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As a powerful program linking to the source, the Oracle knows everything that happens in the Matrix, except for the outcome brought about on irrational choices. She is trying to keep her gambit going by manipulating all the people and programs that play a part.

However, did the Oracle's manipulation extend to so many miraculous incidents in the real world?

The following are some of those miraculous incidents that happened outside of the Matrix after each time she had been consulted.

  1. Cypher's betrayal. Tank miraculously survived his attack and stopped him right before he was going to pull the plug of Neo. Note that Tank was a Zion-born operator without ever entering the Matrix.
  2. The squids reached the bridge and the button for EMP was triggered right after Neo got out of the Matrix .
  3. Trinity wouldn't have entered the Matrix if the sentinel bomb hadn't gone off precisely when it did to kill the crew of the Vigilant.
  4. Numerous Smiths fought with Neo in the corridor so that Trinity had enough time to disable the emergency system for the grids. If Smiths hadn't been there to "help", Neo would have been killed by the explosives once he opened the door.

If any one of these had failed, the path of the One could've lost in advance. It's too hard to believe all these happened purely by accident. Was the Oracle really able to foresee and manipulate them to an extremely precise extent (like the case of vase), even those outside of the Matrix? There are so many things which seemed far beyond the Oracle's control or influence.

Even Morpheus believed there were no accidents. He believed what he saw was no coincidence but providence.

Kinzle B
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  • I think the issue with fortuitous timing is something that happens in every film. The bomb always gets defused at the last second. There may be no decent in-universe justification. – PointlessSpike Feb 11 '16 at 13:42
  • @PointlessSpike This film is special because everything has been planned in advance, and there's a fortunate teller. – Kinzle B Feb 11 '16 at 13:44
  • I'm not sure it was planned in advance. I think it was treated as an inevitability- one that recurred. My understanding is that similar events to Neo's happened every time there was The One. – PointlessSpike Feb 11 '16 at 13:46
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    @PointlessSpike The one is designed and the path of the One is arranged in advance. Even backed by high-powered computing, the numerous factors outside the Matrix could hinder the progress of the fate of human and machines. Besides, my question is about how the Oracle is capable of foreseeing them. – Kinzle B Feb 11 '16 at 13:52
  • Perhaps the two aren't mutually exclusive? The machines recognise that these things will likely happen, and that humans will do everything they can to make it happen, so they just use that against them. – PointlessSpike Feb 11 '16 at 13:54
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    That's not the point. I'm asking whether the omniscient Oracle has foreseen all these or use any influence on these, even outside of the Matrix. That's what she is meant to do. @PointlessSpike – Kinzle B Feb 11 '16 at 14:02
  • Don't forget the vase... – Valorum Feb 11 '16 at 14:35
  • I didn't. :) But that happened in the Matrix. @Richard BTW, I'm not a native speaker. I hope I made myself understood. If I didn't, plz don't hesitate to correct me. – Kinzle B Feb 11 '16 at 14:37
  • @KinzleB Why wouldn't the Oracle be able to foresee all this? As you say, the path of the One is arranged in detail in advance, so there's really no problem with the Oracle (being also arranged in advance) having access to this path. I'm not sure free will and butterfly effects are actually things beyond any kind of control in this instance. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 11 '16 at 14:59
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    This is a good question and doesn't deserve a doe vote – Escoce Feb 11 '16 at 15:04
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    Worth noting that in theoretical computer science, an "oracle machine" is a type of black box that can give an instant answer to all sorts of questions, including ones that would be impossible for a normal computer program to solve even given infinite time, like the halting problem. So maybe the Wachowskis were aware of this (they seem to include nods to other bits of computing terminology, like "The Source" being reminiscent of "source code"), and intended to suggest that the Oracle was built with some mystery tech that wasn't computational. – Hypnosifl Feb 12 '16 at 22:17
  • I always wondered this exact thing about the detailed dreams(s) one/some of the characters had outside the matrix which exactly mirror what happened later in the matrix. –  Feb 26 '16 at 20:18
  • She's the goddamn Oracle. She know everything ;) – ABcDexter Apr 15 '16 at 08:06
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    That's not an element a sci-fi movie should have. @ABcDexter – Kinzle B Apr 15 '16 at 08:09
  • @KinzleB Yes agreed, was just praising the Oracle. – ABcDexter Apr 15 '16 at 08:20

2 Answers2

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She didn't see in advance, she was just able to make judgement calls based on experience like many of us humans are able. If you play with fire you eventually are going to get burned.

She even alluded to the fact that she doesn't predict, but that things happen because of what she told them.

Oracle: Don't worry about the vase.

Neo: What vase? Crash. Sorry.

Oracle: I said don't worry about it.

Neo: How did you...?

Oracle: What's going to burn your bacon later on is would it have happened if I didn't say anything....hmmhmmmhmmm...have a cookie.

The Oracle did lots of things that she judged would move things along according to her plan. She helped nudge Trinity to fall in love with Neo, and ultimately in the end, Neo saved Trinity rather than walking through the door to the source because of that love.

The Oracle didn't see ahead, she forecasted much like a weatherman and put things into action to keep things moving along her plan.

The Architect at the end said it was a dangerous game, and he is right because she didn't know what was going to happen, she only hoped it would happen the way it did.

NathanS
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Escoce
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  • But she told Neo that either he or Morpheus was going to die and that was up to Neo. – Kinzle B Feb 11 '16 at 15:27
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    Yeah, and no one died. It was another prodding to get him to do something when the time came. She didn't know what was going to happen. Didn't know Morpheus was going to be captured. It was just to get Neo's wheels turning so that he could make the choice to go beyond his own limits. Even afterwords when Morpheus was rescued, Morpheus told Neo that the oracle told him was for him alone and was only what Neo needed to hear. – Escoce Feb 11 '16 at 15:45
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    How does that line show she doesn't predict? Even if she does know the future infallibly things like that could still happen, it would just be an example of a type of predestination paradox which often shows up in time travel stories where someone knows some event is going to happen and their own actions help cause that very event, even if they didn't intend to. – Hypnosifl Feb 12 '16 at 22:18
  • She can't, if she could then the architect would absorb her programming so he would know what's going to happen and the one wouldn't be needed. That's the central premise of the movie. – Escoce Feb 12 '16 at 23:26
  • Predicting doesn't imply knowing how to avoid the predicted outcome--the Oracle's role wasn't just to predict the future, it was to be an "intuitive" program that was able to solve the problem of people rejecting the Matrix. If the Architect had absorbed the Oracle's predictive ability, and he saw the number of people rejecting the Matrix would keep growing and crash the system, how would knowing that help him if he lacked the Oracle's intuitive understanding of how to keep most people satisfied by giving them a sense of choice? – Hypnosifl Feb 13 '16 at 02:39
  • Exactly, you got it – Escoce Feb 13 '16 at 02:45
  • Yes, but what I said above about her being an "intuitive" program doesn't conflict with my earlier comment that she might have perfect predictive abilities, which you seemed to be disagreeing with. By the way, when you respond to my comments could you put @Hypnosifl before them? You automatically get notified when anyone posts a comment on your answer, but I don't get any notification telling me you've responded to one of my comments unless you put that in first. – Hypnosifl Feb 14 '16 at 22:19
  • I do disagree with it. If she had perfect prediction, none of the events of the movie would need to come to pass. There would be no choices, only pre-destiny. – Escoce Feb 15 '16 at 02:43
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    Again, can you please put @Hypnosifl before your replies? Otherwise I have no idea you've answered unless I think to come back here to check. Anyway, why do you say "none of the events of the movie would need to come to pass"? If she wanted to free the humans, but she foresaw that she would have to take a certain course of action to do it (getting Neo to fall in love and making Trinity be in danger when he meets the Architect), wouldn't she take that course of action? Also, the word "choice" still makes sense in a pre-destined world, as long as people don't themselves know what they'll do. – Hypnosifl Feb 15 '16 at 22:10
  • @Hypnosifl because she would be able to say to the architect "this is what will happen if you free the humans in the matrix" and the movie would end after 15 seconds. – Escoce Feb 16 '16 at 00:32
  • But why would the Architect want to free the humans in the Matrix? Anyway, even she can't see past choices she doesn't yet understand, so even if she can foresee the path that leads to convincing Neo to reject the Architect's plan and take the door that leads to Trinity, she may not be able to see what happens once she becomes a Smith clone, in which case she wouldn't know the final outcome. Note that at the end of the movie when there's peace, Seraph asks her if she knew this day would come, and she says "No. But I believed." – Hypnosifl Feb 16 '16 at 00:41
  • @Hypnosifl exactly. You have all the points I a making in your comment, you just aren't drawing the lines between them. – Escoce Feb 16 '16 at 00:47
  • "Exactly" to what? I made the point that even if she could foresee the results of the plan she'd still have to go through with it because the Architect wouldn't go along with it unless his hand was forced, do you agree with that? And then I added that she may not be able to foresee the final end results, but she'd still foresee everything that came before being taken over by Smith, including the trivial incident of telling Neo not to worry about the vase and having him knock it over, which you said she couldn't have foreseen as an inevitability. Are you going back on that claim? – Hypnosifl Feb 16 '16 at 00:57
  • @Hypnosifl exactly to the last sentence of your previous comment. Beside someone changed the title of the question it asked how much did she know in advance. That was what my answer was and still is about and it still applies though I understand your confusion. Ok I am done here. It's not a chat room. – Escoce Feb 16 '16 at 01:42
  • @Hypnosifl - It might be a good idea for you to type @ Escoce on your comments as well. Just thought it was a bit ironic and got a chuckle out of it. Lol – iMerchant Apr 15 '16 at 01:05
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    @iMerchant - The reason I was asking Escoce to put @ Hypnosifl was just because without it, I wouldn't get an alert that Escoce had responded to me, so I might not ever see the response unless I thought to re-check this page. But it's part of the way the stack exchange system works that when anyone posts a comment on an answer Escoce wrote, Escoce automatically gets alerted without them having to put @ Escoce, so that's why I wasn't doing that on my own comments. – Hypnosifl Apr 15 '16 at 04:01
  • @Hypnosifl - oh Gotcha. Makes sense. Why put a @ tag on a comment for him when he is already getting notices as the author of the answer. – iMerchant Apr 15 '16 at 04:28
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Well, if it's possible, the Oracle is in the best position to do it. The Oracle is designed to study the human psyche. With the Architect they are creators of the current Matrix version.

Presumably the Oracle can access data on the very minds of the full lifetime of each and every person from lots of generations of full human populations.

Combined with the understanding of human psyche, and adding that machines probably supply the humans with the building blocks of each Zion, and that the starting population of Zion is selected under the control of the Machines, and 'the vase', I would say, yes, the Oracle can predict these 'accidents'.

I'd add that maybe it's the Tank-specific part of subconscious of Cypher that makes him miss Tank under psychical stress, the Vigilant's demise is the workings of Smith who is a program, like Squids.

n611x007
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