this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 174 points 1 week 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 133 points 1 week 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 89 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

[–] its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The height of human society.

[–] froh42@lemmy.world 90 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

Me in 2026: Damn, how right they were.

[–] its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 18 points 1 week ago (3 children)
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[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 57 points 1 week 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 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Please tell us more Mr Smith.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 21 points 1 week ago

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

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, not the best time, just the last time in humans where actually in charge before everything started to be controlled by machines.

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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 24 points 1 week ago

Yep. I'd take 90s adulthood over this shit.

[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 1 week 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.'

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[–] cadekat@pawb.social 45 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

On the original, people probably become useless after they get dementia.

On the movie, machines are crazy and stupid, and everybody acts as if its normal... so whatever.

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[–] BotsRuinedEverything@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Plus it gets to be 1998 forever

[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 week ago

the peak of humanity

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 28 points 1 week ago (5 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.”

[–] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 week 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

[–] NichEherVielleicht@feddit.org 10 points 1 week ago

The idiot is a machine!

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago (3 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?

[–] hayvan@piefed.world 13 points 1 week ago

Morpheus says the goop is made of dead humans. But they never mention reproduction.

This also means total biomass of humans i.e. pooulation must be decreasing but whatever. The brain network kind of makes energy source makes no sense, just go with it.

[–] Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where do they get new humans? Why do they keep the whole body?

Have you ever had a wet dream?

If you cum in the Matrix you cum in real life.

Warm vat of liquid goo doesn't sound so nice when it's recirculation community jizz (I mean, not to mention. I ain't judging.)

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago

They answer this in the movie. Humans aren't born. They are grown.

So probably artificial insemination.

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

But like… we eat a LOT of calories a day to stay alive as a whole body I can’t imagine dead bodies being enough to feed us unless the population is going down a LOT. (Like a human body has maybe 2 years worth of calories)

I would say maybe less in a coma but those humans have fully developed bodies and muscles and all, so should be consuming about the same.

And yeah, extra processing power makes more sense than battery.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 7 points 1 week ago

Like a human body has maybe 2 years worth of calories

I thought it was closer to 1 year. In any case it's something of that magnitude. That's been a trope in Hollywood for a long time. Soylent Green (1973) has the same "eat people" thing. It would mean every 1 of 2 years, one half of the population would have to eat the other half.

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[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I like the alternative better, where human brains were used for processing power. The battery stuff makes no sense, except it's an easy visual thing when Morpheus explains it.

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah I could see like the machines having to keep humans alive so this is the way to keep them from killing themselves and also proving useful for some background processing power.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The dichotomy is more "how do we get some utility out of these humans without having to just kill all of them because we think genocide is probably wrong."

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This has always been my theory. Some kind of inbuilt mechanism whereby they must trick themselves into thinking that what they are doing is somehow to our benefit, as in the first law of robotics by Isaac Asimov.

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[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

[–] slappyfuck@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago

I don’t wanna remember nothing! Lol

[–] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

"Ignorance is bliss"

(Harp strums)

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[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 28 points 1 week 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.

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week 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.

[–] nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] xspurnx@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 week ago

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

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] _Nico198X_@europe.pub 7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

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[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

You can do that now. They are called company towns.

[–] hectorcruz123@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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?

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