The Matrix as a franchise is dense with lore about various aspects of the Wachowskis' iconic universe, but there's still one big unanswered question about the inhabitants of the saga's titular simulation. After remaining inactive since 2003, The Matrix Resurrections brought the film series back in 2021 and added to a story that apparently ended at the end of The Matrixoriginal trilogy. Instead of retreading old ground, the legacy sequel moved forward by filling out the franchise's already bloated canon. As a result, one of the oldest mysteries remains unsolved.
All Headquarters the film has at least part of its story set in the digital world. Within the sci-fi saga canon, The Matrix has had several iterations, but the rules for each version of the simulation remain largely the same. The complex lore associated with the series has led to decades of debate surrounding the details of how things work inside and outside the Matrix. Most of those who live in the Matrix are unaware that their reality is generated by machinesmaking its existence particularly interesting.
The Matrix has not yet explained where children come from in the digital world
The Machines need to renew their crop of organic batteries somehow
1999 The Matrix proves that humans can still procreate traditionallyas characters like Dozer (Anthony Ray Parker) lack the tubes and doors that artificially grown humans have and are therefore unable to enter the Matrix. This is not difficult to understand, but what is difficult to figure out is where children actually come from in the digital world. The humans who have not yet woken up from the simulation are convinced that their world is real, so many will understandably want to start a family. Unfortunately, there is a big obstacle there.
Two people playing in the simulation are doing so only with their minds, and their bodies in the real world will likely be very far away from each other.
Those trapped in the Matrix have physical forms in the real worldbut they are submerged in tanks that the Machines use to harvest their bioelectricity. So, even if anyone in the Matrix could interact with other inhabitants, the act of procreation in the simulation itself would likely do absolutely nothing in the way of creating a child. In other words, the two people playing in the simulation are doing so only with their minds, and their bodies in the real world will likely be very far from each other.
There are 2 main theories that can explain where the children in the Matrix come from
The Machines may need to help when the trapped humans want a baby
Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith states in the first film that The Matrix has to be incredibly realistic, or the human mind will reject the illusion. Therefore, the Machines should have found a natural way to gradually introduce new humans into the Matrix without arousing the suspicion of their unknown prisoners. The easiest way to do this would be for the Machine to monitor human matings in the digital world, and when they “breed”, machines encounter human bodies in the real worldharvest your DNA and create a new human from it to enter the Matrix.
The other theory is a little more complex, while being much simpler when seen from a certain point of view. The Matrix Revolutions reveals that Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) has two children, but they later turn out to be programs designed by the Matrix to keep her compliant. Therefore, all children in the Matrix can be Programsand when people are removed from the simulation, they are devastated to discover that their descendants are works of fiction. However, neither of these two theories has been confirmed or denied by The Matrix.