Ask HN: In The Matrix, the bad guys are the 'agents'. Coincidence? Clairvoyance?

21 pointsby spottedmarley3 hours ago9 comments

retrac2 hours ago
"Agent" was already established lingo in computer science and AI when The Matrix was released.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/648203.749270
- amiga38640 minutes ago
  Fun fact, you're browsing the web as fetched for you, and rendered in a way you find acceptable, by your user agent
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_agent
  - embedding-shape37 minutes ago
    Better page specifically for user-agent in a browser context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent (although has a lot less content)
    Besides Firefox, I don't think many of the browsers are user-agents anymore, but more like corporate-agents, as they don't seem to act in the interest of the software user anymore.
- bigfatkitten2 hours ago
  They were indeed. “Autonomous agents” were extremely trendy in CS 30 years ago.
  https://dlnext.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/267658
Wertulen20 minutes ago
You really can just type anything into the internet and have it exposed to the whole world.
cantalopes37 minutes ago
Agent is something that has been used in programming for ages, even before llms. It's simething you learn about in first years in CS
fwlran hour ago
If you’re willing to consider the sequels part of the canon, Smith’s copying/cloning technique does kind of look like OpenAI’s approach to intellectual property.
- treetalkeran hour ago
  "Do you like what I've done with the place?"
djeastm38 minutes ago
When my agents start referring to humans as a virus and AI as the cure, that's when I'll worry.
- chabes37 minutes ago
  That would be too late by that point
kirykl36 minutes ago
'Bad guys' is debatable. It was the humans who scorched the sky
zikduruqe43 minutes ago
The Matrix wasn't a movie, it was a documentary.
akk035 minutes ago
Wait until you learn what the A in CIA stands for and what the stuff they dropped on Vietnam was called
- rimunroe21 minutes ago
  Wait, what do you think the A stands for?
ButlerianJihadan hour ago
Wait until you hear about Tron
- LeoPantheraan hour ago
  Dr. Walter Gibbs: [laughs] You've got to expect some static. After all, computers are just machines; they can't think.
  Alan Bradley: Some programs will be thinking soon.
  Gibbs: Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking, and the people will stop!
- layer8an hour ago
  Ram also had a crisis there I think.
- mixmastamykan hour ago
  Fights for the user and against the MCP!