»What Cataclysmic System Crash?«

Here's another one.

Neo took the right door. There was no cataclysmic system crash, ever. The matrix didn't crash without the presence of the anomaly. So the programming must have changed somehow from the way it was designed. Any thoughts on it?

Smith, who is as much part of the anomaly as Neo is, is going to cause the cataclismic system crash. It was just a matter of time.

It's not Smith, I don't think. Smith didn't exist in the iterations preceding the 6th, not as an omnipotent program anyway. As so, this would suggest that none of the other Ones would have been responsible for a cataclysmic system crash, had they chosen the right door -- but, Zion would have still been destroyed. I really don't see them choosing the left door under those circumstances, because doing so would basically require a will to fight for the machines.

I've always had a problem accepting Smith as what the Arc meant. If Arc was aware of the danger Smith posed to the Matrix, how is it his words indicate a lack of concern Smith would (as the system crash) pose to the rest of machinery and himself?

"There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept."

Really? It's hard to survive when you're dead.

Quote:

Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix

The crash has to do with the dissemination code, it would come from not having the prime program reinserted. It has to do with the job only the One can carry out. Why exactly? What is it they did? Is the anomaly an unbalance in the equation that the Architect used to his advantage, or is its purpose from the beginning to reload the matrix? That's an interesting facet I only just thought about. More thoughts please?

Double post.

Marsoullis wrote:

It's not Smith, I don't think. Smith didn't exist in the iterations preceding the 6th, not as an omnipotent program anyway.

True, but the crash itself would probably have manifested itself differently in the different versions of the Matrix.

However, your theory is probably right, as it's backed up by the fact that Smith says early on in Reloaded how it's not "happening exactly as before".

It seems quite possible that Smith was an un-accounted for variable in the machines' equations.

The crash itself probably would not have been immediate, though. It would have been a gradual deterioration, much like the wierdness we see on Spark's console in Revolutions.

The weirdness on Sparks' console, it looks much like the coding in the matrix we see as Smith assimilates the Oracle. Don't you think that's what accounts for the weirdness?

It's interesting the Architect doesn't mention Smith in the matter. Is Neo destroyed after he chooses the 23 people to rebuild Zion (what would have happened to Smith if this had been the case)? But if the One isn't destroyed after this, then why isn't there a history of the iterations? The One, who is by no means working with the machines, would have told those he chose everything about the history of the matrix.

or rather, the history of the human/machine war.

Logically seen there should be an Anti One each cycle.

This is what the Oracle says in M3:

"He doesn't understand them - he can't. To him they are variables in an equation. One at a time each variable must be solved and countered. That's his purpose: to balance an equation."

I think this also involves the 'anomalous' variable. Smith is the Architect's counter to the expression of the systemic anomaly.

The Architect states that the Matrix is fundamentally flawed thanks to the systemic anomaly. Smith is the expression of this flaw: if the One does not reload, the systemic anomaly is pertinent and so the Matrix will flaw/crash.

I have always seen Neo and Smith as a manually controlled mechanism to force a reload. Both Neo and Smith exist because of a manual interference from the Architect:

-He summed up the anomalous code and assigned it to Neo, while giving it a function: return the code to the Source at an act of free will, making the acts of free will from the true red pills undone.
-He ressurects Smith, who (after the merge with Neo) is also part of the anomaly. Smith shows us what will happen if the anomaly does not get 'fixed' in time.

If the Architect would do nothing, then there won't be a One and a Anti One; then the systemic anomaly would automaticly become dominant within the system and it would make the Matrix crash.

Neo and Smith are a fully controlled 'game': a meisure of control as the Architect literally calls it. It's a final attempt to deal with the 'flaw': either make sure that the systemic anomaly bows down to the system (by taking the right door which is the same as complying to the system) or die in a mega crash.

The only speculation is that, while Neo seems much more powerfull in his acts than his predecessors, this Anti One might be much more powerfull and agressive as well.

The reason why the Architect remains so 'cool' about Smith is simply because he doesn't know about his potential. The Architect thinks that Smith would only make the Matrix crash, just as he thought that Neo would never be able to save Trinity.

But... Smith is Neo's exact mirror: while Neo is being inspired by a flood of love, Smith is being inspired by a flood of hate; that's the reason why the Matrix will not suffice for him and he will also go after the Machine City.

The Oracle does see this, because she says:

"Very soon he's going to have the power to destroy this world, but I believe he won't stop there; he can't. He won't stop until there's nothing left at all."

You see that? She believes that he won't stop. Now, is believing something the Architect would do? No, so there's the answer

So my conclusion is:

there is an Anti One each cycle.
At the end of the sixth cycle the One took a different path because of love, so the Anti One has a different ambition because of hate: destroy everything while Neo saves everything.

A good solution. I've thought on the Anti-One theory before too. So you're assuming then that they had a part of each other always written on the other, not just after Neo "kills" Smith, correct?

I like that theory, though there's one problem with it. It's first of all highly impropable that Neo and Smith came across each other instead of Neo and some other agent. And, Neo "freed" Smith in his attempt to destroy him in M1 (Smith states: "After that I knew what I was supposed to do, but I didn't, I couldn't, I was compelled to stay."). Side note: Smith makes it sound that he had no choice but to stay, that he was "compelled" to disobey -- this he seems to have turned to his own agenda. If you're right, Mobil, then something went terribly wrong in this iteration, something the Architect was not prepared for. Neo's doing that gave Smith more power than he ever could have had before. The Architect must not then have been worried because, as the code in Neo is disseminated, the code in Smith would likely too be disseminated.

Another thing stands true that Max pointed out. Yours could be a correct theory, Mobil, because Smith remembers the matrix from its beginning, so he had been around ever since then. Chances are, he had been an agent of the system from then till the time that Neo frees him. That's why he says to a duplicate: "It's happening just as it did before." "Well not exactly." responds the duplicate.

Smith hates living in the matrix, or he did before he was freed anyhow. Perhaps that's not only because he hates its entire structure and all he states to Morpheus. Perhaps it's because he's tired of being used for the Architect's balancing purposes, just as the Oracle gets sick of being caught in the same cycle of control.

I already explained why Smith is the predetermined candidate to be the Anti One in my own theory thread.

It's a simple cause-and-effect-mechanism, which I will summarize for you here:

-It's very likely that the Architect creates the agents
-It is for a fact that Smith is the leader of the threesome
-I think that the main agent of a threesome gets programmed to be basically smarter than the average agent (Smith is much smarter; while the others just run around, Smith anticipates where the red pill goes).
-While Smith is the leader of the pack, he thus carries the responsibility for the succeeding of his purpose/missions.
-If you combine the characteristics of being smart and being a leader with the constant failure to get your hands on red pills and Zion then this will surely result in having frustrations. These frustrations will then result in agression and sadism and this is the way we see Smith act.
-The One realizes that he is the One in the hallway.
-The One also realizes that Smith will keep coming at him and his friends.
-The One realizes that just killing him won't help, because he would just use another innocent host.
-The One uses his new abilities to try and hack Smith in order to shut him up forever.
-We have the merge as a result.

It's a pure cause-and-effect-mechanism. It's inevitable

First off, you're suggesting that there are always only three agents working at a given time?

Per district yes.

There are more inside the Matrix, but they have jurisdictions.

And every leader agent is designed to be a candidate for the Anti One. Just look at the new agent Johnson; he has the same kind of facial expressions as Smith.

And I don't believe that Smith was in the Matrix for six loops. Because otherwise he won't go after the Zion-codes when he knows that Zion is going to be drilled to death anyway.

The "It's happening exactly as before" ... "Well not exactly" sequence remains a though one in the whole trilogy. I never really could decode that one. There are more ways to interpret it.

Yeah that's a mystery if Smith has or hasn't continued from earlier. If he did then he knows about Zion and the rebellion. If he didn't then why would he say it's happening just as it did before. Weird. There's a link missing there for ya.

Not only for me