»Why the machines can read minds: 4 theories«

These ideas are pretty much out of an email I already sent (and received a reply from) the head guy of the website. There are a few changes, such as making things easier to understand.

Mind-Reading:
Perhaps one of the ways that the machines know what will happen is that they can read the human's minds (after all, they are plugged in to the matrix with no sort of security in between). And, by being able to read their minds, they will know how they are going to react in a given situation. After all, if you know what everybody's thinking, and what everybody would do given a certain situation, and, of course, what everybody's going to do, then you'll know pretty much what's going to happen. Which leads to my next idea that what is going on is really a...

Simulation:
What we are watching is one of multiple simulations showing all sorts of different circumstances in order to determine the best course of action for the machines in the real world. Which would explain the multiple Zions, Neos, Matricies, etc. It would also explain the timeline inconsistancy, because if there was a machine so powerful, it could run such simulations in a matter of days, hours, miniutes, or even seconds. So basically, what I'm saying here is that none of what we are watching in the Matirx is real, it's all just a figment of a computer's imagination, so to speak. That none of the people are real (or perhaps they are, but these people are not them in any way shape or form).

Clone Theory:
Another idea on how the machines know what is going to happen has to do with the idea that if you were to clone a human, and raise them the exact same way, and subject them to the exact same situations throuout their life, that they will react to the same situations the same way.

The Ra-Bit:
This one is sort of hear-say. According to a freind of mine (I do not know for sure, so don't count it as absolutely reliable). In the Matrix 1, when you are watching the matrix code on the screens on the Nebachadnezzar (sp?), there are certain charachters (letters? cyphers? I've heard them reffered to as that as well) that are brighter than the others. According to this freind, those characters say "Ra" (Yes, I know you're thinking "Ancinet Egyptian Sun God," which may have to do with it as well) (I think in some oriental language, possibly a variation of Japaneese). And what are they considered? Bits. Ra-bits. Rabits. Interesting. I also heard that there were highlighted characters on a souvenier(?) mug for the Matrix: Reloaded that said "Keymaker". Again, I do not know if this is true, but it seems possible.

But anyways, that's just a couple ideas I had (except for the one I hadn't) when reading the website.

On the 'read the mind thus know the future' thing. Isn't it too hard to know that
a) Morpheus will find the One (even if you can read his thoughts and know his reactions)
b) Trinity will fall in love with him

?

I understand that is one of my more far-fetched ideas, but if by knowing everything about them (as a mind-reader could), you would be able to tell that they will create situations (i.e. them coming to get neo) and how they will react (neo freaking out) and so on, and be able to simulate what will happen from then on. The idea that choice is an illusion, that the future is set due to people will act and react in a certain way no matter what. It's really hard to explain in writing, but my point is that evein if it is too hard, as you say, that's not saying it's impossible, just not really easy.

Maybe the "choices are illusion" (Merovingian) in the meaning that the choice is real, but unlikely, because the system pushes you in the wanted direction.

In other words, since the system can read your mind it gives you only the choices where it already knows what you will choose.

Yes, that is almost what I am getting at, but mostly the idea that our path in life is set, and things will only happen one way because no matter what, someone is going to react a certain way to a certain situation because that situation happened due to something else, and that person will react that way due to his upbringing. And so therefore, if someone is able to read the minds of all, and control all non-human variables, then they would be able to know what the future holds.
Example:
Joe walks down the street, and he sees someone he knows, so he waves "hi" to them.
Now, Joe was predisposed to wave "hi" to this person because Joe is a freindly guy, however not outgoing enough to, say, shout it out or walk over to make conversation. This is due to his upbringing.
Also, Joe was walking down the street, due to the fact that he has business to attend to which requires walking down the street to get there, as does his freind.
However, if we wish to take this deeper, we could say that Joe has buisness to attend to by walking down the street because his boss sent him to the corner convenience mart for a bagel. Why? Because his boss was to get hungry at that time because he had an inadequate breakfast because he woke up late because he had to stay late at work because Jill didn't get the project finished because Jill is generally a lazy person (upbringing/personality), and the project was large because the boss is demanding (upbringing/personality)... and so on and so forth. We could say the same (or similar) for his freind.
The point I'm trying to make is that if you know the personality and upbringing of a person, and you control the outside variables, you can always 99% predict what they will do. And, thus, their minds have been read, and most (or all, if you beleive in the MWM possibility) of their outside variables have been controlled, so the outcomes can be predicted with relative accuracy.

An interesting idea I came up with while writing this. Perhaps food (or simple contact of some program or script (cake? candy? cookie? kiss?) with the mouth is a trojan horse of sorts, allowing the reading of the mind.

Mouse wrote:

The point I'm trying to make is that if you know the personality and upbringing of a person, and you control the outside variables, you can always 99% predict what they will do.

The problem is: It's the small decisions that can add up. Suddenly you are hungry. Whether you eat the hot dog (and mess up your suit, get late and get fired) or the hamburger (eat it and get to work) it's really not that predictable.

Thus I doubt, that the Oracle could see so far into the future by just reading the minds.

Mouse wrote:

Perhaps food is a trojan horse of sorts, allowing the reading of the mind.

Could very well be, as is stated at

Well, I can't say I truly agree with that, you see, perhaps the person has a preference towards hot dogs or hamburgurs. After all, I like hamburgurs better than hot dogs, and thus someone who is able to read minds as such could be able to know when I will be hungry, and what my preference will be. But, I can see how this could turn into more of an arguement than a discussion, so I will leave my ideas where they are, and your ideas where they are, and agree to disagree on the subject. At least thats where I stand, if you wish to discuss furthur, I would be happy to. But I simply think that now that our ideas are on the table, we can get no furthur.

Mouse wrote:

But I simply think that now that our ideas are on the table, we can get no furthur.

Ideas on the table, hehe. Hamburger? Hot dog?

Oh, and I almost forgot, there is that 1% of things that perhaps you can't predict. That could be very troublesome for a system such as the Matrix, and perfectionists such as the machines. And perhaps this was the 1% that the Architect was talking about? The subjects who made choices that you simply couldn't predict? Is Neo one of these? Do they think they can predict him, but they can't? These are questions I do not think will be answered anytime soon.

knnknn wrote:

Ideas on the table, hehe. Hamburger? Hot dog?

Oh. Hey, I didn't catch that. Hey... that's a good pun.