Function
With the new Matrix in place, a system was enacted to control the inhabitants who refused to accept it. While the Oracle was able to guide the actions of the humans who left the Matrix through prophecy, it was the Architect who programmed The One that would fulfill these prophecies. The One was made carrying not only the source code of the Matrix "Prime Program", which gave him his outstanding powers over the Matrix, but also with a profound attachment to humanity that would later motivate him to fulfill the prophecies being spread by the Oracle. Every time the free humans had grown strong enough to start threatening machine hegemony, The One would be born into the Matrix.
As the prophecies were fulfilled by The One, the machines would begin building an army to destroy Zion. Under the guidance of the Oracle, The One would find his way to the machine mainframe, also called The Source, convinced that his actions there would end the war on behalf of the humans. Because the Architect resides in a room that lies on the path to the Source, the One would invariably encounter him along the way. During this encounter, the Architect would reveal his influence over the preceding events and the reason the Matrix had been designed to allow a small percentage of its inhabitants to escape. He would then present The One with a choice, symbolized by the two doors in his office:
- He may return to the Source, at which point the Matrix source code would be reinserted into the program, allowing for the system to reboot. Zion is still destroyed and people are still trapped in the Matrix, but the One would be allowed to select seven males and sixteen females (making a total of twenty-three individuals) from the Matrix to be freed so that they could found a new Zion. The One would then die, and a prophecy of his return would be spread, continuing the cycle.
- He may refuse to cooperate and return to the Matrix in an attempt to save Zion. This would lead to a massive system crash, killing all of the inhabitants of the Matrix. Combined with the inevitable destruction of Zion, this would ultimately mean the extinction of humanity.
The machination of the Architect and the Oracle were successful in maintaining the status quo in that, until Neo, all incarnations of The One had chosen to cooperate with the Machines in order to preserve humanity.
Read more about this topic: Architect (The Matrix)
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“Nobody seriously questions the principle that it is the function of mass culture to maintain public morale, and certainly nobody in the mass audience objects to having his morale maintained.”
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“If the children and youth of a nation are afforded opportunity to develop their capacities to the fullest, if they are given the knowledge to understand the world and the wisdom to change it, then the prospects for the future are bright. In contrast, a society which neglects its children, however well it may function in other respects, risks eventual disorganization and demise.”
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“The information links are like nerves that pervade and help to animate the human organism. The sensors and monitors are analogous to the human senses that put us in touch with the world. Data bases correspond to memory; the information processors perform the function of human reasoning and comprehension. Once the postmodern infrastructure is reasonably integrated, it will greatly exceed human intelligence in reach, acuity, capacity, and precision.”
—Albert Borgman, U.S. educator, author. Crossing the Postmodern Divide, ch. 4, University of Chicago Press (1992)