What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dreamworld and the real world?
Neo: This can't be...
Morpheus: Be what? Be real?― Morpheus to Neo, after Neo took the red pill
Neo's reality melting after he chose the red pill
A simulated reality was a virtual computer-based world in which intelligent beings existed through the full immersion of all their senses inside the world, with the human or AI inside it normally unable to tell the difference between reality and simulation.
The Matrix[]
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 Trinity's Matrix code |
Main article: Matrix
The Matrix was juxtaposed with the Real World. The Matrix created a sensory perception that was, for the humans it was created for, indistinguishable from the Real World. The bluepills essentially powered the simulation, acting as batteries and referred to as such by the Machines and Agents. However, most humans inside the Matrix possessed an infinitesimally small but inherent denial of the Matrix which, once in a century, eventually summed up into an algorithmic anomaly which could potentially create a system crash and kill everyone inside. To prevent this crash, the Architect, once in a century or every time the anomaly neared critical mass, systematically contained the sum of these anomalies into the One.
The Construct[]
Main article: Construct
The Construct
The construct was a loading program that acted as the base system to load additional construct programs. As a virtual world, it initially appeared as a blank white space but could be configured to replicate the Matrix. The Resistance used the Construct to train their operatives. It was also used to load objects, mostly weapons, that the hackers smuggled into the Matrix. Operators of Zions dock appeared to use a modified version of this program featuring a 3D computer interface to control its systems.
Connecting to a Simulated Reality[]
  Trinity and Neo, jacked in and connected to the Matrix |
Main article: Jacking in
Bluepills, the humans whose minds and consciousness were born into the Matrix, were always connected to the Matrix via their pods. In contrast, redpills, the humans whose minds have been liberated from the Matrix, were able to jack back in from hovercrafts. Similarly, redpills were able to enter other worlds like the Construct while aboard the hovercraft.
Once connected, the connection needed to be physically maintained until a safe disconnection was completed. By design, the human connected to a simulation was immediately killed either after a forceful disconnection or as soon as the avatar died inside the simulation, ensuring that the mind was always coupled to the human brain.
Disconnecting from a Simulated Reality[]
Main article: Extraction
Neo, after his extraction from the Matrix
Disconnecting from a virtual reality required a disconnection sequence. For the Construct, the sequence was relatively simple and the operator could safely disconnect any of their operatives upon request.
The Matrix, however, required the use of a hardline to safely terminate the connection. A hardline was a wired phone used by redpills as a portal for significant volumes of information such as the human mind.
In the case of bluepills, the ingestion of a red pill was all it took in order for the Resistance to locate the pod's signals and remotely disconnect the human encased within the pod, though the red pill required the extraction be immediately completed as the red pill's side effects grew fatal when rescue was prolonged. It was only using a pod that such a disconnection was possible, some bluepills even self-substantiating out of the Matrix by the force of their own minds.