In The Matrix, How Did The Machines Survive The Nuclear Bombardment?

 Machine Survival

    

 

    And so, this is a question asked extensively by so many people who watched the Origin Story of The Matrix, contained in the short, animated film episode of the compilation known as The Animatrix, entitled, "The Second Renaissance, Part II".  You are treated to none other than the United Nations, or Humanity, igniting the war with the machines, by bombarding their own nation, known as Zero One, with Nuclear Bombs.  Wait a minute?  Aren't nuclear weapons supposed to completely destroy machines?  Isn't the electromagnetic pulse or EMP, generated by the nuclear bomb, supposed to fry everything within its radius that is electronic?  Well, in this entry, which will comprise a new episode in The Matrix Commentary, I will show you how that is not neccessarily the case!  This will cover examples from real-world technology as well as within The Matrix franchise itself!

 

Let's Start At The Beginning!

       

     

    So, right at the onset, humanity drops nuclear bombs from hoverships right on top of Zero One.  Covering it with bright blasts and mushroom clouds!  So how did anything, much less a machine, survive that utter conflagration?  Well, let's begin by breaking it down into the parts.  Fireball, Shockwave, and EMP, are all the parts which constitute a threat to the machines as shown in the Matrix Franchise.  We will take a look at how each of those effects a machine categorically.

 

EMP

     EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, is a burst of electromagnetic radiation, or EM Waves like light, in fact it's actually also referred to as "radioburst" as a term from the British in observing the phenomena  during their initial nuclear weapons tests.  The Electromagnetic Pulse occurs from natural causes such as lightning strikes, or solar flares, all the way up to man made causes such as nuclear weapons or arc lightning.  The phenomena occurs as electricity and the transfer of electrical energy, generates a magnetic field, which in turn may fluctuate and produce electromagnetic waves or radiation.  The radiation from EMP can cause a power surge, disabling or damaging electrical circuits.  Weaponry involving EMP was fairly common in the Matrix Universe, ranging from the resistance hovercraft firing off an outward EMP to cripple attacking machines in the time of The Matrix films, to back during the war fought during the events of The Second Renaissance, the origin story of The Matrix.

    But can EMP be stopped?  In fact, yes it can.  The electromagnetic radiation that makes up the electromagnetic pulse can in fact be absorbed by metal, or a metallic structure known as a Faraday Cage.  With a Faraday Cage, you have an enclosed metallic structure in which the electrical potential within the cage structure cancels itself out.  This results in electricity flowing along the outside of the "cage" and into the ground.  People or objects within the Faraday Cage will be protected from even being shocked by the cage diverting all electrical flow along the outside of the cage.  The cage will also absorb electromagnetic waves, such as those of the EMP, and for the radiation to be absorbed by the Faraday Cage, that depends on the size of any holes that exist in the cage compared to the wavelengths of the radiation, and how thick the walls of the Cage are.  

    The other way to get around the cage is if there is some sort of circuit running into the inside of the cage, such as an antenna or power cable.  having the signal reception explains how in spite of having a metallic shell, sentinels and other robot warriors and hunters in The Matrix franchise are in fact, effected by EMP, as their signal reception via antennas provides a passage for the power surge induced by the EMP weapons in the world of The Matrix to enter their vital systems, disabling or killing the machines.

    Believe it or not, the Faraday Cage is acknowledged to exist in the fictional world of The Matrix, and that Faraday Cage is in fact, Zion itself.  Zion, the last free human city, in fact Zion itself is a giant metallic cylinder which needs to turn it's signals on and off, as it does in the entry dock, which is the first clue to Zion functioning as a Faraday Cage.  This gets even more proof as Zion is shown to be a giant metallic cylinder, as shown from stills from The Matrix films and concept art.   

 

Layout of Zion From Concept Art

  

Still of Zion Interior from The Matrix Reloaded

 

 Map of Zion from The Matrix Wiki

 

    In short, Zion is a Giant Cylinder of solid metal encasing the main living quarters, the thick metallic walls of Zion make for a strong and highly effective Faraday Cage, keeping transmissions and communications within Zion highly contained, and even moreso, being a powerful shield against transmissions and electricity entering into Zion from the outside.  If there wasn't any further confirmation from just the designs, it's played out in The Matrix Revolutions, in which the Resistance Hovercraft known as The Hammer, with Morpheus, Niobe, and the Crew onboard, must get within Zion to deliver the EMP against the hordes of machines.  Why?  Because the Walls, of Zion, in effect, a massive Faraday Cage, will block an EMP from entering Zion, and if anything, here is the iconic scene, with a spoiler warning for anyone who has not seen The Matrix Revolutions, it's a major part of the plot in that film!  You have been warned!

Saving Zion With An EMP

    

 

 

    Now that the Faraday Cage and Zion being the Faraday Cage are out of the way, what does Zion have to do with Faraday Cages and EMP?  The big question remains : Who Built Zion? Where did the technology for building Zion come from?  The revelation that The Entire Matrix has been rebooted from both Agent Smith while he tortured Morpheus in The original Matrix film, combined with the further confirmation by The Architect in The Matrix Reloaded and The Oracle in The Matrix Revolutions, is that Zion was a preset place to "restart" the "redpills" or the humans that didn't live within The Matrix, it was a planned location for the first people freed from The Matrix as Redpills to go until the time came to reboot The Matrix and purge Zion, then rebuild Zion for the next set of first free humans after the system reboot.  The Machines knew about Zion and deliberately set it up as a place to keep their rebellious humans who would not accept the virtual world provided by The Matrix, Zion was a Prison or a Penal Colony.  But from where did Zion get built?  By the Machines, a relic from before The Matrix.

    With Zion being located deep within the Earth's crust, near the Mantle, with geothermal energy powering the city, it's very possible that Zion may have been the machine's shelter beneath their nation of Zero One, within which they protected themselves using the deep crust to shield from the blasts, and also using the Faraday Cage properties of Zion to shield against any type of EMP provided by the nukes when Zero One was being hit.  But this is not the end just yet, we will also be talking about shelters from the blasts of the world's most destructive weapons, which exist today.

 

What About The Blast?

    The physical blasts of the nuclear weapons are tremendous, and the machines did indeed go quite deep in the Earth over the course of the 40 years from the time of the Machine Purge in 2090 until the beginning of the war between Humanity and The Machines in the year 2139.  While a scale isn't visible in the scene from the Animated Prequel to The Matrix, known as The Second Renaissance, the diagram clearly shows why the self-destructive plot involving covering The Earth with dark clouds, known as Operation Dark Storm, occurred.

    The diagram being presented at the United Nations shows that the Machines have extensive tunnels and shelters deep beneath the surface, which would withstand a great deal more than the surface structures from the nuclear weapons in the initial failed bombardment, with such great depths, even deep penetrating bombs might not even reach the subterranean shelters similar to Zion near the mantle of the Earth.  Hence, the carrying out of Operation Dark Storm.  After all, with The Sun being the biggest source of energy for the Machines' Power, the blocking out of the Sun for the Machine's main energy source should weaken or starve the Machines and their war efforts to give Humanity the needed edge to win the War, or did it?
    Now, after going over how the Machines had a massive underground infrastructure that could withstand nuclear bombs, the question I am going to answer is, "Does any kind of similar shelter or residence exist in today's world"? While not as deep as Zion, the answer is that for some time, humanity has pushed the limits in terms of how deep they can reside in and I am going to share 3 examples.  Those 3 Examples are present in our world today.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

    As the name suggests, the Wieliczka Salt Mine, was a Salt Mine in Krakow, Poland, extending deep within the Earth for mining Salts, areas once mined became repurposed for living quarters, chapel, recreation, and so forth, until the mine became repurposed as an underground community to accomodate the mining operations, which continued from the 13th century until 1996, when the mine was decommissioned from mining table salt, and became a tourist resort and a major historical monument to the vast underground community that it had become over its' centuries of operation.  The greatest depth of the mine is 327 meters (1,072.83 feet).  Tourists are only allowed to visit in parts of the former mine which reach a depth of 135 meters.  While not intended as a shelter, like the other two which will be mentioned, this mine is nonetheless a testament to the work of building such an immense underground community to accomodate mining operations in Poland over centuries.

Dixia Cheng (The Underground City)

    Unlike the Salt Mine, the Hidden City, or Dixia Cheng, was intentionally built to preserve China's most valuable political and military leadership in the emergency event of a nuclear holocaust.  The underground complex with medical facilities, residential dormitories, and some recreational facilities, along with emergency food and water storage, was under construction, beginning in 1969, initially in anticipation of a nuclear attack due to hostile tensions with the USSR, but kept for the possibility of an attack from any potential threat.  The complex was built over an area of 85 square kilometers.  The City was closed from military use in 2000, and undergoing rennovations since 2008.

Cheyenne Mountain

     Beginning in 1961, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Utah Construction and Mining Company began construction on what would become the toughest military base in the world, at Cheyenne Mountain, built deep into Cheyenne Mountain itself, the military base is for the United States and Canadian militaries under NORAD to monitor air and space activities around the world for National Defense.  As such an important command center, it was built deep within the Mountain itself and built with numerous engineering measures to seal off the base against chemical and biological attacks along with radiation, along with the ability to withstand a nuclear blast of 30 megatons over one mile away.

    After going over the various Marvels built by humanity in the real world over the course of the 20th century and even before in the case of a repurposed mine, is there any doubt the Machines in the world of The Matrix wouldn't build similar kinds of protection over the course of 40 years in case humanity came to destroy them as well?  While The Matrix is a fictional world in which humanity lives in a simulated life, these three examples, along with more besides, are part of showing how it's not impossible to build with even today's technology!

Conclusion

    At the end of the day, The Matrix franchise is a work of fiction, but sometimes fact, and in the case of real-life science and real-life ingenuity and engineering, fact really can become stranger than fiction!  Hopefully this was an enjoyable visit into The Lore of The Matrix, and I would like to recommend checking out my channel and the other Matrix University Channels.  You can also take a look at my next article reviewing the topic of Operation Dark Storm

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    With that being said, I hope you had a great time reading this fun article I spent time reading here on this blog of Radio Kaos, where I post numerous tech tips, lore commentaries, and other fun content.  As I always say, be safe out there, and I will be signing off!