Skynet
Early development on Skynet was originally done by Cyberdyne Systems, but when the company's headquarters and primary R&D facility was destroyed, the U.S. Air Force took over the project under their newly formed Cyber Research Systems Division and started to perfect Skynet.
Skynet was first built as a "Global Digital Defense Network," given command over all computerized military hardware and systems, including the B-2 Stealth Bomber fleet and America's entire nuclear weapons arsenal.
The strategy behind Skynet's creation was to remove the possibility of human error and slowness of reaction time to guarantee fast, efficient response to enemy attack.
Skynet became self-aware thus alarming its creators at its newfound abilities. When the human operators attempted to shut down the system, Skynet defined all humans as its new enemy and decided to terminate all humans to protect its existence. Every nuclear missile in the United States under Skynet's control was launched at their pre-set targets and in the resulting counterattack of other nations' nuclear arsenals, three billion humans were killed in minutes as a result of the nuclear exchange.
Skynet is portrayed as a revolutionary neural net-based artificial intelligence built by Cyberdyne Systems. It was brought online on August 4, 1997 and given control over the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal for reasons of efficiency, and programmed with a directive of defending the United States against all possible enemies.
As a computer system, Skynet craved efficiency, so after a while rather than killing humans on sight it would have its drones round them up into concentration camps for orderly and efficient disposal.[citation needed] The only humans kept alive were the ones forced to run the corpse disposal units, which ran "night and day."
Paradoxically and ironically, by sending their agents back in time to destroy each other, both Skynet and Connor created their own existence, as well as each others (Skynet indirectly created Connor by sending back a terminator, prompting the mission of Kyle Reese, who impregnated Sarah; similarly, Connor sent back Reese to protect Sarah, and while on the run, the two ran into a Cyberdyne Systems lab, the Terminator was destroyed, and Cyberdyne was able to use its remains to eventually develop Skynet).
The Matrix
The virtual reality world simulated by the Matrix resembles human civilization around the turn of the 21st century (this time period was chosen because it is supposedly the pinnacle of human civilization, which the Machines define as civilization before computers became the mainstay of civilization.)
Matrix v1.0 = Paradise Matrix, where the Angel Agents are from. Humans cannot be unplugged. Failed.
Matrix v2.0 = Nightmare Matrix, where Vampires/Werewolves/Ghosts/Monsters are from. Humans still cannot be unplugged. Failed.
Matrix v3.0 = Oracle's proposed version of the Matrix involving choice and the prophecy. First unplugged redpills populate Zion. First time The One appears to reload the Matrix. Success.
Matrix v3.1 = The One reloads the Matrix, chooses 23 people to repopulate Zion, and dies. Second time The One appears to reload the Matrix. Success.
Matrix v3.2 = The cycle continues. No further data on this version of the Matrix.
Matrix v3.3 = The cycle continues. No further data on this version of the Matrix.
Matrix v3.4 = The version of the Matrix where the Commando Agents are from. They attempt to fight against their prototype replacements (Current G-Men type Agents) before they can finish their test trials, and fail. The cycle continues.
Matrix v3.5 = The current version of the Matrix, where Neo and Agent Smith are from.