Comment by shimman

Matrix lore is quite cool, if you haven't seen the Animatrix check it out. The Second Renaissance is great world building!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU8RunvBRZ8 (first part)

To answer your Q tho, this was in one of the sequels I believe, basically the first iterations of the matrix were like "Eden" but humans couldn't adapt to it so they redesigned and iterated it into what you see in the movie. The idea being that if humans weren't busy they'd realize they were enslaved so they had to make a system to keep humans occupied and stimulated enough to be useful.