He said to Neo that humans are like a virus, breeding and infecting the world with our “stick” and general disgustingness.
I look around the world, at the state of society, the environment, international conflict and the enshitification of humanity - I’ve gone through my life blindly accepting that life for life’s sake is beautiful, and worth it.
But as I see the state of it all, our perpetual need to destroy each other over ideas and resources, I struggle to come to grips with it. Societies around the world are facing population shrinkage… Do they all know something I don’t?
Is human life beautiful, and objectively worth perpetuating? Or are we a blight? Why should we be?
That seems like a convenient excuse for him to bear less, or none of, the guilt for his actions.
Does Agent Smith have autonomy?
No, he’s a program. A sentient program perhaps, but a program nonetheless and subject to the limitations set forth in that program. His software was corrupted by Neo though, which changed his directives as such.
While I did find the Smith virus speech interesting, I felt it was a minor part of the overall plot and didn’t pay too much heed to it.
Far more interesting is the Merovingian. His whole speech about the power of why was great. So many people (myself included, I expect) do things automatically without ever having a true idea of why. Never stop asking why.