CSflim

A few more thoughts, which further my previous couple of points:

I have since realised why. They are actually human to an extent, in that they take over the mind of another human. In fact they also physically take over his body too, but they remain within their vessel at all times (their bodies return to normal when killed), so they are bound by the Matrix's "rules" for humans, they can bend them to an extent like Trinity and Morpheus, but ultimately they cannot completely disregard them like the twins can.

This reasoning of course would imply that the other programs within the system are pure programs, and do not reside within someone else's "avatar". (This would be backed up by the fact that programs appear yellow/orange to Neo but humans, and agents, appear green) The question is why do the agents take over bodies? If they were designed as "pure" programs like the others they could be as powerful as was required. This question, unfortunately, cannot be answered without knowing the true purpose of the Agents, but I have a theory that may explain it. (and some of the other "agent problems" that Derwood pointed out)
The Agents were never designed to destroy the One, instead they could be considered as the small-town police force, to keep the Matrix ticking over smoothly, fixing minor glitches before they become a problem. In the animatrix we see them destroying the "Ghost House" however I'm unsure of the "infallibility" of the Animatrix with regards to the film's lore. (See the Animatrix thread They are there to stop the renegades causing to big a scene, which could upset, some of the more "law-abiding" citizens of the Matrix. However I don't believe that the Agents themselves realize that they are not all-important.
As for Smith's motivation, I believe that he is simply "doing his job", but in a rather perverse way. He is a virus, but he was not written by anyone, he is a virus that came into existence when his code became corrupted by Neo. He was destroyed, but the remnants of him rebuilt, and became this virus, with a distorted goal: Kill Neo, that's what his aim was at the time he was killed. He also seems to hold a personal grudge against Neo, as he is now unwanted by his "employers". He is the first piece of software to hold a grudge (maybe). I think he is also insane, as the result of the corruption of his code. He certainly has a rather demented look in his eyes, when he called out in a manic way "MORE!" (during the brawl scene). He is definitely a very major threat to the Matrix, as well as the humans. (Remember that each person he takes over is, well... a person!)



I just noticed, that I never really explained why using humans for batteries is so absurd. If you realise why, you can skip this part The first law of thermodynamics, a.k.a the law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted from one form to another...duh! But the Matrix seems to imply that humans spontaneously create heat and electricity. It is true, that we give off these things, but they come only from converting from a different source of energy: our food. How are we being fed? With dead bodies! Of course, this would mean that in order for the human population to not decline incredibly rapidly, a person is expected to survive on food consisting of one other person for a life time, which is of course impossible. A good analogy would be this one:
Say you have two rechargeable batteries, and some electronic device you wish to power. Following matrix logic you could use the following set-up. You connect one of the fully charged batteries to the device, then bring a second branch off that battery to recharge the second. By the time the first battery runs out, the second will have had enough time to recharge, and you simply switch the two around, to recharge the first! Voila! An Eternal power source!
Of course, some might say that they are being fed in another manner, perhaps that synthetic gloop that the renegades eat? Well this raises two problems:
First: why bother? "Eat" the food yourself. The machines already know plenty about our biology, surely they can come up with a chemical process to emulate our stomachs and convert gloop in energy? Plus, this way would be far more efficient. Using humans to generate heat would be a very inefficient process.
Second: Where did the gloop get its energy? As we know, from the food chain, all energy comes from the sun. This gloop is synthetically created, so presumably the complex molecules are build from the base elements. Such a process would require energy, and MORE energy than they would get out of it, yup its that damn first law again!

Also, Morpheus points out (rather discreetly, I might add) that the machines have harnessed the power of fusion. If this is so, then they have MORE than enough energy to last a lifetime! Why bother with the Matrix at all? Just build more fusion stations. FAR more efficient!

Now maybe, the Wachowskis were not ignoring all this...maybe they do have a master plan, and are not making everything up on the spot! That remains to be seen...in Revolutions
One possibility is that Morpheus was wrong about the purpose behind the Matrix. (another point brought up by derwood). An idea that occurred to me is that the Matrix is a human zoo for the machines. Not for entertainment, but for education. We are their creators. Perhaps they are trying to determine how our minds work? What are these things "emotions"? What is "love"? Sounds like an illness! They obviously failed disastrously to predict how our minds worked, with the failure of the first Matrix, but perhaps they are getting better? Interesting that Neo’s big choice came down to love, isn't it!
Any thoughts on this possibility?



According to the Animatrix, Zion is situated only four kilometres from the earths surface, this would explain why the machines have to search for Zion each time, it is buried in a different location. Perhaps the codes that the agents are after in the first film would aid in the search for Zion?


Of course that would mean that Neo would have been damaged by the EMP which was fired in the first film, so I take this back.


So, any thoughts?

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