Matrix (fictional universe)

The Matrix is the main setting of the Matrix series of science fiction films, comics and games.

Overview
In the dystopia the series depicts, Earth is dominated by sentient machines. Humans are grown in pods and are connected by cybernetic implants to an artificial reality called the Matrix, which keeps their minds under control while the machines use the thermal energy of their bodies as an energy source.

The virtual reality world simulated by the Matrix consists primarily of a vast unnamed megacity which resembles human civilisation around the turn of the 21st century (This time period was chosen, as it is supposedly the pinnacle of human civilisation). As this environment is practically indistinguishable from reality, the majority of humans connected to the Matrix are unaware of its true nature. However, most of the central characters in the series know that it is not real, and as a result can partially bend the simulation's physical laws in order to perform superhuman feats.

The virtual world is first introduced in The Matrix. The Animatrix short film "The Second Renaissance" and the comic "Bits and Pieces of Information" show how the initial conflict between humans and machines came about, and how and why the Matrix was first developed. Its history and purpose are further explained in The Matrix Reloaded.

Supposed History of the Matrix
The machines' encyclopedic knowledge of human physiology allowed them to determine that the bioelectric, thermal, and kinetic energy produced by the human body could be a renewable energy source if it's combined with a form of cold fusion. The machines made plain the expectations they had for their defeated creators: "Your flesh is irrelevant, only a vessel. Hand over your flesh and a new world awaits you. We demand it."

This "new world" was the world of the Matrix. A neural-interactive program, a computer simulation designed to fool the minds of humans into believing that they were living in their "normal" world.

The machines found an efficient way to use the human bodies as receptacles for controlling cold fusion reactions, thus turning humans into power generators. They started cloning humans, using the genetic data they had. This way they gradually increased the output of their power stations, essentially resurrecting the dead in the process.

The machines developed a new power source and with it began the enslavement of the entire human race. The first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered and everyone was happy. But it was a disaster. No one would accept the program because it was unbelievable. Countless human minds disconnected themselves from the program, accidentally killing themselves. Entire 'crops' were lost. So the machines decided to re-design the Matrix into what the real human world once was. Filled with suffering and pain. This worked for a while, but still too many humans would not accept the program. Especially because they didn't believe the overdramatic, unconvincing and too often farfetched 'soap operas' being played out around them that were engineered and staged by the AI's vision of how they presumed human life should look like. They got better at this over time, but eventually wisely decided that the best way was to leave the humans to play around by their own and shape their own, more convincing settings of life. But still many humans somehow sensed that there was something wrong with the world and instinctively tried to reach beyond it, causing fluctuations and disturbances in the Matrix.

The machines almost decided to clone other warm-blooded animals, to replace humans with organisms that would be less aware of minute errors in the program. But they needed humans, because they could use the spare processing power of the human brain to control their nuclear fusion reaction (which produced the basic energy that was the beginning of the chain in the whole energy generation process.). The machines were using the human brains to enhance their own processing power. In fact, much of the Matrix was dependant on the collective memory and processing power of the human brains themselves (that's why the humans were able to affect and re-shape the reality of the Matrix). The spare processing power of the human brains was used to stabilize the cold fusion reaction that took place in the power plants. The energy from the fusion reactions was combined with recycled organic molecular structures, recharging them in a photosynthesis-like fashion and turning to chemical energy, consumed by the human body and moderately released in the form of heat and electricity that the human body generated naturally, thus producing a temperate, stable energy release rate, that the machines could absorb with ease without having to store great quantities of energy. Electromagnetic waves harmed their systems if not handled through an organic tool like the human body. So using human hosts as batteries was the perfect solution for the machines. As an energy source, humans were easily renewable and completely recyclable, the dead liquefied and fed intravenously to the living.

All the materials from which humans were built were constantly recycled. Every dead human was liquefied and fed to newly grown humans. The whole system was basically a self-recycling self-sustaining cybernetic cold fusion reactor. The intense EM bursts generated by the cold fusion were being absorbed by the system's biological components because they were harmful to the mechanical systems. And because of the constant EMP bombardment, organic processors were needed to control the reaction, since artificial ones wouldn't be able to work under such conditions. That's why the machines would be unable to generate energy in this fashion without working, healthy, human minds. All that the machines had to provide into the system was water. And there was plenty of it on Earth. The hydrogen from the water was what powered the cold fusion reaction, and the oxygen was used for the human bodies to breath to burn their chemical energy and turn it to the form of energy the machines could absorb. To make it more efficient, the human metabolism was altered by the machines' genetic engineering, to increase heat production to far exceed the normal level of heat produced by human bodies in nature. Thus the human bodies were forced to burn all the chemical energy that was inputted instead of spending it on growing useless tissues like muscles, hair or nails. The hydrogen was mixed with carbon dioxide and other human waste products and once again used to recharge the molecular structures until they were again full with stored chemical energy and fed back into the humans. This was an inexhaustible cycle creating energy. The only thing that was being lost was the mass of hydrogen (basically the same process that took place in the sun only in colder form). And there was enough hydrogen in the water on Earth to last the machines for millions of years. More than enough for them to spread beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Unfortunately for the machines, the Matrix once again malfunctioned, killing many of the humans and causing energy shortages throughout the machine world. Then a solution was found by a program designed to investigate the human psyche. The program was able to use the collective minds of the humans to see the future. She learned that humans would accept the Matrix only if they were given free will, at least on the subconscious level, in being able to control their own actions in the Matrix.

So the Matrix was once again reconstructed, now with a measure of free choice that humans were aware of. But this opened the gate to a dangerous new anomaly. This was actually the embodiment of a known mathematical anomaly, which caused fluctuations in even the simplest equations. This anomaly grew in the elaborate Matrix of mathematical precision and threatened the system itself. It came in the form of a man, who could not only shape his own destiny, but the fate of the entire Matrix as well. This forced the Architect of the Matrix (a God-like program which created, maintained and controlled the Matrix world) to find a way around this anomaly.

Meanwhile the small group of people that managed to elude the machines and take refuge in Zion, finally managed to get the station fully operational. Defenses were built and the band of exiles began to plan for the emancipation of their fellow humans. With the use of the station's hovercrafts they were able to take stealthy trips to the surface utilizing the vast underground sewer systems of the giant mega cities. In the ventures to the surface they discovered the hellish nightmare that now enshrouded mankind. With even a stronger resolve the group began to steal technology from the machines. They adapted their ships to allow them to hack into the AI's false world and began to battle the AI on its own ground. But they soon discovered that it was harder than they first thought. Whenever their digital selves were injured inside the Matrix, their bodies were harmed in the real world as well, as a result of a psychosomatic response. In essence, when the brain thought the body was injured, the injury turned real. While connected to the Matrix people had been known to alter their blood pressure, lower their body temperature, even manifest tumors as a result of the psychological stimuli.

And these stimuli could definitely cause more serious injuries. Although they couldn't spontaneously break a bone, they could certainly stop their hearts or burst a key blood vessel in their brains. Therefore those that were killed inside the Matrix died in the real world as well. It was difficult at best to survive and many were lost as the AI developed sentient search programs that sought out the early rebels. But nature has a way of adapting a species to exist and mankind was no different. The brains of the humans connected to the Matrix started to mutate, grow beyond the passive state they were in, giving the humans in the artificial reality psychic powers.

The Matrix, being the largest and most advanced program in the universe (with the number of calculations per seconds greater than the estimated number of particles in the universe) was an important center of the Machine society. All the AI nods were linked together through the Matrix. Therefore what happened in the Matrix had direct effect on the machine world. Much of the AI collective existed in the Matrix, in the form of programs simulating humans. This way if and when the rebels tried to destroy the AI's nods in the Matrix, these characters responded almost immediately to stop them. In a sense the machine world was under the control of the Matrix. All the connection nods intersected in the Matrix, as if it was some sort of processing center - a focal point where all the "ideas" and "instincts" of the AI entity were first expressed in some form, like imagination. The Matrix was filled with metaphoric imagery. Like a daydream, it did not make literal sense, but symbolically it had logic to it. In this post apocalyptic world, the battle was not for the future of the Earth (that had already been lost) but for the future of the human souls trapped in the Matrix. It was just as was foretold in ancient texts. But those prophecies were only a warning. It didn't have to happen. It was just one possible time line.

One human who arose in the Matrix had the ability to bend the simulation to his will. Just like a man who realized he's in a dream and suddenly had the power to do anything, if only he could keep himself from awakening. The same thing happened, only that the man could control the entire Matrix even though it wasn't just his mind.

He made the difference and with his help the tide of battle began to change. He was able to release others from the bounds of the Matrix and set them free. There was hope.

Version one
After the human race was defeated by the machines of Zero One, the machines performed experiments using cybernetic implants to connect human minds to computers. The first version of the Matrix into which the humans were hardwired was created by the Architect. According to him in The Matrix Reloaded, it was designed as a perfect world, with no wars, plagues, or dangers of any sort. People, due to human nature, began to reject this simulated utopian reality; according to Agent Smith, this rejection caused "entire crops" of humans to die.

Version two
Instead of the "perfection" of the first, the second version of the Matrix simulated a world more in line with "the varying grotesqueries of [human] nature", with wars, plagues and more hellish environments. Images shown on the television screens as version two is being described include images of Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, as well as war, sickness and death. Particularly evident is images of radiation-burnt victims of the atomic bomb. This suggests that version two was in a perpetual state of war. It has been alluded to by pre-version three programs such as the Merovingian and Persephone that entities such as the Twins (ghosts), Seraph (angels), Cujo and his werewolves, Vlad and his vampires, as well as other "supernatural" programs are remnants of this era of the Matrix.

Much to the frustration of the Architect, this version was also a failure.

Version three
The creation of a third version was suspended until a way of dealing with mankind's unpredictable nature could be found. The solution was stumbled upon by the Oracle, a program created to understand the human psyche. The Oracle found that 99% of humans would accept the system if given a subconscious choice to accept or reject the Matrix. However, the remaining 1% could eventually become dangerous to the stability of the Matrix if left unchecked. This problem was solved by allowing this 1% to reject the Matrix and create a settlement of their own called Zion. Otherwise, the unwilling people left inside the Matrix would cause it to crash, killing everyone connected to it.

In order to keep the inhabitants of Zion under control, they created the concept of the One, and the Oracle disseminated among the rebels a prophecy that this person would free humanity. The One would also be instrumental in the smooth restarting of the Matrix. Before the Matrix would crash, Zion would be attacked, and the One would meet the Architect, and would be told the truth about the Matrix and his following task:

"'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 twenty-three individuals — sixteen female, seven male — to rebuild Zion. 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.'"

The survivors would be told the prophecy of the One, but would not be allowed to know of the cycle of the Matrix's renewal, each time believing it to be around the year 2100 when they were revived, and the first time anyone had been freed from the Matrix.

The "One cycle" was put into effect, with the machines maintaining control of the system for five full cycles and five Ones. However, the sixth One, Thomas Anderson (called Neo), was different from his predecessors in a way the machines had not expected. The previous Ones had all felt a general attachment to people, and had chosen to prolong the Matrix in order to avoid the extinction of the human race; Neo, however, loved a particular woman, Trinity, a hacker whom the Oracle had told would fall in love with the One. Neo rejected the rational idea posed by the Architect to save humanity and instead made the irrational decision to save Trinity from an attack by an Agent.

In turn, this led to more system crashes and the allowance for Smith, a rogue Agent corrupted and strengthed by a previous encounter with Neo, to spread throughout the Matrix like a virus. He became a threat to both machines and humans alike, and so when the One struck a deal with the machines — in the form of an entity known as Deus ex Machina — to get rid of Smith in return for peace, it agreed. Neo battled Smith, but eventually realized that the only way to win was to allow Smith to imprint over himself, enabling the machines to delete the rogue program through him. Peace was restored, and the inhabitants of Zion were allowed to survive.

Version four
The conclusion of The Matrix Revolutions shows a fourth version of the Matrix world, in which anyone who wishes to leave the Matrix is allowed to do so. The Matrix Online takes place in this version of the Matrix.

Matrix (univers de fiction)