Dan: You're making the assumption that the "crop," at any given time, consists of the entire population of the Earth, which isn't necessarilly true.

The machines could keep only 2.5million humans in power plants, in which case, 250,000 is a huge portion (relatively). 250,000 is 0.1% of 250,000,000. And that's still under the assumption that the population of Zion came from the Matrix, when, in fact, not all of it did. You know that both Tank and Dozer, from the first movie, were born and raised in Zion, and have never, in their lives, been in the Matrix.

Well, the first one was supposed to be around the year 2000 - it's supposed to be a simulation identical to that (this) time. Therefore it can be said that the people of the matrix consider the population of the world (or for them, the Matrix) to be 6.whatever billion people. The real question is if this statistic is accurate for the Matrix - does the Matrix consist of 6 billion people, or are the people TOLD that their population consists of 6 billion people. If it is the latter, well, that opens up a whole new set of doors. The 6 billion statistic comes from multiple civilian organizations. If, however, the Machines WANT the people of the matrix to believe in that number, then they must be in control of those organizations to spread that number. So the question is, what other major global organizations do the Machines secretely run in order to keep control of the Matrix and feed the rest of the unsuspecting population the information that keeps them being nice happy batteries?

I hate to complicate things, but there's always the possibility that some of the people in the matrix are merely programs, and are part of the matrix. Indeed, we know this to be true for the Oracle, the "frenchie", the keymaker, etc. What I'm suggesting is that it might be possible that some everyday, "normal" people are programs designed to keep people in line, or to feed them information, etc. This would inflate the population of the Matrix beyond how many humans are connected to it.

Of course ... considering all the issues in the Matrix, I don't think believability was a prime concern for the movie ;)

Stephen

all i have to say is wow.

i am a big movie person and am very good at perdicting things that are going to happen...specially sci-fi. it took me one time watching the first matrix to understand it. all you have to do is go to the theater with a blank and very open mind. then you take in the data, process it, and take it exactly how they present it. you can stay up all night thinking and trying to make sense of it, or you can take what they give you and accept it. or maybe i just have a special ability...i don't know...all i know is that i feel much more satisfied by doing what i said above. only much later do i reflect on what i have seen and then i will just rewatch the movie to refresh my memeory. i guess my point is that these guys started thinking of the matrix as a comic book series....so think of watching the movie as reading the book. i have yet to see the second movie and i will prob. wait until it goes to the $2 theater to see it. just relax guys and take it with that clear mind and enjoy it for what it is......entertainment.

plus...they did make it so that you would be confused and have questions so that you would go see the other movies.....ah yes human nature is exploited again...