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I am wondering why the freed humans didn't wear a different disguise on each visit to the Matrix so that the agents would not recognize them or would at least have a hard time recognizing them.

For example, whenever Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity entered into the Matrix and before they went out into public, Neo and Morpheus could have put on a wig and a beard, and Trinity could have put on a wig, and then all of them could have dressed like homeless people.

Why didn't the freed humans who entered the Matrix wear disguises so that the agents wouldn't recognize them?

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    I’m pretty sure the agents did not use the visual appearance within the matrix to find people. They have all kinds of data streams coming into them. The earpieces they wear in the matrix are just models of how they are constantly getting information from other sources.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 13:24
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    Do you think that someone wearing a wig, a fake beard and shambling around like a homeless person is going to attract less attention?
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 13:47
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    Now I want to see a version of the Matrix where all the good guys go in wearing clown noses, large fake glasses and hats.
    – user25730
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 22:47
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    Well, their time in the matrix was always short (limited by the need to keep the ship still - hence vulnerable - and the fact that the agents always showed up eventually) so wearing a disguise wouldn't have been that big a deal. But my feeling (based on no real evidence!) matches Todd's comment and abathur's answer that the agents detect them non-visually anyway. Also, non-universe answer: consistent uniform makes character identification easier for the viewer and looks cool/sexy/whatever.
    – AdamT
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 10:43
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    @Giacomo1968 Presumably gait and other biometric features aren't intrinsic to the entity so much as generated programmatically for any humans walking in the virtual world. Remember, as Orpheus points out to Neo, he's never used his physical eyes or muscles (let alone having seen himself enough to generate a self-image); so almost no one hooked up to the Matrix will have physically walked in a way to produce a gait distinct to their body.
    – jeffronicus
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 20:33

1 Answer 1

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Short answer: the agents don't work this way.

I'm not really ready to give this answer (I don't have citations handy and I'll couch/caveat a lot--it's part of a broader thesis I've been very-occasionally picking at for a few years).

In my general framework for when agents can show up, I'm trending towards (but haven't completely convinced myself) of the following:

  • Once agents are already aware/focused on some area/activity in the matrix (shorthand: summoned), their ability to body-jump as needed is broader. I haven't quite worked out a coherent view on how.
  • Recognition doesn't summon the agents--it's more like the opposite. Nearly all (I think I have some notes about a few outliers in a notebook somewhere...) instances of an agent being summoned are briefly precipitated by a blue-pill seeing something surprising (roughly: a violation of normal order/expectations).

I'm not prepared to lay out the best support for this interpretation, but I'll sketch a little off the top of my head:

  • Many instances across the trilogy support the interpretation that merely hacking into and being present in the matrix isn't enough for agents to discover their presence. Three:

    1. Despite how many of the crew come in for Neo's first visit to the Oracle, Cipher needs to drop a live cellphone in the trash for the agents to know where the group's entry/exit are in time to orchestrate a change and SWAT response.

    2. At the in-matrix meeting early in the second film, it's somewhat evident that a single crew can safely maintain a presence in the Matrix until the Oracle contacts them.

    3. We could interpret the agents who show up at the meeting above as a point against this, but I do have a counter-reading. Whatever Neo did to Smith has broken (~unplugged) him as an agent. He can't body-jump, but I think he can sense Neo (and vice-versa).

      Neo senses Smith's arrival, but says he doesn't know what it is. After he sees the earbud, he does tell the door guards that agents are coming (in the scene it's ambiguous if he is interpreting the earbuds as a message, or if he separately senses the presence of the agents; it's also unclear if he realizes he sensed Smith--I don't think so). After Neo dispatches the agents and flies off, Smith says it went as expected. I think he led them here on purpose (they may be following the earbud; just realizing it now, but I guess they may be chasing him like they'd chase any exile...).

  • Switch pulls a gun on Neo so they can search him for bugs. IIRC Trinity tells him that this is for their protection. Two things are going on. They do need to debug Neo for their protection. (I'm not sure we know what the bug does, but I suspect the passive risk is in line with the phone Cipher drops). The gun isn't to force Neo's compliance--he's already gotten in a car with them--it's because they are about to do very surprising things to him. Switch needs to be (and is) fully prepared to put Neo down at the first sign this is summoning an agent.
  • The homeless man in the abandoned subway station watches Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo for a moment, but an agent isn't summoned until he sees Morpheus poof through a phone.
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  • You've failed to mention that Neo and crew enter and leave the Matrix outside of the "Core Network", presumably an area where the Agents maintain greater levels of surveillance
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 16:20
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    You might also want to watch the Animatrix short "Program" as that deals with Agents and how they monitor anomalies
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 16:21
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    Not sure I "failed" to mention something that, AFAIR, is unexplored beyond a name-drop in Reloaded and adds little WRT my focus on the abilities of agent programs. Trinity and Morpheus blow through the city center with the twins shooting an SMG at them for several minutes before the agents finally take over the lead police car. The only real hint is that they already know they have the keymaker. (But, as in my Smith note, tracking exiles may be in the feature set.) "Program" is the training program short, btw.
    – abathur
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 19:20
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    My apologies. I am of course meaning 'Beyond'
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 19:23
  • Thanks. It's been a while since I watched them last. I think it's my favorite of the bunch, so I'll take the nudge to rewatch. :)
    – abathur
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 19:28

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