this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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[–] xspurnx@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 minutes ago

We're still in there. The simulation just got more intense because the added stress leads to the human batteries generating more heat.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 23 minutes ago

And then you find your entire life force has been drained so a robot kid can generate a picture of Judy Hopps being railed by Kratos.

[–] AAA@feddit.org 2 points 43 minutes ago

On top you get to live a normal life. A make-belief life, but you'll never know.

[–] nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 26 minutes ago

But... the whole idea is that the world we're living in now is the Matrix. Agent Smith and the Architect both described previous iterations of the Matrix where it was designed to be a perfect world where everyone was happy. Humans rejected it, and they found less rejection when they made humans miserable.

[–] hectorcruz123@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

In this economy, a free tube with 'all-inclusive' goo actually sounds like a step up. Does the pod have high-speed internet, or do I have to pay extra for that?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 18 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

just put me back in, please, and make me someone important, like an actor....

[–] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago

"Ignorance is bliss"

(Harp strums)

[–] slappyfuck@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 hours ago

I don’t wanna remember nothing! Lol

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 10 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Finally found a place where existing & occupying space doesn't cost any money??

[–] _Nico198X_@europe.pub 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

they make you dream about needing dream money to pay dream rent.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

"Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization."

In retrospect, that era being the "peak of our civilization" seems depressingly accurate...

[–] _Nico198X_@europe.pub 2 points 1 hour ago

i think it was the peak of this era, which is now ending.

but this is not the end of our story just yet. fight to build the new era.

[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The whole premise for using humans as batteries makes zero sense though, lol. What about real batteries.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 23 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

I heard it was supposed to be using human brains essentially as processing power, but they thought audiences would understand "batteries" better I guess lol.

[–] nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 24 minutes ago

Yes, the Wachowski sisters originally scripted humans being used for neural networking, which was both much more realistic and incredibly ahead of its time. Executives told them that the audience would not understand it, and pushed the battery idea.

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 hours ago

In the movie they used the word battery, but the explanation was more like chemical power plant. It wasn't about storing electric energy, but generating it.

But yeah, I remember that half of the people with which I went to the cinema (at release) didn't understand the movie. So I guess they needed to dump it down even if it creates inconsistencies.

[–] taguebbe@feddit.org 4 points 6 hours ago

Which also means, that a lot of the machines developed to kill humans and the computation to direct said machines is made by humans themselfes. Hell, the Matrix itself could be just a product of human "brain-calculations", which is also a nice metaphor for the world. We basically enslave ourselves and barely anyone notices or cares, because we are all caught in the system.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

just apply to be a cow in a barn

[–] bampop@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

didn't make it past the first milking

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 171 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

I guess they didn’t watch any other part of the movies where all those tube people live in our regular world holding jobs and paying rent

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 129 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah but its the 90s. At that time, my oma bought a house in a nice neighborhood and set up a retirement plan on an American teachers salary. In the south.

[–] froh42@lemmy.world 85 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

Wasn't that explicitly mentioned in the film, that that is the best time in civilization?

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 40 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

The height of our civilization, is what he says. I think.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 55 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization. I say "your" civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became "our" civilization, which is of course what this is all about.

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 19 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Please tell us more Mr Smith.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 19 points 16 hours ago

Damn his voice is so great. You gotta hear rather than simply read it.:-)

[–] its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zone 42 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The height of human society.

[–] froh42@lemmy.world 88 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

Me in 1999: Haha, good joke, things will get even better.

Me in 2026: Damn, how right they were.

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[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 16 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Nah, guys, the machines totally tried to make it a utopia and it, uh, just didn't take. Ya gotta work til you die, the abundance of resources is unconnected. Stop asking questions.

[–] Postimo@lemmy.zip 14 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I would take them at their word for that. If they made some sort of hyper real super pleasure heaven of pure bliss the tendency towards betterment would drive humans insane. Maybe once that failed there were just like 'these fuckers are a mess, just dupe back when they thought they were happy and call it good.'

[–] TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 1 points 1 hour ago

These monkes love conflict an struggle more than they admit. Make them suffer just enough so they don’t wake up.

[–] BotsRuinedEverything@lemmy.world 26 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Plus it gets to be 1998 forever

[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 hours ago

the peak of humanity

[–] cadekat@pawb.social 42 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

I don't even think they kill you, just death by natural causes.

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[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 25 points 19 hours ago (9 children)

Boy should I not rewatch those movies…

“What do you mean they use them as batteries do you know how inefficient that is?” “Wait they’re growing the WHOLE BODY, MUSCLE AN ALL? How? And… For what? To jack a single neuron signal? That’s like 150 milivolts.” “Where the fuck are they even getting the goop? I’m sure if they’re advanced enough to harvest any energy from humans they could get WAY MORE from that goo on its own.”

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 29 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

Apparently the original plan was for the machines to use the brains of humans for computing power, like a giant neural network. But movie execs thought that was too complicated for the average movie goer and they made them change it to the battery thing.

Using them for processing power made more sense but they could probably done it better by just maintaining the brains and not the entire body, or even just made neural networks and ditch the humans. Also I assumed the goop is just made from the dead humans. They also never explain how they make new humans, they clone them? Artificial insemination?

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[–] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 31 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Where did you learn how much electricity the human body generates? And about the laws of thermodynamics? That's right, inside the matrix. The machines are fucking liars, man

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