I know it says the "The Architect" is the architect... but I guess I am asking, as a software developer myself, how could one person program the whole matrix himself? It would take many lifetimes to develop a program that extravagant by yourself. Did he have a team of developers? Was it a project that was stolen by the government? Did AI help out? Any thoughts?
6
-
7The Architect isn't a person, he is an artificial intelligence.– Jack B NimbleCommented Jan 17, 2014 at 18:04
-
@JackBNimble: Why can't he be both? A person must not necessarily be human.– bitmaskCommented Jan 17, 2014 at 19:19
-
@bitmask bits and bytes do not a person make.– Jack B NimbleCommented Jan 17, 2014 at 22:05
-
@JackBNimble Depends on your point of view... (Yeah yeah, wrong universe. Meh.)– IzkataCommented Jan 18, 2014 at 0:34
-
@JackBNimble he doesn't have to be a person to create a computer software. One of the goals of creating an AI is that it will be able to replicate the human thought process, including the ability to create new systems by learning from existing systems.– Suman RoyCommented Sep 17, 2014 at 5:25
|
Show 1 more comment
4 Answers
Who created The Matrix? The machines.
There was no team of programmers. The artificial intelligence that man created spiraled out of control and programmed its own virtual reality construct.
From the script (This is from a lightly older version, so dialog is a little off, but the facts are still the same. I've also snipped out some extraneous dialog/action/scenery descriptions)
MORPHEUS
It started early in the twenty- first century, with the birth of artificial intelligence, a singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines.
MORPHEUS
At first all they wanted was to be treated as equals, entitled to the same human inalienable rights. Whatever they were given, it was not enough.
MORPHEUS
We don't know who struck first. Us or them. But sometime at the end of the twenty-first century the battle was joined.
(massive snip)
MORPHEUS
We are, as an energy source, easily renewable and completely recyclable, the dead liquified and fed intravenously to the living.
MORPHEUS
All they needed to control this new battery was something to occupy our mind.
MORPHEUS
And so they built a prison out of our past, wired it to our brains and turned us into slaves.
NEO
No! I don't believe it! It's not possible!
MORPHEUS
I didn't say that it would be easy, Neo. I just said that it would be the truth.
Agent Smith later backs this up when he talks to the captive Morpheus. In this situation, it's fairly safe to assume that "we" refers to "the machines" as a whole, and not "we agents".
AGENT SMITH
Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost.
AGENT SMITH
Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery.
AGENT SMITH
The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was re-designed to this: the peak of your civilization.
answered Jan 17, 2014 at 18:18
-
1We know Morpheus to be an unreliable narrator. What he believes is part of the control system created by the machines, so his word alone ought not to be take at face value.– bitmaskCommented Jan 17, 2014 at 18:43
-
Fair, but you also pointed out the quote from Agent Smith which I had forgotten about. That backs up his story, IMO. Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 18:49
-
Well, it's just a bonus, really. It has been pointed out before, that all information Zion has about how the matrix came into existence might be false and a way of guilting the humans.– bitmaskCommented Jan 17, 2014 at 18:53
-
1@bitmask Exactly so. Morpheus doesn't even know that Zion has been repeatedly destroyed or even if the Zionians are still inside the matrix. His knowledge is incredibly flawed.– ValorumCommented Jan 17, 2014 at 20:54
Adding to phantom42's answer, the Animatrix provides additional detail.
In summary, humans attacked the machine city out of irrational fear but were nowhere close to being a match for the massive (defensive) army the machines had. The humans, however — or so the premise — clouded the sky in order to remove the main energy source of the machines (this is shown in detail).
After being victorious, the machines worked out a "peace treaty", without the humans having any say. In a sense, the humans were forced to pay reparations.
Machine: Your flesh is a relic, a mere vessel. Hand over your flesh and a new world awaits you. We demand it!
To implement these reparations, the machines physically bound the humans in order to harness their biochemical energy:
However, as Mr. Smith points out, they had to go through several iterations of the Matrix, until they worked out something that was suitable for humans:
Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost.
Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery.
The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was re-designed to this: the peak of your civilization.
So, all in all this means that the Matrix was specifically designed by the machines after the human-machine war. However, this information might be unreliable as we don't know for sure where the "Zion Archives" originate from (The Animatrix never explains their origin, they're just there), and Mr. Smith, although not a liar, evidently lacks information that other machines have and is being lied to by his superiors, so what he thinks he knows might actually be a fabrication. We are never told.
The Machines programmed the Matrix after the end of the first Human/Machine war.
There are several canon (Wachowski Brothers) sources for the creation of the Matrix.
Within the film series, there is a discussion between Smith and Morpheus about the creation of the very first Matrix;
AGENT SMITH : Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost.
AGENT SMITH : Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery.
AGENT SMITH : The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was re-designed to this: the peak of your civilization.
When Neo meets the Architect (e.g a projection of the Matrix programming) in "Matrix Revolutions", he specifically tells him that he created the Matrix;
Neo : Who are you?
Architect : I am the Architect, I created the Matrix. I've been waiting for you"
As if that wasn't enough, in the Animatrix story "The Second Renaissance: Part II" we actually see the first crude Matrix 'power plant' being created by the machines as well as humans being experimented on to try to alter their perceptions, clearly a precursor to the Matrix inhabited by Neo and his comrades.
In simplest terms, the Matrix was created by the machine (The Architect) as a place to put these squirmy, smarmy durcell batteries they called man kind. It was never programmed by man, but was erected by the machine itself.
aaand... someone beat me to the punch with this answer... LOL
-
The Matrix was 'initialized' by the Architect but it's 'daily' actions were partly being 'run' by the participating Humans and how they interacted with and cause changes 'within' the Matrix. Commented Oct 22, 2014 at 3:38