Being stuck in a pod by yourself makes it kinda difficult to get intimate with someone in the real world.

  • tiramichu@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    196
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    The answer is in the movie. When explaining the Matrix to Neo, Morpheus says: “There are fields, endless fields, where human beings are no longer born, we are grown.”

    https://youtu.be/IojqOMWTgv8

    Doesn’t specify the exact how, but it’s strongly implied that it is through either cloning or artificial gestation.

    • w2tpmf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      45
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      It’s cloning. That how Neo has been born over and over again.

      The machines stores the generic code of all the first humans they put in pods and then they just crank out copies.

    • ultratiem
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      They actually touch on it in the animated movie that spanned a series of vignettes from that universe.

      Spoiler alert: it ain’t pretty.

    • e0qdk@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      artificial gestation

      The word “matrix” literally means “womb” in its older sense.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        It also refers to a 2D array of numbers in linear algebra. This data structure is used to store the synaptic weights of an artificial neural network.

        We have only bits and pieces of information but what we know for certain is that at some point in the early twenty-first century all of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI.

        It really is a deeply-thought-out movie.

    • UnspecificGravity@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      4 months ago

      Why even grow them with arms and legs if they are just going to be batteries? Wouldn’t it be easier to just grow cows instead?

      • JonEFive@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        4 months ago

        Because shut up. /s

        But really though, the entire concept of using humans as batteries is absurd. Don’t think too hard about it, just enjoy the movie.

  • Blackout@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    4 months ago

    You see, when a daddy battery and mommy battery love each other they hug and grunt and that’s how babby formed

  • rockerface@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    26
    ·
    4 months ago

    What if reincarnation? When someone dies in the Matrix, their body gets reconnected to another baby in the Matrix. As for how the human population is maintained outside of the Matrix… either the machines keep catching more humans, or something like artificial insemination. Or cloning

    • Ashy@lemmy.wtf
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      4 months ago

      When someone dies in the Matrix, their body gets reconnected to another baby in the Matrix

      But why would the bother with this? How would that help with anything?

      • INeedMana@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        4 months ago

        That would actually be a good idea. With people growing up and learning on their own, you don’t have a fully controlled system. The world inside the Matrix will be evolving and from time to time there will be some glitch somewhere. If you have a base of defined childhoods, then only physical differences between bodies and random occurences inside are uncontrolled

        If I were to construct the Matrix, I would go after cloning (fewer biological lottery) and predefined lifepaths to keep everything nice and stable

            • intensely_human@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              4 months ago

              Exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death and danger dare, even for an eggshell. Isn’t there something in that?" he asked, looking up at Mustapha Mond. “Quite apart from God–though of course God would be a reason for it. Isn’t there something in living dangerously?”

              “There’s a great deal in it,” the Controller replied. “Men and women must have their adrenals stimulated from time to time.”

              “What?” questioned the Savage, uncomprehending.

              “It’s one of the conditions of perfect health. That’s why we’ve made the V.P.S. treatments compulsory.”

              “V.P.S.?”

              “Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenin. It’s the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences."

              “But I like the inconveniences.”

              “We don’t,” said the Controller. “We prefer to do things comfortably.”

              “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

              “In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”

              “All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”

              “Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.” There was a long silence.

              “I claim them all,” said the Savage at last.

              Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. “You’re welcome,” he said

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          4 months ago

          Imagine a power plant based on millions of hampsters running on wheels. And some kind of video game that gets them to run.