Lessons from the Matrix — The Architect

I’ve been waiting for you

The science and art of Analytics is, by necessity, built on the singular principle of attempting to develop and share useful insights. In order for such a practice to exist, much less provide any use, there must be a subject of observation.

An object or concept or something must exist before analysis is possible.

Analysts do not question this precondition simply because they are always called to work their magic on data sets that already exist. Whether these data sets were planned with care or compiled with none, someone created them.

Few in Analytics really think of the Architects except to curse their very existence and question their ability to assemble legos, much less data models.

Control

When Neo meets the Architect in Matrix Reloaded, he instantly sees the Architect as the symbol of everything that is wrong with the Matrix, everything that is plaguing humanity and trying to exert control.

Both Neo and the audience view the Architect as the enemy.

Add a few six-shooters and a tumbleweed, and the scene would hardly change

The Architect does not see Neo as an enemy. That’s a human concept. He sees a rogue element that is both able and willing to destroy everything he has labored to build and maintain since he first came into existence.

I am not excusing the arrogance of the Architect in this scene, but it is understandable. To him, Neo simply does not understand the consequences of the decision to be made or, rather, he does understand but is allowing his emotions to overcome what is, to the Architect, a simple matter of logic.

Note that the Architect bears no ill will towards Neo in this scene, even though it is immediately obvious that Neo is going to risk the destruction of both the human and machine ‘worlds’ on the chance that he can save Trinity.

Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.

That is not anger. It sounds, however condescending, like admiration.

Design

I’m not writing this piece as a fan letter to the Architect in the Matrix, but I’d like you to try something new: look at the situation from his perspective.

The view isn’t much, but the chair is comfortable

He was brought into existence as a fully formed being, access to immense knowledge, and one task: design a system to sustain the machine world.

Was he required to use humans in his system? They certainly weren’t the best available source of power for a number of reasons:

• Human beings are ultimately endothermic and poor power sources
• The machines knew how unpredictable and dangerous humans can be
• Geothermal systems were ubiquitous in the movies
• The Matrix itself probably required more power than the Machine City

I have my own theories on the design decisions, but so do any number of other writers. But since this is my article, I will note a few of my thoughts.

• We have no real information on the initial AI that “started” the war
• The processing power of the human brain is nearly incalculable. That is much more valuable than the thermal heat produced by a still body.
• Programs were constantly interacting with humanity, often by choice

Before I go too far on this tangent, let’s proceed to the next section.

Design and Implementation

I’m not writing this piece to break down the structure of the Matrix or question the motivation of the characters. Believe it or not, I have a point.

Given the parameters we can estimate were available to the Architect in the beginning, he created a Matrix that represented a human Utopia. Or so he thought. So he continued to tune his design until, with outside assistance (from the Oracle), he found a design that was workable but imperfect.

To drag this whole discussion back to the overall topic, he is the Architect.

The humans are Analysts.

Now, we have a familiar paradigm. Let’s run with it.

Architecture

Speaking as both a software architect and a data architect, we take the given resources and constraints and attempt to create a structure that will provide optimal capabilities without putting too many limitations in place.

This is necessary because we’re not developing airplanes or space shuttles. In those cases, the designs can and must be locked against future change in order to serve their functions and keep the users alive.

At best, a software or data architect is creating guidelines for current use and future expansion. We try to account for every possibility, but we cannot.

Human beings are unpredictable, and we cannot see the future.

I would kill for this room that showed possible futures

The Architect even had the benefit of seeing the future, albeit to a limited extent. This ‘sight’, which the Architect shares with the Oracle and Neo to differing degrees, is introduced to the Matrix films with little explanation.

But the Architect is seeing any number of potential outcomes, and he usually cannot tell which is going to pass. He has an awesome view of the present when he changes the channel, but he can only see possible futures.

I can see possible futures. I have intuition, experience, and extrapolation rather than the world’s most confusing multi-monitor setup, but the concept is similar.

The Architect, from his perspective, is trying to design a system that will survive the next major system crisis as embodied in his integral anomaly.

Analysis

In this paradigm, I am classifying certain humans as analysts because that is what they are. These “certain humans” would be those who chose to reject the programming of the Matrix at whatever level, conscious or unconscious.

Whether in the Matrix, on a ship, or working in Zion, these humans do almost nothing except attempt to understand the workings of the machines and their programs. Some do it for survival. Others look for a deeper meaning.

You haven’t answered my question

You didn’t ask one. But I’ll answer the question you’re thinking.

I’m writing about the Architect because I want you to remember, when you’re analyzing a system and cursing the problems in the data and the structure, that someone built that system based on the information they had at the time. Or maybe it was built by a complete idiot; that does happen.

I’m writing about the Architect because, next time you’re bypassing best practices and guidelines in order to make a deadline, I want you to remember that someone put that structure in place for a reason.

Don’t blame architects for system failures when you refuse to work with them. If I actually enforced every guideline I authored, we’d have much cleaner systems but also angrier developers and, admittedly, less creativity.

Flexibility

The Architect in the Matrix films had one fatal and necessary flaw. He was too rigid. As the Oracle said, his purpose was to balance the equation.

Her purpose was to unbalance it.

The Architect designed his Matrix to mathematical precision and perfection, only to watch it fail. Why? Because humans are neither perfect nor precise.

The Matrix in the films only worked for any amount of time when it allowed for imperfection. For the unexpected. When it could flex with changing requirements and adapt to new circumstances.

We can learn some things from the Architect. We can learn even more from his shortcomings.

For more lessons from the Matrix…

Lessons from The Matrix — Trust

Lessons from The Matrix — Deep Learning

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