The Oracle...

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Ahnold
Hello all, I am back. And you know what that means. That's right, here's another noodle baker for you...

I can understand how the oracle might know the fate of AI programs, but how does she know what will happen later on in life to humans like Trinity and Morpheus? How could she possibly know that the former would fall in love with the one, and that the latter would find him? Is she like a psychic? What is the answer? What is the meaning of life?

Thoughts appreciated

Ahnold
Erm, I asked nicely...

LarryTheArch
whoo knows... its also in the script... it is just a movie... but ummmm.. hm........

LarryTheArch
~LTA 2 a frendz rescu.... j/k~

MovieKiller
Now that you mention... I never heard that she could only know the future of the AI machines. I thought that she was able to sense anyone conected to the source... now... of the humans of Zion are plugged into the Matrix, maybe THAT connection gives the Oracle the ability to predict the future. messed

I only said that if what you say is true. I'm not sure though... sorry I can help you with more buddy. I did my best. wink

Ahnold
Well, it's a nice thought, BUT since when are the Zionists connected to the source? Perhaps that's how she reads neo but the others too? What gives? Aarrrggghh! This gives me a headache!

jetzhere101
methinx that we have only seen the future prediction of only neo or somehow concerned with neo.....eg she told trin that she will fall in luv with the one.....told morphy tht he wud find the one.....
so she can only predict the future of those connected to the source.....
as we kno that neo already has a connection to the source so she can predict his future.....and as 4 the programs they r also connected to tthe source..........

Ahnold
Hey... you're right! Come to think of it, everyone that we've seen or heard of that's been "read" is connected to neo: Trin, Morpheus, Niobe... Good point. But she must have read others too...

BioLogos
Good question!!

I've been wondering about this for a long time as well, and below are my (perhaps crazy) thoughts.

While some of her knowledge of the future seems to be based on having experienced previous iterations of the matrix, I think that some of these "predictions" may instead be an attempt to INFLUENCE the future. Remember when she first "baked Neo's noodle"?? -- it was when she told him not to knock over the vase, and then when he did, she asked him to think about whether he would have done it if she hadn't told him he would.

Perhaps the Oracle telling Trin that she would fall in love with The One was an attempt to MAKE it happen.

Yes, it is possible that Trin would have fallen in love with him anyway, but I bet she paid a lot more attention to Neo once the Oracle told her this, making a relationship more likely. Remember, the first movie starts out with Cypher giving Trin a hard time for "liking" him while they are preparing to make contact, i.e., she hadn't even met him yet.

My take on it is that the Oracle tried to encourage the relationship between Trinity and Neo to force a change in the cycle of the matrix "because what she is interested in is the future". Remember, at the end of Revolutions, Archie tells the Oracle something along the line of "you are playing a dangerous game", suggesting that she is manipulating things and that neither she nor Archie really knows what is going to happen as this game proceeds. They both make predictions based on probabilities, but neither can "see past the choices they don't understand". In other words, they can't calculate probabilities if they don't know the variables or the equations relating the variables.

I think that what the Oracle is doing in all of her apparent seeing of the future is predicting outcomes based on her combined understanding of The Matrix and human nature. She sees that IF The One falls in love, he will make a different choice than previous Ones. She sees Neo's and Trin's personalities (via the Matrix) and can predict that they will be compatible. She tells Trin that she will fall in love with a man, and this man will be The One, in an attempt to make sure that this happens.

Based on this reasoning, I don't think that she can make any detailed predictions about anyone who has not been in The Matrix, but her understanding of human nature should allow her to make predictions about us as a group.

Here is another point that leads me to the conclusion that the Oracle is not "seeing" the future but instead "predicting" it and trying to manipulate it: why would the Oracle tell the humans her visions of the future, except to influence the future???

Mordecai
Indeed.

As for your last little question at the end, why does anyone go see a "fortune teller" and whatever else? they don't really want to know there future, they need guidance, and when told a prediction, they go about seeking that future. Thats why they go see The Oracle, they don't know their place or their purpose within The Matrix, and The Oracle is just another form of control, even after escaping The Matrix they are all still puppets to the game, thats what The Oracle is there for.

I'm not sure if all that makes sense, it most likely does.

Good day.

jetzhere101
biologos she didnt tell neo not to knock over the vase instead she told him "not to worry abt the vase".....this shows that she can predict the future.and then she told him that what wud he think if hadnt she told him abt the vase and still he wud knock it off.

Ahnold
Hmmm... the Oracle INFLUENCING the future? There's a thought...

jetzhere101
maybe it is true bcoz if we think from a different pt of view then we can think of the oracle as a chess player and all the others as her pawns....she told neo in m1 tht he wud have to make a choice bet. his life and morphys life. maybe she put morphy in2 trouble.....but we very well know that it was cypher who informed the agents. so the answer may very well lie on the prediction she gave to cypher......

maybe she told him that the one wud take trin away from him......

sum1butno1
The only problem is that in Reloaded, the Archie calls her "an intuitive program", which means that she is a program demonstrating the ability to "know or sense without rational processes"(from Dictionary.com). However, if she was merely another system of control, we probably can't believe anything the Archie says.

Makes you wonder about what's really true and what's merely another system of control... confused

The Unknown
Maybe since when Neo and the others are in the Matrix, their mind is in code, meaning that the Oracle could possibly read their emotions and predict how they'd react to a situation. Like knowing that Neo would react by breaking the vase, she told him not to worry about it. And the same with the love between Trinity and Neo.

sum1butno1
The Unknown> Yeah, it seems like the programs have gotten pretty good at predicting reactions, but in Reloaded, it seems like the Oracle just knows, because it sounds like she doesn't approve of the Archie seeing every human decision as a variable in an equation and then accounting for all the variables and determining the most likely response (an all that junk). So I think that it's unlikely that she does that kind of thing.

Numo
If the role of the Architect was to balance the equation and the Oracle's role was to un-balance it, then surely that would make her the bringer of chaos or the Devil in other words. This would entirely be consistent with her role as the manipulator of the future. And the reason why Neo never looked happy to see her and was so quick to denounce her as a liar.

mook
the Oracle tells people 'what they need to hear'.

therfore she could tell people certain things in order for them to come true.

Ahnold
That's a thought...

mook
like with neo in M1

Neo6.0
As far as I understand it, the Oracle indeed can read the code and figure out how that person will react. She is like the Architect; she is a god. Unlike him, she introduces free choice and to disobey the system. (Ever wonder why she talks about candy all the time? The candy represents disobediance, like the red pill.) She is also capable of see how others connect to Neo's destiny. Remember ETM during the poweroutage in her apartment, which was a sad way to cover the fact it wasn't Gloria Foster, she had a conversation with Seraph.

She said, "The truth is the path of the One is made by the many. There are so many choices between here and there and so much fear. And if but one fails, all fail."

With Niobe, "I see everything from the beginning of the path to the end. Even I can't see past the end. I can only hope, if given the chance, you(Niobe) will do what you can to help Neo."

In Reloaded, "One can never see past a choice they don't understand." "You've already made the choice, you're here to understand WHY you made it."

In Revolutions, "It's his (Architect) job to balance the equations, mine is to unbalance them." "I didn't always know, but I believed."

She is a guide to help people make the decisions that may be needed to be made. Kinda like in some RPGs how one event alters the game and new different choices spin off from that.

My two cents, feel free to flame me and poke fun at me because I might be wrong. Everyone else does. Good Day.

Mordecai
Nah, that was great.

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