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As a powerful program linking to the source, the Oracle knows everything that happens in the Matrix, except for the outcome brought about on irrational choices. She is trying to keep her gambit going by manipulating all the people and programs that play a part.

However, did the Oracle's manipulation extend to so many miraculous incidents in the real world?

The following are some of those miraculous incidents that happened outside of the Matrix after each time she had been consulted.

  1. Cypher's betrayal. Tank miraculously survived his attack and stopped him right before he was going to pull the plug of Neo. Note that Tank was a Zion-born operator without ever entering the Matrix.
  2. The squids reached the bridge and the button for EMP was triggered right after Neo got out of the Matrix .
  3. Trinity wouldn't have entered the Matrix if the sentinel bomb hadn't gone off precisely when it did to kill the crew of the Vigilant.
  4. Numerous Smiths fought with Neo in the corridor so that Trinity had enough time to disable the emergency system for the grids. If Smiths hadn't been there to "help", Neo would have been killed by the explosives once he opened the door.

If any one of these had failed, the path of the One could've lost in advance. It's too hard to believe all these happened purely by accident. Was the Oracle really able to foresee and manipulate them to an extremely precise extent (like the case of vase), even those outside of the Matrix? There are so many things which seemed far beyond the Oracle's control or influence.

Even Morpheus believed there were no accidents. He believed what he saw was no coincidence but providence.

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    @PointlessSpike The one is designed and the path of the One is arranged in advance. Even backed by high-powered computing, the numerous factors outside the Matrix could hinder the progress of the fate of human and machines. Besides, my question is about how the Oracle is capable of foreseeing them.
    – Kinzle B
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 13:52
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    That's not the point. I'm asking whether the omniscient Oracle has foreseen all these or use any influence on these, even outside of the Matrix. That's what she is meant to do. @PointlessSpike
    – Kinzle B
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 14:02
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    This is a good question and doesn't deserve a doe vote
    – Escoce
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 15:04
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    Worth noting that in theoretical computer science, an "oracle machine" is a type of black box that can give an instant answer to all sorts of questions, including ones that would be impossible for a normal computer program to solve even given infinite time, like the halting problem. So maybe the Wachowskis were aware of this (they seem to include nods to other bits of computing terminology, like "The Source" being reminiscent of "source code"), and intended to suggest that the Oracle was built with some mystery tech that wasn't computational.
    – Hypnosifl
    Commented Feb 12, 2016 at 22:17
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    That's not an element a sci-fi movie should have. @ABcDexter
    – Kinzle B
    Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 8:09

2 Answers 2

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She didn't see in advance, she was just able to make judgement calls based on experience like many of us humans are able. If you play with fire you eventually are going to get burned.

She even alluded to the fact that she doesn't predict, but that things happen because of what she told them.

Oracle: Don't worry about the vase.

Neo: What vase? Crash. Sorry.

Oracle: I said don't worry about it.

Neo: How did you...?

Oracle: What's going to burn your bacon later on is would it have happened if I didn't say anything....hmmhmmmhmmm...have a cookie.

The Oracle did lots of things that she judged would move things along according to her plan. She helped nudge Trinity to fall in love with Neo, and ultimately in the end, Neo saved Trinity rather than walking through the door to the source because of that love.

The Oracle didn't see ahead, she forecasted much like a weatherman and put things into action to keep things moving along her plan.

The Architect at the end said it was a dangerous game, and he is right because she didn't know what was going to happen, she only hoped it would happen the way it did.

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  • But she told Neo that either he or Morpheus was going to die and that was up to Neo.
    – Kinzle B
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 15:27
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    Yeah, and no one died. It was another prodding to get him to do something when the time came. She didn't know what was going to happen. Didn't know Morpheus was going to be captured. It was just to get Neo's wheels turning so that he could make the choice to go beyond his own limits. Even afterwords when Morpheus was rescued, Morpheus told Neo that the oracle told him was for him alone and was only what Neo needed to hear.
    – Escoce
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 15:45
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    How does that line show she doesn't predict? Even if she does know the future infallibly things like that could still happen, it would just be an example of a type of predestination paradox which often shows up in time travel stories where someone knows some event is going to happen and their own actions help cause that very event, even if they didn't intend to.
    – Hypnosifl
    Commented Feb 12, 2016 at 22:18
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    Again, can you please put @Hypnosifl before your replies? Otherwise I have no idea you've answered unless I think to come back here to check. Anyway, why do you say "none of the events of the movie would need to come to pass"? If she wanted to free the humans, but she foresaw that she would have to take a certain course of action to do it (getting Neo to fall in love and making Trinity be in danger when he meets the Architect), wouldn't she take that course of action? Also, the word "choice" still makes sense in a pre-destined world, as long as people don't themselves know what they'll do.
    – Hypnosifl
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 22:10
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    @iMerchant - The reason I was asking Escoce to put @ Hypnosifl was just because without it, I wouldn't get an alert that Escoce had responded to me, so I might not ever see the response unless I thought to re-check this page. But it's part of the way the stack exchange system works that when anyone posts a comment on an answer Escoce wrote, Escoce automatically gets alerted without them having to put @ Escoce, so that's why I wasn't doing that on my own comments.
    – Hypnosifl
    Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 4:01
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Well, if it's possible, the Oracle is in the best position to do it. The Oracle is designed to study the human psyche. With the Architect they are creators of the current Matrix version.

Presumably the Oracle can access data on the very minds of the full lifetime of each and every person from lots of generations of full human populations.

Combined with the understanding of human psyche, and adding that machines probably supply the humans with the building blocks of each Zion, and that the starting population of Zion is selected under the control of the Machines, and 'the vase', I would say, yes, the Oracle can predict these 'accidents'.

I'd add that maybe it's the Tank-specific part of subconscious of Cypher that makes him miss Tank under psychical stress, the Vigilant's demise is the workings of Smith who is a program, like Squids.

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