Matrix (fictional universe)

This is taken from the Matrix series:

The Matrix is a false reality created by intelligent machines around the year 2199 to be a perfect utopia for controlled-human beings. As the humans are "sleeping" in the Matrix, their dreams and thoughts are synthizied by the machines for energy use much like we use batteries to power remote contollers and television sets. This became a necessity after humans blocked out the Sun with a chemical barrier released by military aircraft.

The Architect created the first version of the Matrix just after the potential energy of humans was discovered. The version was designed, according to the words of Agent Smith in the first movie, as a perfect utopia, with no wars, plagues, or dangers of any sort. The machines would deal with a human's finite lifetime by disposing of that individual and then dealing with people close to that individual by wiping out traces of that person's presence, keeping people from grieving. According to Smith, the first version succeded for some time, but before long the inevitable struck with alarming force. People, due to human nature, began to reject the system of the Matrix, which caused the first version to crash.

The second version was then proposed after some time. Instead of the "perfection" of the first, the Architect countered with a more "dangerous" one. The version included wars, plagues, and more hellish environments. This is where the Merovingian, Seraph, The Twins, and human imaginative creatures existed. The second, much to the surprise of the Architect, failed to last as long as the first. First, Seraph and the Merovingian distanced from each other, and second the humans again began to reject the program, leading to the system's crash.

The thought of making a third version hung for a little while until a way could be plotted into dealing with the human's unpredictable nature. The plan eventually rested on creating a new program. That new program...was the Oracle. The Oracle was created to understand humanity's nature and come back with information that would be instrumental with the creation of a third Matrix. After some careful research, the Oracle informed that 99% of humans would accept the system only if they were given a choice. However, the remaining 1% were labeled as "Rebels" and were thought to be dangerous to the stabilty of the Matrix. The plan hatched to deal with this problem was to allow this 1% to leave the Matrix and create a settlement of their own called Zion. However, the problem eventually arose that such a settlement would eventually give way to a system crash if not dealt with. So the machines came up with the thought for the creation of The One, which would be given specific instructions on the mechanics of the system. Before the destruction of Zion would comence, the One would be allowed to pick 16 female and 7 male survivors in order to rebuild Zion.

So the One was put into effect and compiled with the Machines' demands, as the process happened with the third, fourth, and fifth versions without a hitch. However, in the sixth version, the new version of the One (a.k.a. Thomas A. Anderson) realized the ironic nature of the system through a new power the machines' had not expected. By being in the realm of humans', the One began to experience love to a particular woman, Trinity (remember, the One was created to have human charcteristics). This led to the One rejecting the rational idea posed by the Architect to save Zion and instead chose the irrational idea by saving Trinity from an attack by an Agent. This led to more system crashes and the allowance for Smith, now a rogue program strengthed by the One imprinting some of his code onto him, to spread throughout the Matrix. He became a threat to both machines and humans like and so when the One struck a deal with the Source to get rid of Smith in return for peace between the humans and machines, it went through. The One ended up destroying Smith by allowing him to imprint over himself. This caused both to be deleted simultaneously, fufilling his deal with the Source and allowing peace to be restored. The inhabitants of Zion were allowed to survive after all.

As of The Matrix Online, the newest seventh version exists now in the Matrix world. Not much is known about about it, but judging by the conversation at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, it is said that the people and programs that want to leave will be allowed to, finally acheving perfection ... but in a different way.