Re:*SPOILER* "Matrix Reloaded"
The answer/s to your questions (I think) can be traced back to the first film, where Neo opens a copy of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation . Baudrillard’s ideas provide a key to understanding the The Matrix (the film and the program) . In Baudrillard, a simulacra is a copy without an original, and I suspect that this equally applies to the Matrix and/or its inhabitants….who are in search of an original (copy) within the matrix. In other words, they are all living life in a simulacra, a copy which is its own ‘true’ reality, (who in turn) are looking for the truth of who/what they might be in there. Given the filmmaker’s liking of anime, I also think that Ghost in the Shell provides the best way to unlock the significance of a simulacra – where the artificially intelligent beings strive to become conscious of the limits of their own virtual reality.