MATRIX WARRIOR

even persuaded themselves that the stability it offers compensates for the loss of freedom.
There is no environment more secure than that provided by a prison, and the smaller and
more confining the prison, the more secure it is. By the same token, by limiting the prisoners'
movements, the more secure the prison is, the more passive the prisoner must become. Life
in the matrix gets more 'secure' with every passing hour, as the prison becomes smaller and
more confining, and accordingly, humatons become more passive and docile. Ironically,
humatons associate this process with an ever more 'privileged' lifestyle, and love to talk about
an 'age of luxury' just around the corner. The final step in this process is presumably
euthanasia, however. For this reason, unplugging has become a matter of utmost urgency.
The matrix cannot continue to accommodate ever increasing numbers of humatons, and so it
must begin destroying them in order to maintain its own equilibrium. Hence, the factory
begins to reject its own produce. At which point, logically, the end of the line must be nigh.
The battle of Armageddon traditionally has been understood as the battle between Christ and
Antichrist, Michael and Lucifer, the forces of light and darkness. It is a battle for the Soul of
Man and of the Earth (and possibly the whole universe). Matrix warriors understand that this
is just a metaphor for a more subtle kind of conflict, but a conflict that is nonetheless the
same in essence. In the movie, the war as such is between AI and the Lucids, the inhabitants
of Zion; the true humanity or 'master race' who live at the centre of the Earth. Yet, since the
vast majority of humans have yet to be unplugged, their allegiance is to AI and not to Zion; at
best they are divided, at worst they are, in the words of Mel Brooks, 'dead and loving it.'
The war of Armageddon takes place first of all within the psyche of every humaton and matrix
warrior; even within the matrix sorcerer the battle rages, for only one who has seen the code
and become Lucid has attained freedom. It is a war that will not be over until every last
humaton has been unplugged and the matrix has been destroyed. To some extent, then, the
war of Armageddon adheres to the standard rules of ordinary warfare: 'good' (lucidity) seeks
the eradication of 'evil' (opaqueness, the oblivion of the matrix), while 'evil' strives equally
fiercely towards the destruction of 'good'. AI and the Gatekeepers (who seem strangely
indifferent to the threat of the One, at least until they witness him in action) direct their
energies to the locating of Zion, in order to destroy the last human settlement and so put an
end to 'the resistance'; at which point, supposedly, AI's reign will be supreme, unassailable,
and the golden age of the machine will begin. Kingdom come. In actual fact, this is a false
goal; for humatonity's awakening is inevitable. But only true Lucids know this.
AI cannot conceive of anything outside its program - in this case 'search and destroy' — and
matrix sorcerers only know that the adversary is powerful to destroy them and must be
opposed at any cost. The goal of the Lucids, sorcerers, and warriors, then, is to end the reign
of AI, presumably by destroying the hard drive or 'mainframe', the central computer from
which artificial intelligence operates. The Source. Both sides have their power centres: Zion
is at the centre of the Earth while AI is presumably situated somewhere on the surface. Once
this central Source or mainframe is destroyed, the fields, Sentinels, and all the other
extensions of AI, including the matrix itself, will collapse, like the tentacles of an octopus once
its brain has been destroyed.
Are the matrix sorcerers as yet unable to locate this mainframe in order to destroy it ? Or is it
rather that they know that to destroy it will be to cause the death of six billion sleeping
humans, unable to survive without the matrix ? Either way, there is a race between the two
warring sides, between AI and the matrix sorcerers. The sorcerers know that it is only a
matter of time before AI locates Zion and sends the Sentinels to destroy it, at which point,
game over. Humanity will lose its chance of ever being free and be condemned to eternal
bondage to AI. It seems logical that AI is working to a precise agenda, and that the time
required to find and destroy Zion is limited, perhaps even to an exact number of years,
months, and days. In other words, even if the matrix sorcerers don't slip up and allow the
MATRIX WARRIOR - Being the One 71
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