I think the main thing that makes humans a good energy source isn't so much the efficiency, but the fact that they are a renewable resource- the key to longevity.
Very good points, Neo+Trinity and Dekka. It's great when we can have stimulating discussions.
I think it's possible that the chemical energy contained in every cell of the body could have been harnessed by the Machines in an efficient and ingenious manner in order to serve the nutritious needs of humans. It may have been much more complex than merely liquifying human remains and feeding them to surviving humans, which probably wouldn't be energy efficient. The analogy would be the burning of fuel in open air and allowing most of the heat to escape unused, whereas if that was done in a self-contained unit, most of it could be utilised.
It's interesting you should say that Morpheus' assessment of the predicament of humanity could have been erroneous (ie. that the Machines are not as malicious as previously thought and the 'humans as energy slaves' depiction may be inaccurate), because in an interview with an Aussie magazine, the Aussie production designer actually revealed that after working on 3 of the films, in his opinion Morpheus' revelations about the status of Machines and humans may have been a fallacy. Obviously there's no way to know for certain unless the story is furthered by the Wachowskis.
The_Rebel
"The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant" - Plato
The entire thing is pretty much the humans fault anyway.
They started the violence, they started the war... and they lost it. They blackened the skies which lead to the machines looking for new ways to power themselves and finally they agreed to being taken over in the matrix.
Remember the scene where the machine signs the document in the animatrix?
Thats another thing about the machines... they will honour their agreements... when Morpheus made an agreement to lower his weapons in exchange for safe passage, even the merovingian agreed to it.
If AI ever nears the point of becoming self aware and/or when quantum computers are working systems I am gonna get the symbol for PI tatooed on my arm or something in the vain hope that if machines made a matrix that would somehow help
<quivering at the thought of being in the matrix>
hey what's this pink goop in my hair?
The funniest music video in the world is Eminem - Without Me, when Elvis is sitting on the toilet, reaches in and pulls out a sandwich and eats it - where did that come from? roflmao
The 120 volt battery and 25000 BTUs are sort of like Ice-9 - it doesn't really mean anything but it sounds scientific - in reality, volts don't measure electricity, just electric potential - and people die if they have 120 volts going through their body - and BTUs don't really tell you very much either unless you know how much is produced over a given period of time.
The human body would make a poor generator - and you'd do it by putting one on a bicycle and turning a crank, not by taping into the weak current that the body uses in nerve signals - most of our food energy goes out as mechanical work.
Just burning the foodstuff in a steam engine or biodiesel would be far more efficient in generating electricity - that's why you don't see any hamster wheel farms powering sky scrapers!
I've heard the the Wachowskis original intentions for the purpose of the Matrix was actually for the human brain's processing power. Essentially, the Matrix formed one huge network of parallel processors. But the Wachowskis were afraid the masses wouldn't understand that so they decided to dumb it down to using humans as batteries.
03-19-2004 07:33 AM
