That does not make any sense at all.

I can understand making one believe that events of the year have been 1998.

But the thing about 1999 is that all in the simulation are lookng forward toward a pivotal point the year 2000.
So lets say they believe it to be 1999 dec 31 what the machines have to do is erase the whole year from
memory and insert their own. They would have to erase the whole Y2K scare that is going on in 1999 they is
no way they could keep that in and make one belief it happend in 1998. Thus may be a big flaw and a wrong
chosen year for the simulation because 1999 have the big event the year 2000.

Another thing is that say someone born in 1999 who believes beause of time he was born in 1930
and all his life he has lived a reapeat of 1999 which means the machines have to implant him with mmories of
the 2nd world war, they have to give each person memories of life for any events that take place in what the
person presumed happend before 1999. So that man has no history and all history is created.

I didn't visit the link from Azterisk's post (I'm unable to access the MxO forum here at work), but if it addresses what I think it addresses, then I've always wondered about time in the Matrix as well.

I'd say that each iteration of the Matrix lasts about 50 to 60 years--based on how old the Oracle appears to the Zion rebels and the fact that she would have to appear to age just like them to keep up the ruse that she's a human like them. So she probably makes her "prophecy" about the returning One while appearing to be a young girl, then ages as the years go by until when the next One appears she's an older woman.

Anyway, so when we first encounter the Matrix in the first movie, it's supposed to be the year 1999. That means that when the Matrix is first reloaded, it's about the year 1950 or so.

But here's the main question: does the Architect include 1950's technology along with a 1950's date? And does he then let technology inside the Matrix advance at the rate that it did in reality so that by the time fifty years has gone by that technology has also advanced fifty years--thus keeping up with the rate that technology increased in the Real back in the twentieth century?

Or is there another option? One thing that has been discovered in MxO is that many of the large corporations are not actually owned by humans, but by programs. What if those who are in control of these corporations actually prevent new inventions and technologies from ever seeing the light of day? What if their function is to keep the world of the Matrix in a "state of 1999" technology--for fifty years or more? Personally, I would say this is more likely. I think that the Architect reloads the Matrix and gives the year an arbitrary number--like 1940 or 1950--but sets the level of technology (the buildings, the computers, the cars, etc.) at the level they were at in 1999. Then, through the control the programs have over the corporations they keep it at that level.

They can delete any memory, as well as kill anyone who questions the system.



How do you know this?(I'm not saying it's right or wrong. I'm just curious.)

Also if that's true, that means The current Matrix iteration would expire along with her?

I don't know, it just makes sense to me logically. In the second movie, when Neo discovers that the Oracle is a program, it's revealed to be new information to Neo--which means that it had also been unknown by the entire Zion population at that time. And if you think about it, it would actually have been essential that the Zion rebels believe that the Oracle was a human so that they would trust her. If they learned that she was a program from the Machine World, all of a sudden her prophecies would be viewed as being deceptions (which is more or less what they were).

So if the Oracle needs to be viewed as a human, then she would need to exhibit all the traits of a human--including aging. Morpheus said in the first movie that she had been with them since the beginning and that it was her that prophesied about the return of the One. So if she's been with them since the beginning (which I'm assuming would be right around the time that the previous One died), then she would have appeared younger then. And if it was about fifty years ago since the previous One died, then she would have had to have appeared fifty years younger than she does now. Even if it was less than fifty years, she still would have needed to show signs of growing older.

As for the current version of the Matrix, there's no need to keep up the ruse. She has proven her loyalty to humanity and that she's willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to protect them and set them free--including risking her own life. So her status as a program is irrelevant to Zion. But as for your question about the current iteration expiring along with the Oracle, I'm not sure what you mean. Why would that be necessary?