The robots don’t want conflict between humans, they want humans to accept their false reality without question. That allows them to keep as many humans as possible. A utopia (from a machines idea of utopia, mind) wouldn’t be the most seamless thing. If everyone around you gets whatever they want and there’s no interpersonal friction from that, it wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny. Putting thought into it would reveal that something must be putting its finger on the scale in order to cause this result. That would wake people up to the fact that this isn’t reality.
They even over corrected with the second matrix and made humans these cowering things to the monsters that went bump in the night. That’s where the maravangian and his pals come from. The issue with that one is humans in constant fight-or-flight are hard to control, so they eventually do things that cause them to awaken as well.
Someone who is trans has a built-in reason to question their reality if they’re kept in their biological body (“why do I feel like I should’ve been born a girl”, etc). So, by putting them in the body that matches their perception, the machines reduce conflict between the system and humans. Reduces the likelihood that any one person has any reason to question that their reality is real.
Smith is a character in the world. He’s explaining things as he understands them, but most importantly in order to break Morpheus and get him to give them the info they want. He’s trying to get him to buy into the idea that the machines are superior to humans.
I don’t mind the different interpretation but I don’t agree that machines would for some reason not have trans people exist in the matrix. Are we assuming they have the ability to assign someone’s “true” gender at birth? Trans women are trans women. Trans men are trans men. Simulating their genitals to be “correct” wouldn’t change that. What do they do with nonbinary people? Nonbinary people can’t be “tricked” to not conform to a set of binary gender identities.
Would trans or nonbinary people be more likely to question the Matrix? Sure, you could argue that. But so would neurodivergent people or anyone that’s feels they are not accepted by the social constructs of society. The reality that human beings accept and question the least is the reality that we live in. A reality where trans people exist. Humans (and especially trans/nonbinary humans) would be far LESS likely to accept a reality in which there are only two genders. It would make the matrix LESS believable not more.
I think you’re projecting the human history of attempting to erase trans people onto the machines. Which could be an interpretation. But I don’t see the machines as malicious or evil. I see them as logical in their methods of control.
The robots don’t want conflict between humans, they want humans to accept their false reality without question. That allows them to keep as many humans as possible. A utopia (from a machines idea of utopia, mind) wouldn’t be the most seamless thing. If everyone around you gets whatever they want and there’s no interpersonal friction from that, it wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny. Putting thought into it would reveal that something must be putting its finger on the scale in order to cause this result. That would wake people up to the fact that this isn’t reality.
They even over corrected with the second matrix and made humans these cowering things to the monsters that went bump in the night. That’s where the maravangian and his pals come from. The issue with that one is humans in constant fight-or-flight are hard to control, so they eventually do things that cause them to awaken as well.
Someone who is trans has a built-in reason to question their reality if they’re kept in their biological body (“why do I feel like I should’ve been born a girl”, etc). So, by putting them in the body that matches their perception, the machines reduce conflict between the system and humans. Reduces the likelihood that any one person has any reason to question that their reality is real.
Smith is a character in the world. He’s explaining things as he understands them, but most importantly in order to break Morpheus and get him to give them the info they want. He’s trying to get him to buy into the idea that the machines are superior to humans.
I don’t mind the different interpretation but I don’t agree that machines would for some reason not have trans people exist in the matrix. Are we assuming they have the ability to assign someone’s “true” gender at birth? Trans women are trans women. Trans men are trans men. Simulating their genitals to be “correct” wouldn’t change that. What do they do with nonbinary people? Nonbinary people can’t be “tricked” to not conform to a set of binary gender identities.
Would trans or nonbinary people be more likely to question the Matrix? Sure, you could argue that. But so would neurodivergent people or anyone that’s feels they are not accepted by the social constructs of society. The reality that human beings accept and question the least is the reality that we live in. A reality where trans people exist. Humans (and especially trans/nonbinary humans) would be far LESS likely to accept a reality in which there are only two genders. It would make the matrix LESS believable not more.
I think you’re projecting the human history of attempting to erase trans people onto the machines. Which could be an interpretation. But I don’t see the machines as malicious or evil. I see them as logical in their methods of control.