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I'm somewhat confused about the nature of Time in the Matrix, but I have 3 different possibilities, all of which are neither confirmed nor denied in the trilogy as far as I can see.

  1. Possibility 1: Time is fixed. By saying time is fixed, I don't mean it's constantly one specific point in time, but it is always the 90s (as I know the Architect stated that the 90s were the optimum time). The way I envisage this possibility, it goes from Jan 1 1990 to Dec 30 1999, then the next day is Jan 1 1990 again (an infinite loop). The people of the Matrix, however, are oblivious of this. In this possibility, humanity is in stagnation - no development of new ideas beyond those attained by 30 Dec 1999. (This would be denied if we see that the date in number 3 exceeds 1999, as the film itself was made post 1999).
  2. Possibility 2: Time repeats itself. Similar to Possibility 2, but instead of limiting it to the 90s, the Matrix runs from some point near the beginning of humanity (perhaps the year 0? Your guess is as good as mine here) and runs until the war between the machines and humans erupts, then goes back to the beginning again. Supported perhaps by Smith's statement in the first movie about Decartes being an evil genius or something.
  3. Possibility 3: Alternate timeline. Similar to the above possibility in that time for those in the Matrix begins from some point (an unknown point in time), but continues without the war between humanity and the machines erupting - a completely alternate timeline.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on The Matrix, but I'm looking for evidence within the movies to explain how time works for those in the Matrix itself - something that I've overlooked. (Note however: if this proves to be impossible i.e. there is no evidence to support one of these possibilities (or another one for that matter), I am willing to accept materials external to the trilogy).

Often Right
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    For the record, the Wachowski brothers stated that the movies, the animatrix, the two games and the comic series were all fully canon. Restricting yourself to the three movies is pretty artificial... – Valorum May 05 '14 at 10:21
  • @Richard thank you for that: I was unaware. – Often Right May 05 '14 at 22:34

1 Answers1

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In the film, we learn that the date is sometime after July 1998 but before December 1999. That date appears on Neo's Security file and Morpheus specifically references "the world as it was at the end of the Twentieth Century" in his 'desert of the real' speech.

I think we can be reasonably certain that your hypothesis 1 is the closest;

  • Time in The Matrix advances normally until it reaches late 1999.
  • The inhabitants are then memory-wiped and reset to an earlier date, say January 1st 1990.
  • Repeat ad infinitum

This loop has presumably happened at least 40 times since creation of The Matrix, factoring in the time between the end of the Machine War, the creation of the Paradise Matrix and the Nightmare Matrix and the present day.

Security Record

Valorum
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  • Based on the Matrix Wiki article you linked, I'm not sure we can say the memory wipe happens consistently around "late 1999". Each instance of the Matrix plays out until the population of Zion reaches such a threshold that it becomes a threat to the machines. It's highly doubtful, since this is highly dependent upon the "less than 1% rejection rate" among other factors, that this happens on such a consistent timeline. – Iszi Aug 04 '14 at 01:30
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    The duration of each instance of the Matrix is probably predictable to a certain degree by programs such as The Architect, but it much more likely varies by at least several years - if not a couple decades - in either direction from its mean. – Iszi Aug 04 '14 at 01:32
  • @Iszi - With memory wiping technology available, I see no reason why they couldn't simply have people running in a fixed loop. – Valorum Aug 04 '14 at 06:12
  • @Iszi - The Webcomic "Goliath" also suggests that the loop can go back as far as the 1950's but that may simply be an artifact of the way in which false memories are implanted. – Valorum Aug 04 '14 at 06:14
  • RE: Memory wiping - they could keep people in a fixed-length loop, but that would end up requiring more than one mass memory wipe per Matrix reboot when a generation ran longer than the time given for the loop. It's a fair bet the machines would try to avoid such inefficiency. – Iszi Aug 04 '14 at 12:58
  • @iszi - it struck me that you'd only want to do one en-masse memory wipe once per generation. The matrix gets rebooted approx once per hundred years (5 generations) so you'll need to do it a bunch of times. – Valorum Aug 04 '14 at 12:59
  • with a memory wipe loop, people's bodies would undo the growth they had in the previous 10 years also? – Adam Johns Sep 03 '14 at 23:35
  • @AdamJohns - I think it's reasonably likely that their bodies would stay the same, due to the Residual Self-Image. – Valorum Sep 04 '14 at 06:05
  • @Richard so if someone is 5 years old at the beginning of the cycle, and at the end of the cycle they are 15, when their memory is wiped their mind goes back to thinking they are 5 but they still have a 15 year old body? – Adam Johns Sep 04 '14 at 12:07
  • @AdamJohns - The machines show a pretty good ability to manipulate memory. There's no reason to assume they can't simply invent 15 years of memory (starting at 1975) and dump it into your head. – Valorum Sep 04 '14 at 12:11