»Why is Smith destroyed at the end of Revolutions?«

The ai were created in mans image. They created a program to simulate every thing they knew of "life" or "humanity". I believe Smith represented the program to destroy. He was created in the image of man who wanted to destroy the AI.

Syme wrote:

I'd like to add sometihnig I consider important: Smith, though freed from the system's orders, remains 'irrevocably program' He still must follow his purpose, which originally must have been deleting Neo. He is still connected to the Matrix without knowing so. The architect's equation is the Matrix' basic code and Smith is part of it. Therefore it must still be possible deleting him from that equation. Prove me wrong if you can(I guess you can-most of you must have spent much more effort in understanding the Matrix and working out your theories).

Smith is connected to the Matrix, he definitely is part of it cause it is area of his existence but (some) rules don't aply to him any more. He says to Neo in Reloaded: "Afterward, I knew the rules, I understood what I was suposed to do but I didn't. I couldn't. I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey. (...) Because of you, I've changed. I'm unplugged. A new man, so to speak. Like you, apparently free." And he is talking about his deletion that should have occured, but because of disrupting his original code with Neo's, he was able to disobey. Even more, he says taht he couldn't heve been deleted! System didn't recognize him anymore and because of that he was "unplugged and free" as he says. Link says when he looks at Matrix code: "Who ever he is, he's not reading like an agent."

Moreover, Morpheus tells to Neo in M1 that agents are "sentient programs" so they are aware, conscious, thinking beings. When Smith's original code was disrupted, he just got the ability to excercise his will, he was free of control. And even before that (especially when he's torturing Morpheus) we see that he's not na ordinary agent, that he doesn't quite "fit" into system since he wants to get out of it. And no other agent shows that - they all act almost as mindless tools of system.

Smith was kind of a virus. You can compare him to virus in Windows - there is no program that is designed in advance to deal with it so that with some of them you can do absolutely nothing but to format disc. This could be done (I don't know if simple restarting / reloading Matrix would do) but think what that would mean - either every human connected to Matrix would find out the truth about their simulated world or all of them would be instantly killed in process.



And don't worry about not understanding some of Matrix aspects YET. When I started posting, I didn't know nor understand the tenth of what I do now. And Wachowsies themselves say that they incorporated more ideas and details in movies that we'll ever find out. (Although that remains to be seen. )

Just as he's about to fight Neo, Smith explains that, when Neo disconnected him from the Matrix, he lost his purpose. So he was driven to destroy Neo in the same way Neo destroyed him.

But once he did that, then he _really_ had no purpose. Therefore, no existence.

Exactly. As discussed before on different threads....Neo was Smith's opposite - and vice versa, that was Smith's purpose. Once Neo was "dead" Smith had no purpose, and was connected directly to the source via Neo. The machines then deleted Smith. They couldn't delete Smith before that because although he became a virus he still had a purpose, as long as Neo was alive.

Bullet-timer wrote:

On the pages of this Forum there is a theory that it is because when Smith copied over Neo, the link for Smith’s deletion has been established after it has been missing due to mixing of his and Neo’s code in first movie. It is simple and understandable theory but doesn’t sound quite sufficient because it says nothing about the nature of Smith that Oracle describes to Neo in Revolutions (one about Smith being a result of equation trying to balance itself out).

You see, there there is an inconsistence that I have not hear anyone mention:

Why do the machines need humans to generate electricity? Is there no more uranium, hidrogen ANYTHING?

What does Zion use for it's machines? Why don't the machines use the same source of energy than the humans in Zion?

I belive the answer is in the animatrixes. Machines want to CHANGE humans, and to change themselves. They want to evolve us and them. In some sense they have more respect for life than humans do.

So, as Induism prays, they know that once in a while there is a "soul" an avatar that gets re-born. He is the key of evolution. As Neodammerung lyrics says "the evolver of all".

Machines are waiting for this "avatar" with more passion than humans do, because trough him they can know something machines weren't always able to do, this is "love".

Like the love Sati's "father" program feels for her.

So, how do they "test" human evolution? When this "avatar" gets born (in this case Neo), the machines watches him, they put him many times to choose between Good and Evil, and they purposely insert a virus (Smith) into him to force him to face his darkest side, vis-a-vis: The good old Human Nature.

So, you ask: What's the equation they talk so much about? The equation is the Yin-Yan. Good and evil, the architect is meant to protect the Yin-Yan, to mantain the forces stable, the purpose of the Oracle is to unbalnce them towards Good.

Trying to analize the movie in bits isn't enough, the movie has a meaning only as a whole, everything the W. Brothers have done (at least to me) is a clue that leads me to this conclusion.

Thank you for reading me

EDIT: I've read somewhat after that some of you ask why Neo's image gets lost when he dies. I belive this is a way of saying in "movie languaje" that Neo was actually an avatar in the more budist meaning of the word.

It could also mean that everyone that wasn't human in the matrix died when smith assimilated their minds and human evilness.

The problem with uranium is that it is a scarce resource. It will run out. Hydrogen(because of being cut off from the sun) will also run out. But humans, so long as they are supplied with adequate nutrients, can be replenished.

hypnometal wrote:

The problem with uranium is that it is a scarce resource. It will run out. Hydrogen(because of being cut off from the sun) will also run out. But humans, so long as they are supplied with adequate nutrients, can be replenished.

So everything will run out excepting nutrients... Is that your point Counselor?

My head is spinning. I can't read all this stuff because it's the same thing over and over about equations being balanced. I'm sorry if I sound negative, and I'm really sorry if I'm repeating anything that anyone said, but nobody gets it. Here's the deal.

The equation is always balanced. If this were not so, then the Matrix would collapse. It is a mathematical system of rules built on rules. It cannot be unbalanced.

Smith is the opposite of Neo by virtue of the definition of the One. Neo is the anomaly, the one and only. Smith is everything else (or at least that is where he is headed to become). He is the darkness spreading. He is all, everything that exists except for Neo who is the anomaly. That is how they are opposites. The chaos that Smith creates is inevitable because the "balanced equation" is Smith as everything versus Neo as the One. Smith's accumulating reign is as inevitable as Neo's consciousness transcending while being the One.

The equation is not balanced when Smith assimilates Neo. That is when the equation is unbalanced, and that is why the entire program Smith is destroyed. When Smith assimilates Neo, there is nothing left on the other side of the equation and that cannot be. Of course, that's only the best explanation of it all if you refuse my previously posted answer that Neo is used by Deus Ex Machina as a nexus to find the program Smith and delete him/it. (This has already been accepted by most, and because of my affinity for disobedience I felt compelled to come up with another theory.)

I don't know why Neo had to be electrocuted if Smith's deletion was purely due to mathematical unbalance, but my best theory is that it was for Neo's prime program to be reinserted. (Sati: Will we see Neo again? Oracle: I suspect so.) Neo is returned to the source and doesn't have to choose the 23 to rebuild because there is nothing to rebuild (well, except for the entire defense system, but you know what I mean).

And as for purpose, well try to think of it this way: if you want any program to run indefinitely, you make an infinite loop by commanding it to run until 0=1, videlicet, /command=end when 0=1. The program Smith's purpose after becoming an exile was to assimilate all, which means that the purpose was to ultimately unbalance the equation, which means that the purpose was to end.

Kratur wrote:

And as for purpose, well try to think of it this way: if you want any program to run indefinitely, you make an infinite loop by commanding it to run until 0=1, videlicet, /command=end when 0=1. The program Smith's purpose after becoming an exile was to assimilate all, which means that the purpose was to ultimately unbalance the equation, which means that the purpose was to end.

Well. Would you then say Neo is the "1" the "0" Smith had to become to end the infinite loop? Did I get that right?

I would also say not Neo got "electrocuted" but Smith who had to be deleted from everywhere he existed including Neo's Dataport/Brain whatever(you know).

And still, even if Smith is a virus+sentient program+says he "understood what [he] was supposed to do" but didn't-I'd still say Smith has for the whole time been under the control of the Architect's equation what means he was designed to be as strong(and I mean EXACTLY as strong) as Neo to be able balancing the equation. His "disobedient" behaviour that he shows when he is not deleted is only the consequence of his individual purpose. He must be restored and therefore feels "compelled to stay, compelled to disobey" because he has to go another route than every other deleted program.

Neo had to be killed so that his "The One"-code could be returned to the source. If it weren't the case, his code could have left to the source at any time and it would be when he was born and Matrix would have been instantly reloaded. Also, if he just died it wouldn't happen because there would be no point in going into so much trouble to reach the source and, anyway, Matrix would have been restarted when he died for the first time. But, when Smith was copied over him, the whole "The One"-code was assembled again and when Neo was dying, his Smith was dying and was to be deleted - programs who are being deleted are going to the source so this Smith (who is, once again, PROGRAM) "pulled" the "The One"-code with himself and so was Matrix restarted. Figure out for yourselves why te rest of Smiths were deleted after that (not that I or anyone else didn't say it before).