Thanks to Monkeyman for posting this. I'm geeking out here, and going to provide a bit of commentary for parts that I think are interesting. I think more is said by the Architect than I had originally realized.

> Architect: I am the Architect. I created the Matrix. I have been waiting for
> you. You have many questions and although the process has altered your
> consciousness you remain irrevocably human,

This is important, because it proves Neo is human. Certain people (David Poland) have been claiming that The One is a computer program. I think that's nonsense.

> Architect: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation
> inherent in the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an
> anomaly which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate
> from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision.

The machines *don't* want the Anomaly to exist, and so their actual level of control over the situation is suspect. I don't think the Architect ever lies to Neo, as he is confident that his side will triumph, but it's very possible that the machines are overconfident about their ability to control events. I think that in this way the series will end up arguing for free will -- the Matrix appears to be a deterministic system, but choice will overthrow it.

> Neo: Then there are only two possible explanations, either no one told me,
> or no one knows.

"No one knows" synchs up well with the first film. Morpheus says in it that the humans don't know the exact year, and so they don't know how old the Matrix is, and it's also possible that the human who freed Morpheus and had Neo's power simply didn't tell them about it.

> Neo: Choice, the problem is choice.

Free will taking down the deterministic system.

> I
> have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required
> a lesser mind a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus the
> answer was stumbled upon by another, and intuitive program, initially
> created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the
> father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother.
>
> Neo: The Oracle
>
> Architect: Please,

This is *very* ambigous. Who does the Architect mean? As far as I know, only two "female" programs exist: the Oracle and Persephone (the French dude's super-hot wife). Is it one of them? The Architect doesn't give an answer, which makes me suspect its *not* the Oracle, and may be a new character or a trick. Is Trinity involved? If there are three parts to her, her name might then make sense. But that seems really lame.

> That if left unchecked might threaten the system itself, ergo those
> that refuse the program while the minority if unchecked would cause an
> escalating probability of disaster.

So they have to leave some humans alive, but keep their numbers in check. Enough free humans in the Matrix can cause "disaster" meaning... I don't know exactly. What do the machines consider a disaster? The system crashing? All the other humans waking up?

> Architect: Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But, rest
> assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it. And we have
> become exceedingly efficient at it. 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 23 individuals, 16 female 7 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.

Note the careful phrasing here (unless it is a transcription error). The "function now of the One," emphasis on "now." The machines didn't build the One, but they've set up a situation where he's useful and where the "code" he carries is used to stop the Matrix from crashing. The illusion of control.

> Architect: There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept.

I love this line.

> An
> emotion that is already blinding you from the simple and obvious truth, she
> is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Hope, it is the
> quintessential human delusion simultaneously the source of your greatest
> strength and your greatest weakness.

Interesting. Technically, Trinity "dies," but did the Architect know Neo could save her? Or, maybe as Dave speculates, do the machines trick Neo after he leaves the Architect's room, allowing him to *think* he's saved Trinity, so that he'll eventually return to the Source? I'm not sure.

> Neo: If I were you, I would hope that we don't meet again.
>
> Architect: We won't.

Five bucks says they do.

Stephen