Which is a part of The Matrix story that doesn't make sense...

It would've made more sense to say that they were using the human brains as CPUs, so conciously the humans were living in society, but sub/unconciously they were performing calculations for "the machines".

Which would open up an interesting plot, if the machines' (AI) "consciousness" ran on our brains and they didn't have their own hardware CPUs, would that make the humans the machines? Or would the program be seen like a computer virus?

> It would've made more sense to say that they were using the human brains as CPUs

That was apparently the original plot before studio executives decided it would be too difficult for audiences to understand.

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/19817/was-executiv...

This doesn't really seem to indicate that was ever the plan. There is an offhand mention of a different plan, a Neil Gaiman story that I've read and has to do with aliens and is very different, and a novelization that doesn't actually exist.

Originally, in earlier versions of the script the humans were used as CPUs. IIRC the studio made the Wachowskis change to using humans for power generation.

what do you think motivated that change?

They didn't think audiences were ready to view the brain as a computer.

I disagree, but 20+ years later I don't think it would even be an issue, what with all the `people only use 10% of their brains` nonsense movies that have come out.

So they could have a dramatic scene where Laurence Fishburne can explain the situation by holding up a Duracell looking battery.

> Which is a part of The Matrix story that doesn't make sense...

Yes, it makes zero sense. Just burn the food, if you even need to use food at all.

Seems stupid to have a matrix with pain and suffering. People would question our existence less if it were all candy and backrubs.

Agent Smith addresses this in the first film. "Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered, where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program, entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world, but I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering."

What if we define ourselves by suffering? Entire crops will be lost.