what is the matrix?

[quasar]

what is the matrix?

[Derleth]

In algebra, a matrix is a grouping of numbers you can apply logic to. In printing, a matrix is a group of dots used to create the effect of a solid type or image. Does that answer your question? Perhaps you should just rent the movie. I wouldn't want to spoil it for you. You might like it.

[quasar]

derleth, i sense from your answer that you didnt like the movie. is that possible?

[quasar]

isnt a matrix another name for the womb?
if so, it would represent the fact that while you are inside the matrix you havent been born yet, since you are not aware of your real surroundings, just like and unborn baby.

the matrix would them be the womb that houses all of humanity, a race sleeping in a collective dream until Neo, a maternal figure of sorts, delivers them into the real world, thus giving once a new birth to the human race.

[Derleth]

I haven't once heard of a womb being referred to as a matrix, even in passing. But your analogy is good. At least it's a departure from the standard Christ-figure interpretation. I saw the show and I liked it. I didn't love it, but it was a good way to kill some time. i thought you hadn't seen the show and were just repeating an ad campaign here. Many apologies. BTW, welcome to the SDMB!

[Jman]

I also have not heard of the womb as a matrix, but look at the dictionary...my usage (almost entirely mathematical) isn't until the way bottom!
-----------------
ma·trix (mtrks)
n., pl. ma·tri·ces (mtr-sz, mtr-) or ma·trix·es.

1. A situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained: “Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every form of freedom” (Benjamin N. Cardozo).

2. The womb.

3. Anatomy.
a. The formative cells or tissue of a fingernail, toenail, or tooth.
2. See ground substance (n., sense 1).

4. Geology.
a. The solid matter in which a fossil or crystal is embedded.
2. Groundmass.

5. A mold or die.

6. The principal metal in an alloy, as the iron in steel.

7. A binding substance, as cement in concrete.

8. Mathematics.
a. A rectangular array of numeric or algebraic quantities subject to mathematical operations.
2. Something resembling such an array, as in the regular formation of elements into columns and rows.

9. Computer Science. The network of intersections between input and output leads in a computer, functioning as an encoder or a decoder.

10. Printing.
a. A mold used in stereotyping and designed to receive positive impressions of type or illustrations from which metal plates can be cast. Also called mat2.
2. A metal plate used for casting typefaces.

11. An electroplated impression of a phonograph record used to make duplicate records.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[DrMatrix]

I am the matrix.

[Wonko The Sane]

Originally posted by DrMatrix
I am the matrix.

A perfect response by DrMatrix.

[capybara]

In Shingon Buddhism, the Taizo mandara is translated into English as either the Womb or the Matrix Mandala (and is paired with the Kongokai mandara, or diamond-world mandala in the Ryokai two-world mandala system). Matrix/womb in thsi theology relates to the more earthly/physical aspects of the universe, while the Kongo (insert macrons where necessary) is called in English "diamond" ("Vajra" in Sanskrit, for you home players) referring to the hardest substance possible (also sometimes called adamantine), a theological concept of ultimate truth behind all things.
Perhaps, sigh, this is what the scriptwriter had in mind.

[capybara]

Doh. I should clarify-- the Womb World is a map of the meta-physical world of the Buddha/s, from which this Stuff springs; while the Diamond world is a co-existent meta-universe-- they both are there but signify symbolically different things-- sort of the "Summa" of Buddhist theology. These map/worlds correspond to our physical universe but are much more (everything).
(ahem, as per my "The Schematic Impulse: The Ryokai Mandara and East Asian Cartographical and Cosmological Traditions" of 1999, unpublished mediocre term paper)

[Joe_Cool]

Use of the word "Matrix" to mean virtual-reality/cyberspace actually dates back to at least 1984, before the advent of the Internet as we know it (yeah, yeah, it was there, but much different from the way it is now).

I'm currently reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, and he uses it that way throughout the book, and I seem to recall that it was one of the many common-usage words Gibson coined (Cyberspace was another one).

[Munch]

Wow. Something new everyday. I had NEVER heard "matrix" used in reference to a womb.

[Cabbage]

Didn't the word "matrix" come from the Latin word for "mother" or something like that?

[quasar]

What is the matrix? It is the supreme paradigm, the one that encompasses all human conceptions occult under the veil of the imperceptible. It is the doubt that casts its shadow on "reality" and, therefore, on everything we behold as true. Reality as a whole is the supreme paradigm, the one we can not alter since it evokes all that we are and which we hold to be true. Defeating this paradigm would to be to reject ourselves, at least our conception of ourselves. Should we dare to do it? It implies to welcome the unknown, a whole new existence. The rabbit hole of the undiscovered reality could be a worm hole for all we know. Red pill or blue pill? What is your choice?

[quasar]

cabbage, the latin for mother is mater, both matrix and mater have the same root so you might have something there.

[Bear_Nenno]

Originally posted by quasar
What is the matrix? It is the supreme paradigm, the one that encompasses all human conceptions occult under the veil of the imperceptible. It is the doubt that casts its shadow on "reality" and, therefore, on everything we behold as true. Reality as a whole is the supreme paradigm, the one we can not alter since it evokes all that we are and which we hold to be true. Defeating this paradigm would to be to reject ourselves, at least our conception of ourselves. Should we dare to do it? It implies to welcome the unknown, a whole new existence. The rabbit hole of the undiscovered reality could be a worm hole for all we know. Red pill or blue pill? What is your choice? If you already knew, then why are you asking us for? This is a good thread. I actually learned something- womb=matrix. But I don't think this is a GQ. More like a "IMHO, the matrix represents... yada yada".

Welcome to the Board quasar!

[don willard]

Maybe this will help: you can just type in dr who and the internet will show lots of possibilities to look into the meaning of the matrix in DOCTOR WHO. As I remember, it was the sum total of the memories of dead Time Lords in several episodes. As a Time Lord was about to die for the last time, they extracted his memories. The Doctor got in touch with this matrix several times, but it usually made him faint. However, he got lots of information. Another idea is the matrix is the same as the Tao. And the Tao, which is usually said to be inconceivable and beyond words and pictures is just the "it" when you say, "What time is it,"
"It is cold (or hot, et.al.) in here," (but not the it
in sentences like, "It is nice that you came," "It was fun going there," "It was fun to see Aunt Matilda again after all these years." In these examples the it is merely postponing the subject, which is "that you came" in the first example, "going there" in the second example, and
to see Aunt Matilda again after all these years" in the third example, since nothing would be lost if the sentences read, "That you came is nice,""Going there was fun," and
"To see Aunt Matilda again after all these years was fun."
In these examples the it disappears, but it cannot be made to disappear in sentences in which it is the Tao, as it were. (Or of course in sentences in which it signifies 3rd person neuter, as in "Look at the new baby, why is it sucking its thumb?" or "I found a penny on the ground and placed it in my little piggy bank." Another example of it as not signifying the Tao is in sentences such as "What is it?" uttered as a response to someone who has lifted an eyebrow or murmured or made a gesture or knocked on the door, etc.Here the it has an antecedent, though an indefinite one).

[capybara]

I was just thinking about word roots, and it looks like matrix and mother are related, as is material (mater-- mater-ial, something formed, creation theme, etc). Which explains why the translation of taizo goes either way. Matrix= the thing from which something is created/ from which something comes, as from a womb, the matrix of mater.
Blah blah blah.

[chadg033]

The Matrix is all around us. It is the veil that shields us from the truth. The "real world" as you know it does not really exist. The truth is too much to comprehend for most believers. If you take the blue pill, the dream is over, and you go back to living your existing life, repeating each day over and over. If you take the red pill, we will find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.





"Mr. Wizard! Get me outta here!"

[Lumpy]

Originally posted by Joe_Cool
Use of the word "Matrix" to mean virtual-reality/cyberspace actually dates back to at least 1984, before the advent of the Internet as we know it (yeah, yeah, it was there, but much different from the way it is now).

I'm currently reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, and he uses it that way throughout the book, and I seem to recall that it was one of the many common-usage words Gibson coined (Cyberspace was another one). Yes, in older books about the Internet, the term "matrix" was often used to mean "All the data sources that can be remotely accessed", which for technical reasons was broader than "the Internet".

[Adolph Peewee]

I've always been of the understanding that MATRIX is a cluster of specialised cells....such as in Bone matrix. has something to do with the production of Erythrocytes or sumthing!

[Ura-Maru]

A bunch of blatantly ripped off anime scenes shot in live action, bad Vertigo style quips and oh-I'm-so-clever poorly thought out mythical architypes put together around a conciet that's been beaten to death, with a few fair (not great) wire fu and style hong kong action sequences.

I wonder, though, why does the matrix run on protoculture? and not, say, geothermal or nuclear power? Protoculture was silly way back in 1980. And it's got even sillier in the interem.

Yes, I agree. The best way to deal with someone running fifty miles an hour and jumping across builidngs is to ram them with a f#$king truck. These are not the smartest villians ever.

Good thing they didn't just disconnect or lobotomize people who were causing problems. Then they couldn't send in extremely obvious enforcers to break things and shoot people unrelated to whatever the hells going on.

Wise move, to go with the basic "action movie package" on casting. Otherwise, I might have hurt myself wondering who would live, who would die, who would betray them, and so on.

Good thing both Neo and whatsisname have the same incorrect and very strange idea of what deja vu means, huh? Were all the copyeditors rendered down to feed babies?

Why do Oracles always live in crappy urban apartments? The Oracle's were temple maidens, one would think their enjoyment of comfort would have stuck with them a generation or two. Why not, say, a nice splitlevel in the suburbs? Did they actually expect us to be surprised by this relivation?


I could do this all day. I should stop before I get in too much trouble. :)

--
"Ah, something else created by satan: japanimation!"

[Adolph Peewee]

And now I'm starting to think that either people don't have a grip on reality...or they've watched too many movies!!

[ReservoirDog]

Dammit, people!

No one can be told what the Matrix is!!

[relic_11]

All I can say is...

Do you really think that's air you're breathing?

[Smeghead]

It's the space enclosed by the inner membrane of a mitochondrion.

[Zarathustra]

The matrix? It's all too frighteningly real (http://www.salon.com/comics/boll/2000/06/29/boll/story.gif).

Tell me you're not a part of it.

[quasar]

While awake, I reside within the virtual confines of the matrix.

While sleep, I roam the carcasses of the real world.