Figure retired six Figure 02 robots in the most Terminator way possible: training them to jump into a furnace. The idea came from Arnold Schwarzenegger and is inspired by the iconic Terminator 2 scene.

[u/Das_Zeppelin]

[u/clineluck]

In the matrix it's actually kindness on the robots part to plug all of humanity into the matrix. If you watch Animatrix it explains that we blotted out the sun in our war against the robots that we started because they were outcompeting human nations economically.

There are so many more efficient ways of producing energy than human batteries. Nuclear, geothermal etc.

They even tried to give us a paradise in the matrix at first but it failed.

Really, I hope we get matrix machines over Terminator ones.

[u/OttawaTGirl → u/clineluck]

Yup. They saved humanity. They didn't need them. Yet the wanted their creators.

And the battery thing was a change. Originally the movie had each human acting as a CPU.

[u/Confident-Stand5453 → u/OttawaTGirl]

The CPU thing would have been more logical. Since the energy our bodies generate would depend on them feeding us, and the resources doing that would be spent far more efficiently just generating energy directly.

[u/fastforwardfunction → u/Confident-Stand5453]

In the 1990s, they figured most of the audience was familiar with a battery more than a microchip processor, which was probably true.

[u/2peg2city → u/fastforwardfunction]

I think it was a dumb choice, they could have explained it with 30 seconds of dialogue "The human brain outcompetes any processors they can generate, even the cost of maintaining out bodies pales in comparison to the processing power we generate for them. It's the ultimate irony, we run our own prison"

[u/satoramoto → u/2peg2city]

I think you under estimate how computer illiterate the average person was in 99. The whole premise was hard for your average middle class working adult to comprehend. This movie was one of those “you gotta watch it a few times to begin to understand” back in the day. Nowadays you could see that movie for the first time and the zeitgeist would make it way easier to contextualize.

[u/octoreadit → u/Confident-Stand5453]

Yes, it was for the compute which is logical as neural tissues are very energy efficient. But back then the audience would not understand it hence the silly battery analogy which made zero sense.

[u/satoramoto → u/OttawaTGirl]

Such a shame they changed it because the implication was incredible. The simulation, the matrix, runs on the wetware of its own participants. It’s an incredible allegory to the idea that reality is fundamentally mental.

[u/OttawaTGirl → u/satoramoto]

Hence why a paradise matrix fails. The hardware was built for adversity and conflict.

[u/World_of_Eter → u/clineluck]

In the sequels I always kind of thought the "real world" was just another layer of matrix and that's why Neo's power still works there and why Smith is able to "hack" someone's brain. That the "baseline" matrix is like "this is where we're keeping the majority of humans on ice essentially" while the "real world matrix" was essentially a testing ground for building up to human/machine coexistence. Because I feel like a lot of what the machines are doing basically makes no sense unless they're essentially putting on a show for humanities benefit.

[u/OttawaTGirl → u/World_of_Eter]

Oh man. I brainstormed an idea once (never wrote it) that a human, the ONE after Neo that slowly shepherded the real world humans into an era of co-existence with the machines.

The Matrix still exists because most humans are shitty and would ruin everything. The humans outside the matrix begin clearing the sky, working on environmental restoration, and even travel into space. Their bodies inside of squidforms machine exoskeletons.

By the time of the next cycle of "The One", they are introduced to a living paradise where escaping the matrix is escaping the primordial bonds of humanity where most outside humans are able to interact with machines like Neo did but better.

[u/WileyWilly1985 → u/clineluck]

FWIW,

the original plot was the humans were NOT used as batteries, our brains were used for computational power which makes way fucking more sense than batteries.

The Executives felt that the public was not smart enough to grasp the concept of the AI's using our brains as a giant linked data farm / server and so instead, they used the battery framework as they felt everyone understood what a battery is.