I was recently considering what these people would do to us if they found a valuable use for part of our bodies. The Matrix was brought up by someone in response.
We got this squishy thing between our ears that blows their GPUs out the water. We'd all end up in data centers if they could harness it...well, our brains at least, the rest isn't useful.
the actual plot of the matrix was about using human brains in a neural net but they felt the battery angle would be easier for the mainstream to understand.
Humans are not really good or efficient batteries.
Oh that's a cool fact. I feel that plot direction would've been cooler from a SciFi perspective. Battery angle is fine, but a bit limited. A gaint hivemind type thing is pretty cool plot element.
The battery thing never made sense. There are easier ways to generate power. I thought it was one of the weakest bits of the movie plot.