In The Matrix, Neo fought Smith in an epic battle, but at the end it was nearly an even match. Having accidentally inserted his own code into the Agent that was Smith at the end of the first movie, Smith now replicated like a virus across the matrix. Neo was fighting against part of himself.
At the end of the third film, blinded but still sensing wirelessly the machine world around him, Neo negotiated a peace with the system. He sacrificed himself, handing his physical body over to win a truce. Although only a temporary victory, as we learned in Matrix 4, Neo plugged in to the source and reset the simulation. We see his lifeless body, and then The Oracle and The Architect sitting on a bench discussing whether the peace between the human world and the machine world would last.
What took place in the space between the third film, and the fourth film, was allegedly some of humanity freed from the matrix, although others chose to remain. Simulacra and Simulation [PDF] helped inspire cyberpunks of the last century. I wonder what readers then would think if they could see the world as we live it today, and what the future will think of us in another century.
In many ways the world we live in is a Matrix, moreso the simulations that we all use to inform and entertain ourselves today. Influencers help make these platforms relevant by creating content that bring people back every day, and make it a place they want to occupy and "pay" attention to.
How much do the maps of reality we have created precede the reality itself? I have been unfollowing pages on Facebook, places that have closed, movements that have been abandoned, it's pioneers who have passed on, yet their groups remain. Where does reality begin, and simulation end?
@Darkflame
