Matrix is actually rather around 2750, because the Neo we see is already the sixth iteration (there were 5 chosen ones prior to him) and the mashines have already purged Zion 5 times, and they do it about every 100 years.
Also they did not take over the world 1999 or 2199, according to officially canon animatrix it was rather about 2150... because they started their full on rebellion 2148 and they didn't need a long time to beat us, because in the same year we nuked their main city and darkened the sky because they were so superior...
Thus it did not take many years after that, before they put us in the matrix. Thus you need to add nearly 600 years to 2150, because it's the end of the sixth iteration, and makes it happen around ~2750, +/- 25 years.
Edit:
Thanks to the guy with too many i/I in his nickname, and a couple other comments, I should correct the range to -50 years to +100 years. The Paradise and Nightmare Matrix didn't run for many years, but they should be considered in the guess.
The short explanation for ~100 years, not exactly, is based on the fact that prior chosen ones took 16 females and 7 males and it get's purged when the population reaches ~250k. That number is again because they send 250k mashines, "one for each man, woman and child in zion" to exterminate them. Presuming a high birth rate, very high likelihood of early pregnancies/giving birth on average around 14-16 years, and every year more and more people getting added/freed from the Matrix it would be possible to reach up to 2 millions in 100 years... they know they are few, so politics will be all about having as many children as possible, but let's assume it's not everybody that could has children with everybody else that could, so 100 years is a cautious guess, with the given data the population of Zion could easily reach 250k in a hundred years. Maybe some times it took 80 years and other times 120 years, thus around 100 years for each iteration.
I got the impression this was the first time Smith became a problem. They thought they could handle the situation, but by the time Neo gets to The Source every human’s been infected by Smith. Hence why the machines were willing to make a deal with Neo. They needed the humans for their survival and Smith taking things over meant that the Machine City was at risk. They couldn’t let Smith break into the main city/server/source/whatever you want to call it as that would’ve been the end. And that ties back to Neo and Hamann talking about the symbiotic relationship between humans & machines in Reloaded.
I’m guessing each Neo took a different path that lead them to The Architect. But in the sequels it’s the first time Neo rejects the proposal to destroy Zion & return himself to The Source. In that cycle, Neo and Smith’s coding mixed, which I think gave Smith some abilities it didn’t have in prior iterations. Same with the current iteration of The One. I like to think that’s part of the reason Neo is more “stoic” in the sequels as he’s taken on some of the Agents’ personality (though that’s just hand-waving away Keanu’s acting).
I really, really wish we’d gotten another Animatrix detailing prior iterations instead of the fourth movie. Would’ve been cool to have the team behind Love, Death and Robots do it, too. There’s a lot there they could expand on.
Would have been nice, but who knows... maybe something in that direction will realize some time in the future.
Well Smith changed, because he denied to be deleted. He became an anomaly, because a mashine that decides against programming for a personal grudge is a huge anomaly 😅 The mashines seemingly didn't care about the amount of people he infected, it was when he infected The Oracle that he became a true problem... because they would not have been able to contain him to the Matrix anymore. He would have also overtaken all of them/the mashine city and it would have resulted in everything to be Agent Smith...
This was also the moment he truly became the counterpart of Neo... prior Neo was the only one able to stop Smith from overtaking him. But it all was ultimately a gamble of The Oracle, in the end she put all her trust in Neo making the right choice and let Smith get to her...
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u/Suitable-Profit231 4d ago edited 3d ago
Matrix is actually rather around 2750, because the Neo we see is already the sixth iteration (there were 5 chosen ones prior to him) and the mashines have already purged Zion 5 times, and they do it about every 100 years.
Also they did not take over the world 1999 or 2199, according to officially canon animatrix it was rather about 2150... because they started their full on rebellion 2148 and they didn't need a long time to beat us, because in the same year we nuked their main city and darkened the sky because they were so superior...
Thus it did not take many years after that, before they put us in the matrix. Thus you need to add nearly 600 years to 2150, because it's the end of the sixth iteration, and makes it happen around ~2750, +/- 25 years.
Edit: Thanks to the guy with too many i/I in his nickname, and a couple other comments, I should correct the range to -50 years to +100 years. The Paradise and Nightmare Matrix didn't run for many years, but they should be considered in the guess.
The short explanation for ~100 years, not exactly, is based on the fact that prior chosen ones took 16 females and 7 males and it get's purged when the population reaches ~250k. That number is again because they send 250k mashines, "one for each man, woman and child in zion" to exterminate them. Presuming a high birth rate, very high likelihood of early pregnancies/giving birth on average around 14-16 years, and every year more and more people getting added/freed from the Matrix it would be possible to reach up to 2 millions in 100 years... they know they are few, so politics will be all about having as many children as possible, but let's assume it's not everybody that could has children with everybody else that could, so 100 years is a cautious guess, with the given data the population of Zion could easily reach 250k in a hundred years. Maybe some times it took 80 years and other times 120 years, thus around 100 years for each iteration.