Purpose

Omega> You can never watch too much matrix; four out of three doctors agree, Watching the Matrix has been shown to increase eyesoreness and fatigue...*where's the pres of sarcasm?*

So..............if Smith keeps copying himself, trying to reach infinity, so to say, him will cause a catastrophic system crash because no system is infinite?

Does this rule out the idea that there may not be a system crash?

When we saw Smith's face on the monitor in the "Real World" in the trailer, do you think we are looking at a system crash OR that there are, simply, so many Smith's that he is taking over the entire system of the Matrix?

These may have already been talked about to death, but I unfortunately am not here often enough to keep up.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

Cheers

Yes, he is the system crash, and no system can handle an infinite number of programs running at the same time. And, yes, we must assume that Archie was correct when he stated that there would be a cataclysmic system crash. yes, we are looking at the beginnings of a system crash, because there are so many smiths.

is was neos face not smiths and this was an m1 trailer

He is indeed one of the factors of the System Crash, but I don't believe that he is a necessity of it. I feel that the System Crash would still inevitably happen without Smith. This being due to the Prime Programming not being reinserted back into the System.

I dont think the prime programming is reinserted into the system, rather, the prime programming being reinserted into NEO, as he has changed the Programming with his run in with Smith, his own mind changes the programming, etc...I think the system crash is inevitable, but i think Smith is being used by it, as a tool, rather than a free will he sees himself as.

JediHDM> Well, if the doctors say so (I just got a very decent pirate DVD copy of Reloaded. Now I can finally see it on a bigger screen, so if I vanish. 🙂)

Teunis> Infinity can’t be handled by a computer, simply because it - the computer - is not INFINITE. (It is, btw. one of the arguments against real AI’s. We humans can still use the concept of inifinity, without actually grasping it’s true meaning. A computer would have a hard time doing that).

The Architect:”… The function of the One is now to return to the source allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry reinserting the prime program…”

Now this can be interpreted in two ways (or possibly more).
It can be as Sifer suggests, that when the anomaly is disseminated inside the Source, the prime program (The Matrix) is reinserted/restarted. If this is not done, the Matrix can’t be reloaded and will crash.
It may also mean (JediHDM’s suggestion), that the anomaly is taken from Neo, and Neos prime program (the man Neo, not Neo as the One) is reinserted into Neo. After that the Matrix is reset by the Architect. The Matrix can’t be reset until Neos prime program has been reinserted. In this scenario the system crash is caused by the virus. It can only be stopped by resetting the Matrix, which requires reinsertion of the prime program into Neo.

The Architect: “Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix. Which, coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race.”

But I think it’s a mix of the two possibilities. By reinserting the prime program into the Source the Matrix is reset, and thereby deletes the virus.