Matrix Confusion
Okay, I geeked out all weekend watching Matrix Reloaded a few times; it was a happy birthday present from my lovely wife, who really didn't see much of me after giving it (ah, the irony). Now the first thing I was surprised by was how much I enjoyed it a second time - once I was done trying to compare it to the first film I was ready to be entertained. The second thought in my paranoid brain was how not only can we trust what our favorite hackers see IN the Matrix, but we can also not trust what we see going on in Zion, the "real" world, etc.
Now many Matrix-ites have written that perhaps Zion is just another Matrix, a simulation on top of a simulation. This doesn't hold water for me - though I have no arguments to rennounce the idea, it just doesn't "feel" right given the constant dialogue of man and machine living together versus living in opposition; I mean, if it was just another simulation than all the tension of the series is just so much hype, and I can't see the brothers pulling that on their public. However, one of the messages of the second movie is that Zion, like the Matrix itself, is another control system meant to reign in and manipulate the silly humans. I mean, it turns out that Zion is set up by the machines and is routinely destroyed and rebuilt. So what I wonder is this: wouldn't it be foolish for the machines to have built a controlling system in which they're not involved?
So here's what I'm thinking - what if the machines have agents interspersed within the human population of Zion? Agent Smith's possession of Bane early in the second movie demonstrates that artificial intelligence can "hop" the gap into human bodies; indeed, I'm still not entirely sure that Neo isn't really (or at least partly) a complex program from the machine world. So why can't the machines simply insert some "programs" into human bodies that subsequently are "freed" and brought to Zion. Can you think of a better way to monitor and manipulate the inhabitants? This came to me as I watched Council Member Haman (sp?) speaking with Neo in the bowels of Zion. He certainly seems to imply a need for man/machine cooperation - the same implications the Oracle gives Neo later in the story. So is this just parrallel thinking, or are there machine intelligences manipulating Neo from Zion as well as from the Matrix?
Now, there's no way to test this idea until the third movie comes out. I mean, Smith's ability to come into the real world may be the same quirk that allows Neo to sense the machines in the real world. Perhaps it's an unintended side-effect that the machines in general aren't aware of. But if I were a machine, it seems silly (or at least arrogant) to set up a cell of rebellous, angry humans and then not put any failsafes into the system.