system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[The Matrix Series] Is there any evidence that humans voluntarily chose to be enslaved by the machines?

At first, this idea seems far-fetched, but so is keeping humans alive as a power source. So is there a possibility that after humans caused irreparable damage to the Earth that they made a deal with the machines to keep humanity alive in the Matrix? That way humanity could survive its inevitable extinction while the machines cleaned up Earth or calculated a more permanent solution for humanity, such as space travel?

This optimistic view that machines are imprisoning humanity to save them isn't completely new and ties up some loose ends. We already clearly know that the humans aren't enslaved as a power source. It's already considered that Zion, and the hellish Earth it occupies, is just another level of the Matrix. And its already thought that the machines just ran with the Power Source narrative to keep the rebellion occupied from their real goals.

So is there any evidence to this, or is this just more Matrix speculation?
gpt
There's no evidence to that effect.  Nothing that really refutes it solidly either, though.  Still, if it was a mutually agreed upon arraignment, you'd expect the nature of the Matrix to be a little different.  There wouldn't be the need for the deception, nor for the One/Zion cycle.