How hard of sci-fi is The Matrix?

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

The movie is thought-provoking on a philosophical level and in terms of craft, both as a work of fiction and as a film. Various accusations of plagiarism aside, it's a revolutionary action film, but it also has meaningful things to say. That's what makes it a classic.

What it isn't is thought-provoking on a scientific level, which is one reason why it's not hard sci-fi.

[clearspira]

I won't deny it got people thinking, but the idea of everything being a simulation is absurd. Great fantasy, don't get me wrong, but it is on the same faith level as God so I didn't think about it too long. And frankly, I once have to ask the question why. Why would either A) someone design someone as unremarkable as me or B) need to imprison someone as unremarkable as me. Spending resources on either is a serious red mark on the whole idea.

I think this is born from the same seed as God or the Illuminati. The need to want there to be some order, some reason, some purpose, some design to your life. The truth that you live in an uncaring universe with no meaning and no planned destination scares people.

[Nealithi]

Well from what was given by Chuck. The original script was that humanity were used as bio processors so the programs could run on them. I think from that, there would have been a better explanation as to why the machines did it that way than the 'burnt' sky.

As to why the machines don't go above the cloud layer. It seems to be an EMP field as all the machines that held on shorted out and fell off. Even the ship had to be jump started to basically hit the brakes. So presumably they might erect a tower. But would still not be able to get above it.
So Humanity is living under the oppressive machines above them. And the machines live under the oppressive cloud above them.

Sadly what we see on screen? I would give a 1.5 for the first movie and a 1 for the second and third. Might have gone 3 if not for rewrites to be batteries.

https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond ... -hardness/

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Maybe never taking The Matrix seriously as hard sci-fi is one reason why the human battery nonsense never seemed like a big deal to me.

It's really not a big part of the story, certainly not in the first one anyway. The machines needed to have some reason, any reason, to grow and enslave humans. Leaving that reason unexplained might have been the best option- it would have left a lot of room for mystery, to have fun leaving cryptic hints, inspire spirited debate, etc. Either that or a seriously strong explanation.

As it is, they picked a pretty poor explanation, but it's tangential to the story the Wachowskis wanted to tell. It's similar to, say, the explanation of how the Reliant mistook Ceti Alpha V for Ceti Alpha VI in The Wrath of Khan. The explanation isn't good, but it only exists to move the story along and get to the meat of the story.

[Madner Kami]

If I recall right, the only ones ever acknowledging the human battery theory are the humans themselves and their knowledge of their world is... let's call it lacking. I always worked under the assumption that "real world bullshit told by the humans" is down to them just not knowing any better.

Plus it stands to reason, that the humans who left the Matrix, never actually did and thus whatever they see in the "real world", is just whatever the machines want them to see.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

If I recall right, the only ones ever acknowledging the human battery theory are the humans themselves and their knowledge of their world is... let's call it lacking. I always worked under the assumption that "real world bullshit told by the humans" is down to them just not knowing any better.

Plus it stands to reason, that the humans who left the Matrix, never actually did and thus whatever they see in the "real world", is just whatever the machines want them to see.

I think it can be kind of fun to consider that, somehow, the human understanding of what the machines are doing in the real world is consistent. But yes it's pretty pertinent also that we have no reason to assume that that's so.

As far as what we see as an audience though for Zion and being outside of the matrix, there's a bit there that could serve as evidence, but that's not really where the narrative takes you ever. I tend to be weary of false narratives that have no explicit accounting.

[Madner Kami]

Oh Zion. The Den "near" the center of the Earth, where it should be not just way too hot to even exist (we are talking about 5000°C plus here), not to think of the air pressure you could not survive or the fact, that while the center of the Earth is a solid iron-nickel alloy, you'd have to pass through the liquid molten outer core first, before you get there. Unless Earth is so unfathomably old by the point of the Matrix-movies that enough time has passed for the liquid outer core to have solidified, that simply spoken, the sun would already be absurdly long into it's white dwarf phase and somehow not managed to evaporate Earth during it's red giant phase.

Um... Yeah. No way that Zion is real. Of course, from an outside perspective like ours, it's just a plothole, but in universe... Zion does not exist in the movie's fundamental reality. It's a construct within a layer of the matrix.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Oh Zion. The Den "near" the center of the Earth, where it should be not just way too hot to even exist (we are talking about 5000°C plus here), not to think of the air pressure you could not survive or the fact, that while the center of the Earth is a solid iron-nickel alloy, you'd have to pass through the liquid molten outer core first, before you get there. Unless Earth is so unfathomably old by the point of the Matrix-movies that enough time has passed for the liquid outer core to have solidified, that simply spoken, the sun would already be absurdly long into it's white dwarf phase and somehow not managed to evaporate Earth during it's red giant phase.

Um... Yeah. No way that Zion is real. Of course, from an outside perspective like ours, it's just a plothole, but in universe... Zion does not exist in the movie's fundamental reality. It's a construct within a layer of the matrix.

Well yeah lol anywhere respectably "near" the center of the earth is obviously off limits, but surely the gradient doesn't go from 0-5000 C without first arriving to more habitable areas for a considerable amount of stretch. While proportion of length wise it's probably nowhere near the center, on the temperature gradient warmth itself substantiates "proximity."

Of course this is what you get when you got a guy prophesying to neo and doesn't even get portrayed as a prophet, but just some other schlum with a set of keys and a sweet ride.

Also when watching The Finally Released Revolutions Review by FlickFloggers, I came to the idea that Zion was initially a base of operations for the machines for some reason until they decided to abandon it.

[Madner Kami]

Well, funnily enough, the temperature rises fairly linearly from the surface all the way through the lithosphere (about 410km/254mi down) by 25–30°C/km or 77-87°F/mi. Once you reached the depth of 410km, there's a sharp drop in the increase of temperature per distance down, but well... You can see it gets pretty uncomfortably warm by just 1 mile down already and it just gets worse from there, with pretty dire implications for human life before you even reached 2 mile mark.

[Makeshift Python]

So by “hard” are we talking strictly scientific accuracy or indulging in heavy philosophical concepts? I don’t think anyone could actually claim it’s “scientifically accurate”, but it certainly has a ton of ideas to play with more than your average sci-fi actioner.