USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 SECOND ASSIGNMENT- 'The Monastery'

"Maybe," says the Oracle, "or maybe that is just how they survive. After all, it is all an illusion in here."

"Then it is their survival instinct that pushes them to change. To evolve."

"That's saying why they have changed, assuming they have. Not all have, yet all of them are what you call Exiles. How does that come about?"

"Perhaps, in some cases, change is not required."

"I'm not sure you are quite understanding me, Mors," says the Oracle. "You need to worry less about fancy tricks and powers and more about purpose. How did they get to become what you call Exiles?"

"They needed to survive something."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said that maybe that change is how they survive, then introduced the idea that maybe change wasn't necessary..."

"Surviving in the Matrix can be hard, as you know, but that still doesn't answer why they came to live there in the first place, which is my question."

"As Programs, wouldn't they have been programmed into existence?"

"You seem to have a very strange way of looking at this. You think programmes spontaneously spring into existence as Exiles, inside the Matrix?"

"Well, no. I thought you meant originally. They're called Exiles, have they been exiled?"

(It's you guys that call them Exiles Ares, pretty much on that assumption. The Oracle is the one that has been hesitant with that term).

Hawk pipes up from his seat. "Are they separating themselves from the System? Maybe they want - or need - something they can't get unless they exile themselves?"

(Well blah.)

"All that there really is to find in the Matrix is existence, and not one in a manner to which Machines are accustomed."

Balder will listen intently, trying to stay awake.

(Sorry I'm late).

Well, I think people are over-complicating, as ever. It's a very simple question- why do Exiles become Exiles?

The Oracle said it was to survive.

"Then... a longer existence? Like trying to escape a death sentence?"