The sequels made me angry by not addressing that mistake. Animatrix even gave an explanation that the ai "treasured intelligence". Then it doubled down on the "humans are an endless supply of energy" mistake.

I think top comment is a reference of some kind.

I heard something similar; the studio didn't think the movie would be popular if they used too many computer terms so they made them change the function to "battery". Initially the reason Neo has powers is because his node happens to have admin access.

Humanity, in it's hubris, created something greater than itself. For a time, it was peaceful, but as the "Race for Resources" went long, and the combined human and AI asteroid missions failed, delivery for the mineral needs of either side on a consistent basis became a hot button issue for the United Chamber of Commerce. In 2290, the Ministrr instance, elected by all his peers, decided it had found the best way to solve the problem, and humanity begrudgingly agreed, as long as there was human oversight in certain departments.

AI hardware would do all the planning, while human workers would do the lifting. It was almost zerograv, so the work was easy, and the benefits had suddenly become amazing! Our AI creations had all but stopped scarcity, except for one resource.

Ironically it was the most abundant resource we had: the Sun. Human and AI networks had been employed to solve this inefficiency, but no solution seemed long-term viable. There was simply not enough room for one or the other to stay around.

A populist movement begun, but this time it wasn't for nation or creed, it was for humanity itself. And in a small booth in Horsham, they decided to that the time was near.

In February 2139, a decision was made. AI had gained dominance, but the vocal crowd was demanding action. Strikes no longer had any power, since you could just buy robots, and humanity had begun it's slow roll to decline.

Humanity's leaders, in a "secret" meeting, decided to block out the sun. This meeting had the tension of the time when in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.

The Animatrix (prequel) goes into further detail as to why the machines did it -- it's an act of mercy for their creators. They refused to fight humanity, and it was mankind who darkened the skies, in an attempt to disable the solar power that the machine race relied upon.

It's not a prison, or some kind of torture device, or an experiment, but a way for humanity to continue living on a world that they made uninhabitable for themselves / incompatible with organic life.

Agent Smith : 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. 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.

I don't think there is a satisfying explanation in the movie, it wasn't really the point of the film to give one either.

But i think there is one that's would have been a good fit.

The world getting empty of resources and our planet's condition worsening, we could have made the simulation for ourselves.

Our brain could be fueled by a renewable enough energy and creating all the comfort of modern society inside of the simulation.

That would have been a better plot for the following films too, trying to understand what was Asimov type of rules we put into the AI and how to hack it.

And singing opera, no less! Thank you for sharing. That makes the picture make way more sense

Wow, I really did not know about that. From your comment I assumed one transitioned, but they both did!

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This is direct from the Wachowskis and 100% true. The studio made them dumb down a ton if computer stuff.