogy. The Oracle added choice to the equation to make the Matrix more believable. But as the architect showed Neo, no matter what decision he made, his life was predetermined. Remembering the words of the meravenian,
choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.
The meravenian was the only one who spoke the truth to Neo. Neo has been trapped in the illusion of choice from the beginning. A trap created by the oracle to further immerse humanity in the simulations. We continue with the architect explaining how choice works in the matrix. While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Argo, those that refuse the program, while a minority, if unchecked, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster.
This is about Zion.
By adding choice to the equation, it generated a systematic anomaly. The architect told Neo that he is the result of this anomaly. But the anomaly is not limited to Neo. It also affects all those who awaken to the real world. That is the people of Zion. Humans who rejected the matrix created the anomaly. Meaning that Zion is a means to control it. The people of Zion are that 1% that is generating the contradiction in the equation. The matrix cycle lasts about 100 years. During that time that 1% of the population is causing fluctuations in the system. For example, one person starts to fly. Another accidentally dodges a bullet or moves something with their mind. Others could simply see the matrix code. All these fluctuations from those who are rejecting the program accumulate until the sum of all of it begins to endanger the stability of the matrix. The sum of these small anomalies in the equation creates the integral anomaly, aka the one who will then be subjected to the preventive measures that the architect engineered. You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated its entire existence eradicated.
[ __ ]
[ __ ]
Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But rest assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it. The architect is speaking about inevitability. Zion will be destroyed, but Neo cannot accept it. Denial is a defense mechanism proposed by Ant Fraud, which involves a refusal to accept reality, thus blocking external events from awareness. Interestingly, the architect is telling Neo that he doesn't want to accept reality. The fact that Neo is in denial means that he is immersed in his own matrix, so to speak. The architect wants to free him from it, but Neo refuses. If a situation is just too much to handle, a person may respond by refusing to perceive it or by denying that it exists. As you might imagine, this is a primitive and dangerous defense. No one disregards reality and gets away with it for long. To try to get Neo to accept reality and break his denial, the architect tells him that this will be the sixth time he will destroy Zion. Again, we are seeing the deconstruction of Neo's beliefs. Little by little, the architect continues to destroy his perceptions. Even though Neo is in denial, he won't be able to avoid reality for long. As Trinity continues the fight with the agent, the architect prepares to reveal the most important fact to Neo.
The function of the one is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program, after which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female, seven male, to rebuild Zion. Neo is a human who is carrying a dangerous program within him. The path of the one that Neo must go through is a sub routine that includes uploading the result of the anomaly's code. The one must return to the source to be able to restart the prime program, which is a way for the matrix to adapt with the information loaded by the anomaly so that the next simulation can avoid making the same errors. The matrix purifies itself through the one. Let's say that at the end of each simulation, the matrix receives a major update and is restarted. But choice in the equation will again generate an anomaly in the next version. It must be frustrating for the architect not being able to fix this one big problem. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race. Many times these crashes in the system are a measure to protect the hardware. For example, if a computer is overheated by the use of a program, let's say a video game, the computer can force shut off to protect itself from severe and permanent damage. What we theorize is that if Neil does not update the matrix with the code that he carries so that the system can debug itself, the hardware that runs the simulation will begin to fail, creating a cataclysmic system crash that will kill all humans connected to it, thus causing the extinction of humanity. We're not sure if this ever happened, but perhaps when the first anomaly came to be, it caused a systematic crash of the Matrix and all the humans died and then had to be cloned by the machines. So Neo must deliver and insert the code into the source and then choose 23 humans to repopulate Zion. This is the architect's way of making sure to update or patch the matrix and that the next anomaly will again be controlled with the help of Zion. Neo's character deconstruction is nearly complete. He already knows that his nihilistic position was wrong, that his supposed awakening to reality never happened because he was still living in deception. He is only a tool to help restart and perpetuate the matrix. He is not the one. This prophesized savior and the oracle lied to him.
Listen to me, Neo. You can save Zion if you reach the source. But to do that, you will need the key maker.
You won't let it happen. You can't. You need human beings to survive.
There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world.
Recall that Morpheus once told the Neo that the machines turned humans into batteries. But that does not mean that humans are the only source of energy. Maybe the humans aren't being used for that purpose at all. For the architect, human extinction is simply an inconvenience. The machines can survive without them. They are willing to accept that outcome. But is Neo? Would he be willing to accept the death of every human? This calls into question Neo's status as the savior. For a long time, it was believed that Neo is the one who will save humanity. But now he is faced with a choice that puts that notion into question.
It is interesting reading your reactions.
His reactions are interesting because Neo is acting differently from his predecessors. He is not the typical savior that the architect has faced previously. Your five predecessors were by design based on a similar predication, a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the one. While the others experience this in a very general way, your experience is far more specific. Visa v love trinity.
This bit of information is very important to the matrix lore. It's what differentiates Neo from the previous saviors. His five predecessors experienced a general love and attachment for humanity, which made it easier for the architect to have them choose to return to the source. Yet, what sticks out the most about the predecessors is that they, as the architect said, were by design based on a similar predication. This means that their love for humanity was not spontaneous or natural. It was programmed by the machines, a contingency plan, an affirmation. But the most important thing is that in Neo's case, this affirmation or love was not felt in a general way. It was focused on one person, Trinity. Now, we understand why the architect said that Neo's reactions were interesting. When the architect spoke about the possibility of human extinction, Neil was probably only thinking about Trinity, which makes him a selfish individual, a false savior who prefers to save one person and sacrifice the rest. Though, ironically, Trinity entered the Matrix, ready to sacrifice herself for Neo. Which brings us at last to the moment of truth wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed and the anomaly revealed as both beginning and end. There are two doors. The door to your right leads to the source and the salvation of Zion. This was the door that the oracle once spoke of to Neo. This door will save Zion, but not in the way Neo thought. The oracle withheld some very important information from Neo. But did she lie to him? Maybe. It depends on your viewpoint. Nevertheless, this omission is daunting. Neo will save Zion, but not the Zion he knew. He is to save the idea of Zion by helping to create the new one, the seventh Zion. So, does the salvation of Zion lie behind this door? Again, it depends on your viewpoint. But then, what's behind door number two? The door to your left leads back to the matrix to her and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice.
Neo is once again face to face with a dichotomy of choice. Since the first movie, Neo has had to choose one of two paths. Either follow the white rabbit or stay at home. Choose to stay in the car or walk down the street. Choose the red pill or the blue pill. choose to fight Smith or run. All these choices meant nothing in the end. They were all made by design like a video game. All paths still lead to the architect. Though there is something different about Neo. The architect was surprised by Neo's connection with the Trinity. And that special connection is what influences Neo's choice.
But we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction. The chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple and obvious truth. She is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The architect again uses the word design when referring to love. We have discussed how this design may have been caused by the oracle's meddling in the events of the sixth simulation. She was the one who manipulated Neo and Trinity's relationship. Ergo ensuring that when the time came when Neo had to make a choice, he chose the door that leads to the salvation of one human and the damnation of the others. Neo chooses the door to Trinity. hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.
This was the architect's final attempt to persuade Neo to return to the source. The architect looks at Neil's reactions. He can see Neo's feeble hope that he can somehow save Trinity and humanity. But in time, the architect will be proven right. Trinity's death is inevitable. If I were you, I would hope that we don't meet again.
We won't.
Neo realizes that the architect has been toying with him since the beginning. However, that doesn't matter. What matters now is Trinity. The architect assures Neo that they will not meet again. However, what the father does not know is that the mother had played her cards well, and now the next stage of her plan is underway. A play that would put the machines at the mercy of a rogue program. And their only hope for survival is the One.