As far as we now know, in the world of _The
Matrix_ we have the Real World, and we have
the Virtual World. The Real World consists of
the surface of the earth, war-torn and
completely dominated by artificial
intelligences, and we have Zion, deep
underground, the last bastion of free
humanity.

Everyone who exists and interacts in the Matrix
also exists in the Real World, although the
humans who are still plugged into it don't
interact with the Real World outside of
providing electricity for the machines. The
artificial intelligences have machine bodies
that house their minds, while within the Matrix
they manifest themselves as humans. The
only exception to this rule is the apparent
possession of Bane by Smith. (Question:
when Smith possesses [infects?] a person in
the Matrix, is it temporary or permanent? I have
a feeling that it's permanent; that Smith
destroys that person's consciousness and
replaces it with his own. After all, Neo said "it
felt like dying" when Smith tried to possess
him.) In the Real World, Bane is no longer
Bane; his mind now houses a copy of Smith's
consciousness instead of his own. The
machines in the Real World are apparently
aware of this, since they left Bane alive while
killing everyone else aboard his ship.

Back to the Virtual World: in the first film, it
seemed that the only machine presence in the
Matrix was that of the Agents. In the second,
we were introduced to the concept of
programs. Actually, if I remember correctly, in
_The Matrix_, Morpheus referred to the Agents
as programs, but they're obviously not the
same type of "software" as The Merovingian or
The Keymaker. Agents have no permanent
visible presence in the system; to quote
Morpheus "they are everyone and they are no
one." When an agent manifests himself, he is
occupying the "body" of a human mind that is
hardwired to the system. When his task is
complete (or the body he's using is killed) he
leaves, and the human mind is in control
again (or dead). In contrast, programs such
as The Oracle, The Twins, Persephone, and
the rest would seem to have permanent
"physical" presence within the system. Also,
they can be deleted (killed), while the agents
cannot.

What do all these different people want? I see
three, or possibly four separate factions here:

Most of humanity still connected to the Matrix
doesn't want anything other than to live out
what they think are their lives, although a
certain percentage want the truth and freedom
from the system. The free humans want victory
against the machines and freedom for all of
humanity.

The Real World AIs want absolute domination
of the Earth. I think they would gladly commit
genocide and wipe out humanity if they could,
but they're dependent on us for power. Free
humans outside the Matrix are a threat, so
they are hunted down and destroyed by
sentinels. Free humans inside the Matrix are
equally dangerous, so the agents serve the
same purpose within the system. "Find them
and destroy them!"

Then we have the sentient programs that live
inside the Matrix. As the Oracle explained to
Neo when she sent him to the Merovingian,
these are programs that have departed from
whatever purpose they were created for.
(Thought: does this mean that the Oracle is
still serving her programmed purpose?!? I
think she is, and I have a feeling she was
programmed by The Architect.) They have
taken on life of their own and serve their own
ends. The Merovingian told Neo that he had
survived all his predecessors, so apparently
he's been around since the first working
version of the Matrix. For some reason, he
thought it was in his best interests to keep
Neo from getting to the Source, so he
kidnapped the Keymaker and tried to keep
Neo from finding him. While he is able to
survive a rebooting of the Matrix, perhaps it is
difficult for him and he wants to keep it from
happening a seventh time.

I'm still contemplating how the Architect (and
his unnamed female counterpart) fit into all
this. I think he's a program too, but he must
exist *outside* of the Matrix... how could he
have built it or have any control over it if he was
part of it? His little room is still part of a virtual
reality world, but separate from the Matrix. After
all, how could he learn from previous versions'
failures and incorporate the data into the new
one if he was rebooted along with the rest of
it? The Architect's most obvious goal is to
perfect the Matrix so that the maximum
number of humans are plugged in and
providing power while the minimum number
are free to fight the machines. He gave Neo a
precise number of people with a specific male
to female ratio that he could found a new Zion
with... it seems to me that he is experimenting,
attempting to perfect a formula that will allow
his construct to run as smoothly as possible.
(Thought: the Architect is obviously in charge
of the Matrix, a position of great power and
responsibilty in the machine world. He is
responsible for making sure their power
supply doesn't get cut off. In the first film
Morhpeus told Neo about the original AI,
created by mankind, that spawned the entire
machine race. Is the Architect that AI, or is
there a higher power than him?)

Writing this post is spawning all kinds of
questions in my mind. How does Smith fit into
all this? He's acting like a rogue program, yet
he still has agent-like abilities, only enhanced.
I've read articles that referred to him as a virus,
but I don't remember that term being used in
the movie. At times he seemed to be following
his own agenda, yet at other times seemed to
be working with the agents. And why did the
agents want to kill the Keymaker? The
Keymaker was an essential part of the plan to
bring Neo to the Architect, so are the agents
working for the Architect or against him?
Maybe it's all part of the Architect's plan, to
make Neo *work* to get to the Source so he
doesn't realize he's being manipulated.

One more thought and then I'm done, I
promise. In the first movie, when Neo met the
Oracle he saw her as everyone else did.
When he walked into the dojo and saw
Seraph, that was the first time he saw a
program within the Matrix with his code-vision.
(Yeah, he saw Agents in code at the end of
_The Matrix_, but they looked just like
everyone else.) We never saw any of the other
programs through his eyes after that. I think
that the white-glowing look that Seraph had is
just how independent, sentient programs
within the Matrix look to Neo. I think that the
Oracle, the Merovingian, Persephone, the
Twins, the Keymaker, and maybe even the
Architect all look that way to him, and that
Seraph was just shown to us as an example
of what Neo sees when he looks at a
program. But that's just my opinion.

Gri"I could go on for hours"shny

Postscript: I sure am glad I wrote this post in
SimpleText and saved it on my hard drive. My
condolences to knivetsil & anyone else who
replied to it the first time I posted it...