In anticipation of the final film, I've been rewatching the first 2 lately. I think I've got a good understanding of the logistics of "hacking into the Matrix", but anyone care to comment on it?

By logistics, I mean actually uploading into the Matrix, and gettting your mind out of it. I believe part of my confusion comes from the cutting of the "hardlines" in the first film. What exactly dictates a hardline (Why can't the machines just cut them all?), and how do humans uplink into the system from their ships (Wireless connection, direct patch?) The "re-patch the main AC to the hard drive" comment from Reloaded has me wondering about this.

Anyone have any good understanding that they'd care to share?

That it's a movie, and the hows and whys aren't as important as the film being entertaining.

Well, for a movie like this - I disagree.

If I'm talking about "The Bachelor", then you are correct.

But in this instance, dealing with two worlds, a real and artificial world, there is more than just being entertained.

It's one of those things you just shouldn't think about. The matrix films (regardless of what they try to be) are just mindless action films.

Diving into something shallow just gets you a face full of concrete.

And here is a perfect example of a thread crap.

I'm not asking for you to tell me what I should/should not think about.

I do want to know what people have to say regarding the intricacies of the Matrix, which is fairly pertinent to the story given that it revolves around it.

The other way to think about it is, that in the movies we're dealing with a technology far beyond ours ... and you're trying to define it in terms of technology that you know about, ie, ours.

So maybe just accept it that the logistical considerations would be outside of what we know and understand, and that you'd rather just watch the movie, than have their entire worold explained to you in technical terms.

I didn't mean it as a thread crap. I quite enjoy the Matrix movies.

I just mean no one is going to have an answer for that, all they can do is speculate as the W bros haven't bothered explaining the details in the movies.

IMO it's just best to enjoy them for the action, and ignore their lame attempts and being philosophical and things they don't explain (like your question). But suit yourself.

The wife did it, her head is in the box, he IS dead, it was a battle between the multiple personalities of the inmate, and oh yeah....it was all a dream in the mind of an autistic boy. Now, back to the basement of the Science Building!!!

[brad pitt]OH COME ON, WHAT'S IN THE BOX?[/brad pitt]

My understanding:

You plug into the Matrix and access it via a hardline in the Matrix: i.e. a phone line. That is why everyone "appears" in the Matrix next to a phone and "disappears" through a phone.

The hoovercrafts "broadcast" the signal into the Matrix. Hence "bring the ship to broadcasting level." I guess it is similar to wireless access.

The hardlines connect the Matrix to the Source, so not all hardlines can be severed.

Is the technology backwards-compatible with rotary dial? I didn't look very close...

Yes, in the first film during the scene where they pull Neo out of the battery farm, you can see a rotary dial phone among the various pieces of equipment the team uses.

All you need is that laptop that was used to hack into the alien spaceship in Independence Day. It has a galaxy-wide universal OS on it.

You mean the Mac OS?

I disagree, this could be a very important issue one day! Haven't you seen Galaxy Quest?

I think they use old school 300 baud modems. Big external ones.

Perhaps the "hardlines" are Wireless Access Points. They just show up in the Matrix as phones. Obviously, the ships have to get up to broadcasting level, meaning with range of the AP. Servering the hardline is akin to unplugging the AP. Perhaps they can't remove all the APs, because this is the same system they use to communicate with their squiddies.

Although the idea of Morpheus plugging into an old-fashioned phone coupler whenever he wanted to dial in is kind of amusing.

What are the two I don't know?