Oxygen

When Neo first awakes in the real world and breaks through the goo, I'm assuming he had some form of breathing/feeding tube while submerged. Since the skies were scorched, there would virtualy be no plant life, thus no new source of Oxygen. Now when he first awakes and removes his breathing/feeding tube, (That's what I'm assuming it is.), you see him take in a deep breath of.. air? Wouldn't he have suffocated due to the lack of Oxygen in the surrounding area? One arguement was brought up to me by a friend, "Well, the machines could have produced artificial oxygen for the surrounding area." Well my counter to this is, would this truly be beneficial if the same effect could have been produced more efficiently through a breathing tube of sorts? Another friend of mine argued that we "breathed" the fluid within our pods similar to what occurs at birth.. Um.. As far as I know, we don't really breath any of the fluid within the womb before birth, though some of it is swallowed in the process of birth on occassion... Another argued that Zion produced their own oxygen, and this is true, but as far as I know, wouldn't most of it disperse and leave the area due to diffusion? As far as I know, Zion wasn't air tight.

Questions? Comments?

There are still plants on Earth, as well as animal life. If anything, the darkening of the skies would cause the earth to revert to a semi-jungleish atmosphere.

(Also, the only plants that exist are weeds and shrubs and stuff, and only then in areas that were untouched by the war.) So there is oxygen, just not enough to probably support 6.8 Billion humans at the same time. The machines also probably pump some out from their manufacotires for the humans inside the pods too.

---

Illyria22 wrote:

The clouds probably don't cover the entire planet.  Plankton in the ocean is probably still making oxygen.

Illyria

---

No they would have to in order to ensure that the machines were completely cut off from the sun, otherwise a machine mind would be able to calulate when and where a break in the clouds would be.

---

dnllln wrote:
Since the skies were scorched, there would virtualy be no plant life, thus no new source of Oxygen.

---

Right, no new source of oxygen.  But the atmosphere was already saturated with oxygen prior to the darkening of the skies.  With the sudden death of plant/animal life due to having no sunlight, all the oxygen in the atmosphere basically went unused, with the exception of the few humans that were either put into the Matrix or were living in Zion.

As for Zion itself, although I doubt it is air tight, I don't see any reason for oxygen to not be there as well.  Plus Councilor Hamman mentioned something to Neo in Reloaded about their machines cleaning the air & water, so if the machines in Zion can do this, I'm sure "the" machines can do it on the surface as well, in case the o2 levels drop.

PS.  Tell your friend that babies in the womb do not breath the fluid in their lungs, they get their oxygen through the umbilical cord.  :smileyvery-happy:

Message Edited by digitize on 05-09-2006 10:05 AM

Thank you for all the responses guys. =) It's been bugging me since I first rewatched the movies three days ago.

---

cshank wrote:

There are still plants on Earth, as well as animal life.

---

actually, i don't think there are... unless it's something you read in one of the comics or something like that which i missed. so far as the movies go, there's nothing out there living at all. nothing really could, anyway, from the storms that occur and the lack of sunlight fueling the food chain.

---

WGAnubis wrote:

---

Illyria22 wrote:

The clouds probably don't cover the entire planet.  Plankton in the ocean is probably still making oxygen.

Illyria

---

No they would have to in order to ensure that the machines were completely cut off from the sun, otherwise a machine mind would be able to calulate when and where a break in the clouds would be.

---

are there ever any breaks in the storms? like anubis said, it seems more logical that there couldn't be, for them to really have done what they did to stop the machines from gaining power though solar energy.

this doesn't mean it can't be the same type of thing with the plankton, though, only that it would be produced through farming. i think various algae are the greatest (by percentage) producers of oxygen, aren't they? it's been a while since i studied such things. regardless, if that's so, it seems to follow they could continue to be, but cultivated in a more orderly, efficient way, as you'd assume the machine species would. all it would take is a form of light for photosynthesis, which could be powered by the energy gained from the matrix... the cycle of life of our present world. well, you know. our present matrix universe world.


-uljhar

There can't be any plants because they need light for photosynthesis to make oxygen. If there are places in the world that still have a clear sky then maybe there are plants producing oxygen there and it disperses itself out evenly but if not then the oxygen hanging around from before the war is the only supply left so maybe it is a matter of time until it runs out.

Er, first comic on the whatisthematrix site. It's about the feast of bread. It shows how plants and stuff are surviving.

Not all plant life needs (or even likes) direct sun light. Some forms of plant life like thier sun light obsucred, shadey, cloudly what have you. So in all likely hood thier would still be some forms of normal plant life. maybe not much, but thier would be some.

with most if not nearly all animal life gone, thier not enough oxygen being removed to depleate the oxygen in the air.  And plant life is not the only source of Oxygen, thier Oxygen in rocks and such like. A volcaino could ton a few billion tons of Oxygen into the air. (along with bad stuff too..)

Plus the Machines could make a machine to create O2, after all the source of thier "food" needs oxygen.

Psh its a science fiction movie, ask too many questions and ya ruin it

The clouds probably dont cover the whole earth, if they do, that would block the sun causing plants to die.  Soon after, animals and humans would die without food and air.

Also note how in the second to last scene in the matrix reloaded, everyone leaves the ship without having any sort of protection. There is no getting around having oxygen on the planet... as well as nitrogen

Message Edited by White on 05.26.2006 08:46 PM

it is weird to think about, im gonna say he was freaked out because its like being born and breathing real air for first time, but u gotta think as well, there is a program written for oxygen in the matrix or is there?

Would there need to be?

The point of the Matrix is that the human mind 'develops' the software around itself.  Part of the system is the user.  How else would an individual be able to affect the code by force of will?

Can you imagine anything more inherent to an adult human than the drive for oxygen?  The first bit of pain (which the Matrix is sure to invoke) ensures any child would want to take in air.

but there needs to be something that is similar to air to make your body think you are really breathing in air but are not, just like eating food in the matrix,


Mousseau

Well does your body really need to be fooled at all?  I mean your body is fine in the pod, all that goo is the recycled dead that is fed introvenously to you in the pods.  I'm sure you body will get the things it needs that possibly even oxygen.  As for oxygen in the Matrix you mind is under the belief that it is breathing.  Remeber, on the first movie during the fight between Neo and Morpheus?  Neo is breathing really hard cause he just got his butt handed to him by Morpheus; Morpheus asks "Do you really think that that is air you are breathing".  Your mind is the only thing that needs to be tricked your body is taken care of.

Now for a little philsophy *equips flame-retardent shield*.  I've always held the belief that life will find a way, as is the nature of such a thing.  It has been hundreds of years since the sky blacked, plants will find ways to evole and adapt to the little or lack of sunlight.  If you look light still penatrates through.  Not much though probably not even enough to make much energy out of but still it is there, perhaps some plants have found a way to adapt to that.

The machine's #1 goal is survival.

To survive the machines use a form of fusion, combined with the energy from the pods.

Fusion reactions turn lighter atoms (like hydrogen and helium) in to heavier ones (like oxygen, carbon and metals)

There is already an abundance of oxygen on the planet that was not used due to plant and human life being mostly killed off.

The ocean produces oxygen due to various organisms that get their energy from chemicals in ocean floor volcanic vents and other nutrients... as well as many bacterias.

These alone would probably not produce enough oxygen to cover usage requirements for the bluepills and foetus fields.

So you think perhaps the machines produce oxygen and pipe it to the humans in their control. However oxygen would need to be piped to each foetus pod. Pipes get blocked, rust, corrode or otherwise deteriorate. The best use of the machine's time would be to produce oxygen, cool it (so it is heavy and stays near the ground longer before disipating) and blow it out over the fields in low concentrations (high concentrations kill bio-organisms and corrode metals and plastics). Zion has it's own water and air processing machinery (most likely powered by geo-thermal energy from the earth's core).

Oh, by the way... the sky is blackened right around the globe. "The second renaisance" from the animatrix tells us this. There are low levels of light, enough to support the organic life I mentioned earlier, but not enough for the machines' solar energy requirements. Also there are many sources of artificial light in and around the machines' and their constructions which could support organic life (like in "the bread feast" story mentioned earlier)

If you want to be technical, nothing says that Neo was indeed breathing oxygen during that sequence of the film. Though he went through the physical motions of "taking a deep breath," it may have simply been the residual effects of his "pod" that was actually sustaining him (notice he does pass out shortly thereafter).

That said, you do appreciate this is merely a film, fiction and intended as a form of entertainment? There's probably a million and one "logic holes" in the movie(s) if you want to poke hard enough. :smileywink: