1474
Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony
(literature.cafe)
Alt Text: an image of Agent Smith from The Matrix with the following text superimposed, "1999 was described as being the peak of human civilization in 'The Matrix' and I laughed because that obviously wouldn't age well and then the next 25 years happened and I realized that yeah maybe the machines had a point."
Humans as a battery is just a dumb concept.
Now utilizing humans for our biologically assembled computer (brains) so they could offload processing power, that woulda been smart.
I think that was the original concept - battery was the "for the masses" version
Ya but even then if they're so smart just turn the globe into solar powered computronium.
The humans destroyed the atmosphere, there is no solar power if the sun can’t breach the toxic clouds.