> Several people have suggested that
> everything that happens after Neo walks
> through the Architect's door is actually still
> inside the Matrix, that Neo is in a pseudo real
> world. Someone else I know suggested that
> perhaps everyone is actually still plugged into
> the Matrix, and that the reason Neo went into
> a coma at the end of the movie is that he really
> and truly woke up!

If the Matrix trilogy were to have happened in real life, then that could have been very plausible. But I think that to have *three* levels of existence would have to get too confusing for most moviegoers. Besides, prior to Reloaded coming out, it was already confirmed that while Reloaded would be set mostly in the Matrix, and Revolutions would mostly be set in Zion. If that is the case, then the *real* real world would have to come near the very end, and I don't see how the trilogy could have any sort of closure if that happened. So, I'm going to dismiss that particular theory.
>
> > On another note, the "original AI" that you
> refer to is still the single, dominating
> intelligence that governs the vast majority of
> the machines. The machine race is like an ant
> colony, and the intelligence that the Architect
> represents is like the queen. Barring Smith, all
> machines and agents are controlled by this
> one consciousness.
>
> I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.
> Do think the Artichect *is* that original AI, or do
> you think he is subservient to it?

I believe that the Architect is the original AI, in control of most of the "machine system", and most of the machines and programs are subservient to him.
>
> Your ant colony analogy doesn't seem right to
> me. Ants don't rebel against the colony and do
> their own thing, and we seem to have a lot of
> that going on here. Certainly there are some
> instances, like the sentinels, where there are
> mindless drone-type robots that could all be
> run by one program, but it seems to me that
> most of the programs are autonomous. If all
> the software was a subset of the Master AI, the
> programs wouldn't be able to go off and do
> their own thing.

The only programs that rebel against the system are the ones whose connection to it are severed. It's like if an ant's connection to the colony was severed and it developed its own consciousness. This happens when the program hides in the Matrix when it faces deletion. It is not supposed to exist, so the system does not acknowledge it, so it is no longer subservient to it. Of course, this doesn't happen with most programs, only the most rebellious sentient ones, or sentient ones with the most will to survive, like Smith. Most programs just return to the Source.
>
> > Smith himself is also somewhat of an
> anomaly. He is a sentient program, like the
> other agents, a program that was self-aware
> and self-conscious. In the first movie, he was
> mostly subservient to the main AI. However, it
> becomes apparent that he has some beefs
> with the system ("I hate this place. This...zoo.
> This prison, this reality; whatever you want to
> call it, I can't stand it any longer."), In the
> Reloaded, he has rebelled aginst the system
> and has his own agenda.
>
> That illustrates another of the contrasts
> between agents and other programs. Agents
> are probably unable to rebel against the
> system like other programs because they're
> dependent on it. They have no permanent
> presence within it. But now Smith *does*
> because of whatever it was Neo did to him.
> "You freed me" he says.
>
I once heard that an ant colony should not be thought of as a collection of organisms, but rather as a single organism, with one will centered around the queen. The individual ants are merely bodies, totally under the influence of the will of the queen. I believe that the Architect is analogous to the queen, and the machines and programs are the individual ants. Now there are programs within this system that keep the Matrix in order and running. ("You see those birds? At one point, a program was written to govern their behavior. A program was written to watch over the trees and the wind. There are programs all over the place.") These include the agents, whose purpose are to eliminate exiles or free humans. But they are different than the wind or tree programs in that those programs are binded to the Matrix, while the complexity of the agents' task makes it necessary that they are sentient. All programs whose tasks are too complex are made sentient, programs such as the Keymaker and the Merovingian. In comparison to the ant analogy, they are freed from complete possession by the will of the queen, but still obey it. (They are plugged into it with their little ear-pieces. It's like having a person growing out of your torso.) This is generally not a problem, since most agents find it beneficial to serve the original AI (since if the Matrix shuts down they are destroyed). However, Smith made a choice to rebel, apparently just because he couldn't stand the Matrix. At first, because he was plugged into it, he couldn't do anything about it. But when he was destroyed by Neo, he was freed from the system, "unplugged," in his own words. His connection to the system was severed. From then on, he could follow his own agenda and do his own thing. A similar thing happened with the Keymaker and the Merovingian et. al. A similar thing can happen with any sentient program, including any other agent, if they so desired once they faced deletion and their connections were cut off.

> > When did Smith appear to work with the
> other agents? I don't remember any such
> instance, at least not in Reloaded.
>
> I may be remembering it incorrectly. I'm
> thinking of the scene where Neo first fights the
> upgraded agents, then flies away. I thought
> after he left, Smith appeared and asked the
> agnets "is it done?" or something like that. I
> thought there was some cooperation between
> them going on there, but maybe I'm
> remembering it wrong. I need to see the film
> again.

What you're remembering is when Smith is talking to andother Smith. At first, you only see one of them, then one says "It's happening exactly s before." The other says "Well, not exactly." And then you see two Smiths face to face.

Thinking about this had led me to consider another theory. What if it's the agents that control the sentinels, and not the main AI? It makes sense, once you think about it. The purpose of the agents are to handle the free humans, right? Wouldn't haaving control over the sentinels be a logical way of doing that? And that would also explain why the sentinels didn't kill Bane/Smith. Remember, Bane/Smith is the only Smith that is unplugged. The rest are still in the Matrix, and they could make the sentinels spare the Smith ouside of the Matrix. Of course, this still doesn't explain how Neo could stop the sentinels at the end of Reloaded. I'm still thinking about that.

Now I just thought of something else. The Smiths are like another ant colony, with the original Smith, the one played by Hugo Weaving, as the queen.

knivetsil