As previously supported in the Matrix System: The One page, another consequence of building the Matrix on a foundation of choice is that machines must provide humans a real-world alternative to the Matrix in order for Matrix rejection to be mathematically legitimate. For those who still have a hard time swallowing the idea that Zion is really part of the Matrix system, try to answer these questions:
Why don't Agents morph into people who take the red pill so the Agent can try to kill all of the redpill hackers helping the redpill escape? At the very least, the Agent would get the new redpill killed.
Why don't Sentinels guard the human power plant so that broadcasting ships cannot go to pick up a redpill flushed from the system?
Why don't machines sterilize bluepill humans so that they cannot reproduce if they escape?
These questions are answered by realizing that the moral framework of machines requires that 1) redpills be allowed to escape, 2) people who escape need to stand a reasonable chance of surviving once flushed out of the system, and 3) people who escape need to be able to reproduce, to help Zion grow at a rate that will be optimal for nurturing the One. These three considerations all work as strong evidence to confirm that the Architect's requirement for the One to begin the next Zion is indeed what has been happening over and over again.
Zion initially seems like a strange necessity within the system of the Matrix: the machines allow a sworn enemy to exist just so humans have a legitimate choice to reject the Matrix. Wouldn't it at least be easier for the machines to just leave humans out in the middle of nowhere to fend for themselves, rather than having them group together in one city?
But actually, the task of keeping humans under control becomes much easier when all of the humans settle into the same location. Humans are unpredictable since they are irrational, so this is the best way to maintain control of humans in the real world, just as it would be easier for you to exterminate bugs if all the bugs are located in the same place.
Consider how Zion is designed. It is essentially the inverse of a Matrix power plant. Matrix power plants are blue cylinders with red pods sticking outward from the cylinder. Zion is one giant blue cylinder with quarters sticking inward (with red doors). Zion also consumes power, while power plants produce power. Zion reeks of machine design. Machines made it as easy as possible to kill humans.
The creation of Io takes on new meaning with this in mind. Refugee synthients would have been well-aware of the fact that Zion was built by machines and that it was destroyed five times before, so even as a matter of self-preservation, synthients would have needed humans to help them create a place apart from Zion. It is also surely impossible for machines to disclose the fact that Zion was part of the system of control to anyone other than The One, even as some synthients betray their own kind. Their programming probably doesn't allow disclosure of inside workings of the Matrix, and even if it did, humans surely wouldn't react kindly to finding out that Zion was just another prison.
This is why the narrator of The Second Renaissance (from The Animatrix) sounds like a machine and says things that only a machine would say. It isn't just an Animatrix documentary, it's literally a file from the Zion archives. Clearly, the information that is left behind in Zion after its destruction each time is pruned and cleansed by machines to make sure it's accurate and truthful from the machine perspective.
Zion serves three purposes within the machines' system of control:
Provide humans with a legitimate choice to reject the Matrix (discussed above).
Locate and train the next One, enabling the next One to reach the Source.
Provide additional motivation for the One to choose the right door: since Zion is presumably always being destroyed when the One reaches the Source, the One would have little hope or reason to choose the left door.
This function is fairly obvious: if the One never escapes the Matrix, he will have no ability to develop the potential of his gifts. Human civilization taking place during the years 1998-1999 inside of the Matrix does not posess technology required to download jujitsu and weapons training programs into humans' brains. Granted, the One already has gifts that are far beyond any other human, but still, these gifts will go completely undeveloped without training in Zion. Presumably, the original 23 Zionists originally develop this necessary technology each time with help from the previous One's knowledge of machines.
How does the One explain his own escape from the Matrix to the first 23 Zionists? I believe it has a lot to do with the One's powers in the real world that come from his connection to the Source. The One could easily demonstrate those powers to the first Zionists by killing sentinels, or perhaps even controlling them. The One needs to be given an authoritative connection to the Source in the real world if the first 23 Zionists are to believe that the One was able to free himself from the Matrix.
The Architect describes the One as having ."..a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the One." This "profound attachment" can only be created if the One knows the truth about human slaves within the Matrix. Otherwise, if the One returns to the Source without even knowing what the Matrix is, he would probably think the Architect is lying and completely out of his mind. This is why Morpheus cannot tell people what the Matrix is - he can only show them. It's not that it's too difficult to explain. It's just that nobody would believe Morpheus is telling the truth. Even Neo - the One himself - didn't believe Morpheus at first, even after waking up in his human pod and spending days or weeks on the operation table in the real world.
By training with Zionists and by participating in the process of "freeing minds," the One becomes passionately devoted to saving humanity. Of course, the Oracle has different plans for channeling this "passionate devotion" when it comes to Neo, the sixth One (this will be discussed on later pages).
In M4, Niobe tells Neo about Zion:
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Niobe: All of the troubles started in the Machine Cities. Power plants were unable to produce enough energy. Nothing can breed violence like scarcity. For the first time, we saw machines at war with one another. We got word from the Oracle of a new power rising. That was the last we heard from her. [Niobe & Neo look up at Morpheus statue]
Neo: Morpheus. Niobe: After the siege, he was elected unanimously. High Chair of the Council. Oh, how he loved that. But as rumors of this new power spread, he ignored them. He was certain what you had done could not be undone. All of these people never stopped believing in miracles, believing in you. Neo: I’m sorry. How could I know this would happen? Niobe: We didn’t understand all of it back then. No more than we do now. |
We infer from the yellow statement above that Neo's accomplishment of peace is what was "undone." From this we infer that Zion was destroyed.
Taking this a step further, the fall of Zion is clearly tied to the "new power rising," referring to the Analyst and his choiceless Matrix. Given that the only reason Zion was allowed to exist in the first place was because the Oracle's choice-based Matrix required it, it makes perfect sense that Zion would have been destroyed very quickly after the Analyst came to power, sometime around the year 2778 (18 years before the events in M4 take place) according to my own speculations in Matrix System: Revision History. In fact, knowing the machine's scarcity of power, we can bet that Zionists were forced to plug back into the Matrix, or at best, they were all given a choice: plug back into the Matrix or die.
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