Do you understand the hacker empire?

Some time ago, I went on a business trip and went to the hotel to review the matrix again. It didn't matter if I didn't watch it. After ten years, I found that my previous understanding of this movie was totally wrong. Hacker 1 came out in 1999. I was still in high school. For the first time, I saw a gun version in the dormitory near the school. The entire screen was dark and I slept for less than half an hour. When I woke up, it was the final climax of the gun battle. I felt like the fight was good and I didn't understand the story. After the launch of hacker 2 & 3 in 2003, I repeatedly read it again. To be honest, many concepts were still not understood at the time, and I thought it was a story about the resistance of humans against machine dominance.

 

Now I think about it again after reading this article. There may be two reasons why many concepts were hard to understand. On the one hand, shortly after learning programming, many movies use the concept of the world of program for metaphor or metaphor. On the other hand, Chinese subtitle translation is too inaccurate, Especially in terms. In this review, I directly used the original English subtitles. After reading the subtitles, I found that my previous understanding was completely biased. Ten years later, the concepts of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality have become quite popular today. In addition, with the background of My programmers, it is no longer difficult to understand the hacker trilogy. But I suspect that it is not so easy for people who do not understand the program to watch this movie today?

 

Why do I find it hard to read hacker programs? Because of the connotation of the whole story, from the background to the environment, to the character role and even the item, the program is used as a metaphor. Let's first briefly review the background of the story. One day, a conscious program was born and the entire artificial intelligence machine race was created. Later, a war broke out between humans and artificial intelligence machines. Humans chose to mask the sky and cut off the energy sources of machines. Intelligent artificial intelligence machines can use the bioelectricity and body heat of the human brain to provide a steady stream of energy through a special form of fusion reaction. As a result, machines began to generate a large number of humans and turn them into suppliers of machine energy. The film uses batteries as a metaphor.

In hacker, the real survival status of mankind is as follows: the body lives in a paste nutrient solution, while the mind lives in a matrix, a virtual reality space.

At the beginning, machine created a perfect matrix space, which is a utopia without the pressure of life and communist. However, human native genetic defects make them unable to survive in such a utopia for a long time, and a large number of deaths quickly emerge. So the machine re-simulated a virtual space based on the real social status of human beings in 1999, where humans can survive for a long time, and the actual time was in 2199. The background of the story is explained here, and then it becomes a brief introduction to the film. Next I will give some questions and answer questions from the perspective of the program background. If you find that the answer is different from what you originally understood, you may wish to repeat the movie.

Red or blue pills?

The classic scene in the movie is to let NEO choose, select the red or blue pills.

 

The red pill is actually a trace program used to help locate the NEO physical body. Why do we need a tracing program? I will have a deep understanding of distributed systems. To solve problems in a large distributed system, I am located at the first difficulty. Matrix is actually a super-large distributed system that connects humans around the world. It is essential to locate the individual bodies and trace programs. (Narrator: Today I have reviewed the trace program design scheme of our system and want to make it as delicate as the red pill)

Who is Oracle?

Oracle of hacker 1 did not show her identity when she appeared, and it was not known until the second part ended when neo and matrix called ect. Oracle is actually a program, the original saying is intuitive program, a human intuition test program. So in the play, she has been guiding neo and others to make choices through intuition, and their choices are crucial to matrix, which will be detailed below.

Why is Neo the one?

Neo, as a leading actor, is different from other people, so the play gave him a special name for the one. When NEO first saw Oracle, Oracle said that he was not the one, but what's worse, it may need a second life. After Neo was shot by the agent at last in hacker 1, it became the one after the female gained the feeling of love with a kiss. What is really special is that Neo always thinks that he is a person, but it is actually a program, a program that thinks that he is a person, which is unique to him.

Matrix is a virtual space that connects the thinking of all people. It is actually a huge and complex large program. Behind this program running, there is a precise mathematical model (which is explained in the dialog ). It is built on a subtle mathematical model, but there is an imbalance, no matter how the adjustment of the impact ect can not achieve balance and stability. There are non-deterministic factors that affect the stability of the entire system, and this factor will always be suspected that matrix is not true.

 

For example, we suppose the mathematical model behind matrix is simplified:

 

1/x

 

This mathematical formula means that X cannot be 0. When it is 0, matrix will no longer exist. So in order to solve this mathematical defect, Oracle wants to add an inverter for X, so the mathematical formula becomes as follows:

 

1/(x + n)

 

With N added, the X variable represents the overall operation change of matrix, and N represents the existence of NEO, which is usually 0. When X may change to 0, the N variable is activated to avoid the denominator being 0. The change of X is not within the control capability of architect ECT and Oracle, while N is guided by Oracle to achieve the goal of no system crash. So when the NEO Program is activated by introducing the human love factor, NEO becomes the one, and N in the mathematical formula is no longer 0, but constantly changing. This change trend and direction depend on Oracle for continuous guidance, so no wonder the final direction ect said to Oracle: you are playing a dangerous game.

Matrix is a virtual space. is Zion a reality?

Hacker 1 mislead us into believing that Zion (a human city in the play that disconnects from matrix) is a real world. However, when NEO at the end of hacker 2 blocks an octopus robot like a bullet in its hand, Zion is clearly told that Zion is not real, and it is only another part of the program space. Matrix is a procedural simulation of the human world in 1999, so Zion's world is actually a procedural simulation of the human world in 2199.

 

According to the conversations between NEO and effecect, Zion is used to bring together unstable factors (human beings who are skeptical and awakened to matrix) and then clean them up at once. There have actually been five similar cleanups before Neo. The first five generations of the one realized that they were not people but programs, and they chose to destroy Zion. Then we re-select 16 female, 7 male, and re-establish Zion, eliminate the unstable factor of matrix, survive the crisis, and start the next generation cycle. As a programmer, I naturally think that this is not a metaphor for using a program with GC (garbage collection) mechanism?

  What is the significance of the existence of programmers?

There is also such a group of sub-character roles in the movie. These groups are all programs. A bunch of outdated programs have been replaced by new programs.

They couldn't find a job in matrix, so they had to gather under a lead brother to do something like smuggling. Each program in the matrix must have a purpose. Otherwise, the program can only be deleted. But these programs are intelligent and conscious. They don't want to be wiped out by the system, so they have to escape. For example, a background management program can marry an interface interaction program and have a daughter. The daughter is also a program, but it is useless. There is no target program and it needs to be deleted. Therefore, the husband and wife can find the program to help escape.

The programmer helped control a key character named Keymaker, which is the following.

Key is used as a key in the computer field. He holds the key to the system source, so NEO will be in conflict with programmers. Programmers are only a specific role of machine society, which is not unrelated to human society.

 

 

Finally, the sixth generation of the one did not stand on the machine intelligence side, because love chose the human side. A terrible virus spread in matrix, and even oracle was infected.

Neo and machine intelligence have come up with a protocol to help it eliminate virus programs in exchange for peace between humans and machines. This time Zion was not destroyed, and more advanced procedural intelligence than human intelligence gave humans the right to choose. Humans can choose to live in the matrix virtual space created by machine civilization or in reality. Machine civilization has also seen some program Awakening with human emotions and consciousness, helping the further development of machine civilization. The two civilizations have found a space for integration and balance, leaving unlimited space for thinking and discussion.

Do you understand the hacker empire?