[leephillips]

I agree to the extent that the Architect in Matrix 2 [?] had some interesting things to say, and his explanation about why the machine needed humans almost redeemed the idiotic rationale of the first movie (electrical generators???). But, that and few other interesting ideas aside, I found them tedious and not well constructed.

[croddin]

Apparently the original plot was that humans were used for compute, which would make more sense, but the studio didn't think audiences would understand that as well.

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/19817/was-executiv...

[zhengyi13]

Humans used for compute is also central to the Hyperion Cantos, IIRC.

[adamauckland]

Is that right? All I can remember is the Shrike. Terrifying.

[quickthrower2]

I’m going to assume they meant compute from now on as the body heat thing is too annoying

[sixstringtheory]

I read on here a long time ago that it wasn't just supposed to be humans as batteries, but as CPUs/algorithms (some good further discussion too, about the Architect): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12508832

I thought I'd seen an earlier discussion on a mailing list or something but can't find it now.

I remember coming up with an idea, which I thought was original, of us being in a simulation where all our life choices are just training an AI advertising engine that then targets "real" humans, and then later came across this revelation about The Matrix, and of course it'd already been thought of.

[leephillips]

Still a promising idea, though.