In the scene from the first Matrix film in which Morpheus is captured and interrogated, Smith goes off into a giant commentary about the history of the Matrix itself - explaining that there were several different versions of the computer program prior to the current one in which the machines settled on. Smith only gives us one example: a utopian Matrix where nothing bad happened and everyone led perfect lives. The version was ultimately a failure due to the human race's apparent inability to accept a perfect world with no negatives built into it. Smith tells us that there were several versions of the life simulation program, six, to be exact. Humans would know no different due to their history being long forgotten (and partially fabricated by the machines) and the Agents could have potentially been non-existent in earlier versions. The possibilities of what the Matrix could look like are potentially massive. If the machines have total knowledge of human history, then they could code one that exists in a medieval, Roman or even ancient period of time. The 20th century setting of the Matrix seen in the films may have been chosen because it was viewed by the machines as the peak of human civilization, but why would they want us to have access to technology and hence be more intelligent?
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
