The premise of The Matrix is that AIs needs to keep humans around to generate energy for them. Why? Because the mean ol' humans have dropped some nukes and caused a nuclear winter. The AIs need energy from somewhere, so they put humans in vats and use them as powerplants.
But wait. Where do the humans get their energy. While it's true that each of us stores energy (most efficiently extracted by burning our bodies), where do the humans in The Matrix, who were raised in vats on a sun-less (and therefore foodless) planet get their energy? If the AIs have food to feed the humans, why don't they just burn the food for energy? Haven't they heard of the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
The movie makers have created a perpetual motion machine, in which, somehow, humans generate more energy than they consume. Oops!
Why did they do this? Either they're careless, or they got money from Duracell for product placement.
Perhaps you'll say, ok it wasn't good science, but the movie makers needed a reason to put the humans in vats and wire their brains.
How about this: the AIs recognize that human brains are superb computers. They grow humans in vats because it's easier than building their own silicon computers. They run the matrix as a maintainance program, to make sure the captive brains are performing correctly. Then, the movie makers could have done a Norton Utilities product placement!
That would have been great: the matrix is a computer generated world that is run by computer-inhabiting AIs to keep the humans around for CPU cycles. But all these processes are using the same hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
The premise of The Matrix is that AIs needs to keep humans around to generate energy for them. Why? Because the mean ol' humans have dropped some nukes and caused a nuclear winter. The AIs need energy from somewhere, so they put humans in vats and use them as powerplants.
But wait. Where do the humans get their energy. While it's true that each of us stores energy (most efficiently extracted by burning our bodies), where do the humans in The Matrix, who were raised in vats on a sun-less (and therefore foodless) planet get their energy? If the AIs have food to feed the humans, why don't they just burn the food for energy? Haven't they heard of the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
The movie makers have created a perpetual motion machine, in which, somehow, humans generate more energy than they consume. Oops!
Why did they do this? Either they're careless, or they got money from Duracell for product placement.
Perhaps you'll say, ok it wasn't good science, but the movie makers needed a reason to put the humans in vats and wire their brains.
How about this: the AIs recognize that human brains are superb computers. They grow humans in vats because it's easier than building their own silicon computers. They run the matrix as a maintainance program, to make sure the captive brains are performing correctly. Then, the movie makers could have done a Norton Utilities product placement!
That would have been great: the matrix is a computer generated world that is run by computer-inhabiting AIs to keep the humans around for CPU cycles. But all these processes are using the same hardware.
Now _that_ would have been a geek movie.
Hadrian