Matrixing: Chapter 1 - What is the Matrix?
As we move into this new millennium, more and more of us will try
a hand at predicting the future. We will use our creativity to
develop new politcal and economic theory. The reasons are very
simple economics. First if you are better able to predict the future
you are better able to be prepared for it. Second, if you can
predict the needs of the future you can create the products that
will jump off the market shelves.
The dictionary contains no such verb "matrixing. "The
word matrix is only a noun coming from the Latin root, mâter
which means: mother. The word matrix mans: that which
gives origin or form to a thing, or which serves to enclose it;
the rectangular arrangement into rows and columns of the
elements of a set.
For the purpose of this so-called sociology book, or economic
theory of mine "matrixing" is as good a word as I can
find, even though in a stroke of creativity, I just made it up. And
yes this was before the movie, "THE MATRIX" came out. Here
is my wonderful definition:
Matrixing: a process by which we humans continually
organize, order, align, or standardize, the un-organized,
un-ordered, mis-aligned, or non-standardized, allowing us to manage
the chaos around us into something that is more beneficial to us.
My definition for matrixing basically concludes that matrixing
is the process that gives form to things. A matrix is what
results from matrixing: the arrangement, the puzzle into which the
pieces fit. A matrix is, for example, the way we outline to produce
a book, the way in which we arrange letters to make words and
sentences. A matrix is not the computer and printer that allows us
to do word processing, rather it is the way they are designed, or
systematized, or programmed to do their tasks.
A matrix is a system that abounds in creativity. A matrix is the
highways that allow us to travel, the telephone lines that allow us
to call, the accounting systems that allows us to manage money. In
fact it is the money system that allow us to trade with one another.
Matrixing is the creation of these systems that allow us to function
in our existing environment. A matrix is the end result of
matrixing: the organization and relationship of these things that
allow them to function coherently as an environment. Capital, the
society, the government, are all a matrix created by matrixing.
We have been told that man is different from animals in many
different ways. Some educated people used to say that we are the
only animal to develop tools because we have an opposing thumb. Now
we know that some animals use tools, such as a monkey uses a rock to
open a nut. Experts have also told us that we were the only animals
with a language. Many experts believe that dolphins talk in a
sophisticated language. We also know for fact that apes and chimps
can be taught to use human sign language. Many animals show
creativity, for example an elephant can be taught to paint, dolphins
can be taught to perform.
Recently, proof has been giving that even sharks communicate in
some kind of sophisticated manner. One shark trained in the Bahamas
to hit an orange button in order to receive fish for a reward was
eventually let out to sea. About six months later other sharks
returned in his place and began hitting the same orange button
without previous training. Communication must have taken place
between the sharks.
What really separates us from the rest of the animals is that
humans are the only animals that continually redevelop our matrix.
Humans are the only animals with the ability to record our history
and build upon that recorded history by developing systems to adjust
to the new and changing environment. That is to say that we
continually attempt to manage our surroundings into something that
benefits us more and more. That is what matrixing is about:
continually developing an environment by building upon a past
development without having to recreate the original development from
scratch.
Continual matrixing is the reason that we have air conditioning
and birds do not. (This is a bit silly but it will get the point
across.) Matrixing is not just creating a nest, for example. Birds
are pretty adept at that. Creating a nest is a system for the bird
to manage its environment, the weaving of the sticks is itself a
type of matrix. But the bird never builds upon the matrix of the
past environment. It never is able to build upon past experience of
its ancestors. If birds were to continually matrix they would
produce a better nest with each passing year and each passing
generation. Eventually they would be living in air conditioned nests
with a tiny refrigerator holding their tiny box of processed worm
bits. I know that this sounds ridiculous, but it is the changing
matrixes that allow us to evolve. Matrixing allows us to grow as a
species.
We procreate more, we produce more, we consume more, and we think
more (process more information.) Matrixing allows us these types of
growth. We sometimes refer to this growth as the evolution or the
ascent of man. Whether or not we agree upon what we are evolving
into, most often we agree that man is evolving into something. The
matrixes surrounding man are evolving with him.
Alvin Toffler saw the change of mankind in what he called "waves."
Indeed his book THE THIRD WAVE was one of the best futurism books
ever written. I prefer to look at the always changing life of
mankind a little differently. Next, let me introduce you to what
allows for the evolution of man, what I will call the grand
matrix. The concept of a grand matrix can be extended to cover
mans history or evolution. The grand matrix is a collection of all
the individual matrixes, which I have or havent mentioned, i.e. the
government, capital systems, religions, social structure,
transportation, etc. Not only covering the matrixes of the history
we know, the grand matrix includes the future which we do not know.
If we look at our matrix as something that is being created, and
evolving continually with time, we can recognize it as a continual
flow or a cycle. If we could separate ourselves from the grand
matrix and look at all of it, as over the history of mankind, we
would see a marvelous pattern of growth and development. An
intricate weaving and layering of systems, and development would
become visible. If we could represent it graphically, it would be a
myriad of colors changing, becoming more complex, taking on
different dimensions with each passing day. This entire
kaleidoscopic history of the systems of mankinds development is what
I refer to as the grand matrix.
Often when we look at something from a different reference point
we can develop new insights into the workings of the observed
object. By looking at the development of man not as short steps of
growth, but as a whole, we can begin to know the shape the future,
like plotting a line on a graph. When you know the coordinates of
given points you can determine, within probable limits, the
relationship of those points outside the known history. That is what
we are going to do with the relationship of mans matrixes.
By stepping back and looking at the evolution of man as a whole we
can determine a few things about this so-called, grand matrix. For
example: we can see whether the matrix is getting more and more
complex, if it has any cycles to it, or if it has a beginning and an
end. If you can imagine graphically it might look something like a
series of spider webs forming at first in one dimension, then in
three dimensions, overlapping, connecting and constantly changing
and evolving to something new and different. To help explain, lets
look at a few of the elements of the grand matrix. These elements
will help us determine what the relationship of man's growth, or
evolution, within the grand matrix would look like over a period of
time.
Matrixing:
Chapter 2
