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The Science of the Matrix

KamehamehaWarrior writes "Peter B. Lloyd, author of Taking The Red Pill: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in The Matrix, believes that many of the plot developments in "The Matrix" that seem to contradict the laws of physics, biology, etc. can actually be explained with a closer look at the science. He addresses issues such as "Can humans really be an energy source? How does the Matrix know what fried chicken taste like? Why do the rebels have to enter and exit the Matrix via a telephone system (that doesn't actually exist)?""

21 of 473 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdotted by Oopsz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Looks like taking down the matrix wasn't so hard at all.

  2. Am I missing something? by Xformer · · Score: 4, Funny

    And here I thought that they didn't know what chicken tasted like... hence it tasting like everything. Makes you wonder if someone was paying attention or not...

    And no, I can't RTFA... it's /.-ed already (doh!).

    --
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  3. The Agents by IcEMaN252 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sorry guys, the Agents got to this one first.

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  4. And for the love of Ted.... by HeywoodJablomi69 · · Score: 2, Funny

    How the hell is a human neural system supposed to react faster than software in a computer system? That's what really bugs me. That, and the blatant disregard for the Laws of Thermodynamics. And Keanu Reeves.

  5. Re:Article helps with suspension of disbelief by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would seem that just keeping them sedated would have been somewhat more practical...might have made for a lousy movie though...

    Neo: zZzZzZzZzZzZ?
    Trinity: zZzZzZzZzZ!
    Neo: zZzZ ZzZz???

    --

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  6. The Matrix: April 15th edition: by A_Non_Moose · · Score: 3, Funny

    Morpheous: The matrix is everywhere. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church...when you pay your taxes....

    Neo: Oh! Shit! My TAXES. TRINITY! HELP!

    heh.

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  7. Does the article explain "THE NEED"? by nizo · · Score: 2, Funny

    By "THE NEED", I mean every geek's need to explain everything and make sure nothing in the movie violates any of the known laws of physics, rather than just enjoying a movie?

  8. But Mr. Anderson, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What good is a net connection if you've been slashdotted?

  9. Re:HERE IS THE TEXT OF THE ARTICLE by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Funny
    Please mod me up, I need to work on my karma.

    Umm, I don't like to break this to you, but karma whoring doesn't work if you post as an AC...

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  10. Re:But, does the article explain.... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Funny
    But, does the article explain how such a terrible film like The Matrix can be such a big thing to so many people?

    That needs explanation? Okay, I'll break it down for you:

    1. Trinity's breasts
    2. Guns. Lots of Guns.
    3. Gratuitous kung-fu scenes
    4. Trinity's breasts
    5. Pseudo-science which is readily comprehensible lets the hard-of-thinking think that they are intelligent.
    6. Pseudo-philosophy which is readily comprehensible lets the hard-of-thinking think that they are intelligent.
    7. Trinity's breasts
    8. ???
    9. Profit (Profit more once sequels released)
    See? It had everything you need for mass marked appeal, and none of that 'having to think' crap that makes films unpopular.
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  11. Someone should've told... by mqRakkis · · Score: 4, Funny

    mr. Lloyd that The Matrix is actually a movie and not a documentary ;-)

  12. Re:Article helps with suspension of disbelief by sczimme · · Score: 5, Funny


    More like this:

    Neo: zZzZzZzZzZzZ?
    Trinity: zZzZzZzZzZ!

    Neo: zZzZ... whoa.

    :-)

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  13. Re:Article helps with suspension of disbelief by brianosaurus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't think the movie goes into it, but one of the earlier versions of the Matrix did use cattle. It was way more efficient, and the simulation (which consisted of little more than large fields of grass) were much simpler.

    After a few years, however, the machines got tired of waiting for Star Wars Galaxies to be released, so they built the human version of the Matrix.

    --
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  14. Re:Article helps with suspension of disbelief by kingkade · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not sure keanu reeves has enough talent to be up to the challenge of portraying such a deep character.

  15. Very good, but.... by saikou · · Score: 2, Funny

    The whole idea can fall apart, if at the end of the 3rd Matrix movie Neo will wake up once again in his bed, late for work. Then he will describe all this crazy 2.9 movie long dream in his blog, where Morpheus, Trinity and other friends with familiar nicknames will comment vividly, suggesting crazy interpretations and hinting at "too much stress", as Neo's co-workers get laid off one by one by a reputable software company. His medically educated friend will point out that all knowing Oracle is a reference to a well know database product, for which Neo writes stored procedures, constantly having problems with number of DB Agents, he sometimes referrs to "Smith". Lady in Red is a secretary of his boss.

    But then you'll say... :) :)

  16. Re:purpose of keeping humans around? by MsGeek · · Score: 4, Funny

    I understand that the original idea for what humans were used for was indeed as you said: parallel computing. However, the suits didn't understand what the Warchovski brothers were talking about when they got to that part of the script. Hence the lame-ass "power plant" explanation.

    It's gonna take a pretty amazing computer to equal or beat the processing power of a human brain. And, at the risk of repeating a cliche, "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!"

    --
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  17. Not the Full Story by Herkum01 · · Score: 4, Funny

    He failed to explain how people got hooked to the Matrix in the first place. However, I do the story. It came about that the machines were to having to draw people into connecting this plug into their head. Looking for the gullible of the human species, they bought AOL.

    With the largest number of customers in the world, they quickly assimilated them with offer's of DSL for $5.95 a month and said that they were phasing out dial-up service. All you needed was this chip in the back of your head. So while most people were discouraged because of the lack of dial-up they were too lazy to change their email addresses so they were the first. Next where the techies, and /.ers. While wary of giant companies the draw for cheap DSL access was too much and it was like lambs to the slaughter. Eventually with other service providers going out of business the Matrix bought them all up and integrated their clients too. The dream of world domination at hand.

    The holdouts were the 20% of people who declared that they "Would never need access." They were the one's that went on to establish Zion. They had to dig deep to escape the piles of AOL CD's that were being put into their mailboxes. It was the only way to preserve their sanity, or so the legend goes.

    So now you have the complete story, oh and I hire that one of the new agents in the movie is called Mr. Case, coincidence? I think not!

  18. Re:Um by shayne321 · · Score: 3, Funny
    Answer: It's a movie.
    His Answer: They put network addresses on all data points along the matrix and blah blah blah

    Yeah, how depressing is it to know they're still using ipv4 (9.54.296.42 -- example in the article) in the future? Obviously the 296 octet gives it away as an invalid IP, but it's STILL an ipv4-style address.

    Guess IPv4 is here to stay for a while.

    Shayne

    --
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  19. Re:Um by jim3e8 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The people who stop to look at how good stories are told are the ones who will be able to tell stories of their own.

    And often in the form of bad fan fiction. ;)

  20. Some Answers... by Doomrat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Q. Can humans really be an energy source?
    A. It's just a film.

    Q. How does the Matrix know what fried chicken taste like?
    A. It's just a film.

    Q. Why do the rebels have to enter and exit the Matrix via a telephone system (that doesn't actually exist)?
    A. It's just a film.

  21. Re:Article helps with suspension of disbelief by Zathras11 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, I remember seeing Neo and Trinity kissing
    at that point. Maybe your DVD didn't have that
    scene. :^) I don't know what Morpheus and Tank
    were doing... ;^)