Yeah I never understood it.. and I’ve watched videos and read articles..
The architect really confuses it for me
So the matrix is nothing more then a training exercise for the machines? And this is there 6th version, and the only reason why this version is different is because smith broke the matrix.. and is nothing more then a virus? And neo is a super fast flying antivirus?...
Yes to some points, no to others.
The Matrix IS what it was initially explained as. A fake world, designed to keep human minds and bodies running at peak power output, to power the machines (most of which are really just programs at this point).
The Matrix is like any computer program; you keep it running long term, and it starts to collect weird fragments of code, error exceptions; and regardless of how complex a math system it's based around, it has to do some "rounding". Which is what they expanded on, concept wise, starting in the second movie.
The machines figured out that while they couldn't
stop the errors and the dropped off rounding issues, they could focus them. collect them, coalesce them and harvest them for refinement or the next matrix.
The Matrix, or a thing liked it, also seemed to serve as the "operating system" that all the disembodied machine programs lived in. one imagines, that if the machines have to keep this matrix running, they might as well use it/a separated part of it for themselves; saves on having to code up two forms of existence and keep them both running. This would be why the programs could enter and exit the matrix as people freely, because they functioned as people in their world too. Which means, in a way, they tied themselves to the fake world they kept running for humanity. meaning their fate was tied to humans in two ways. Power, and their own reality.
The person that becomes "The One" in each matrix iteration, is the repository of all the broken weird stuff; which is why The One can go farther with the Matrix Bending nonsense that anyone enlightened to their situation can achieve simply through mind over matter. They show up/reach critical mass and become The One, close to the same time that Matrix iteration is close to breaking down. The machines need The One's info back so they can reboot things properly. and since all the programs live in an offshoot of the matrix type program, they need it, I think the idea is they needed it to fix their world too.
The Machines create Scion (Zion?) under ground as a place for purposely freed humans, to start their rebellion, and root out The One for the machines (cause The one would be born, live and die, without someone on the outside hunting for them). Meaning the Machines would be hosed.
In the case of Neo, Zion was also used as emotional blackmail to get him to sign up to "join" the machines. data dump his fragments and rounding errors, and let the machines reset the matrix back to 1957, or whatever year the Machines choose to start their simulation of "the late 20th century" at. Neo was also needed to get rid of Smith before he got onto the "machine servers", essentially.
Neo supposedly brokered a deal in
his iteration, to allow the machines to get their info back, help Neo kill Smith, and make themselves and their systems whole again, and get on with life, in exchange for not doing all this crap again; In exchange for freeing humanity.
Smith had royally dorked things up, and it seemed like the machines were realizing that betting their own existence on the matrix going well long term was a bad idea. So they offered neo that they were "prepared to exist in a simpler manner" (or something like that). essentially, all this stops, and the programs run on power saver mode, in their own little manageable matrix, that doesn't need to be human friendly. Perhaps people get to come out of the pods over time, perhaps the ones still on tap would be allowed to grow old and die in a temporarily reset matrix, and Zion would be the only free human bastion for real again.
Smith gave Neo the opportunity to make a sort of peace, and break the cycle.
as to Neo's powers, he wasn't breaking physics outside of the matrix, he exhibited a level of control over the simple physical machines, because his mind had an innate knowledge of all the broken weird janky stuff in the machine code. perhaps his "ports" could create short distance broadcasts (god knows what sort of connection that thing used, could be powerful enough to transfer data without a physical connection, over short distances), that let him shut off those couple of drones. Honestly though, I think
that bit wasn't thought through that great, because it just confused things.
~*~Fin~*~