What is the matrix?

Matrixism is a way of thinking in which one becomes aware of the Matrix and acknowledges it. The Matrix here symbolizes the “truth” you have accepted from others — ideas, beliefs, and choices that you think you’ve made yourself but were actually shaped by external influences.

In mathematics, a matrix is simply a rectangular array of numbers, symbols, or expressions, arranged in rows and columns. In physics, this model is used to perform complex calculations, such as:

• How fast a car will arrive somewhere

• How strong a bridge needs to be to avoid collapsing

• How an airplane stays in the air

• How your muscles work together when you jump

• How the weather develops

• Even how people interact or how an economy functions

In short: if you have all the pieces of the puzzle, you can use mathematics and matrices to calculate a lot — sometimes simple things, sometimes extremely complex systems.

Could we also calculate exactly which choices you will make in the future? If you know everything about how the world is right now, in theory, you could calculate what’s going to happen next. For example:

• If you know where every cloud is, you can predict the weather.

• If you know how billiard balls are positioned and how hard you strike, you can calculate exactly where they’ll roll.

• If you know all of someone’s thoughts and feelings, you could even predict what they’re going to do (at least, according to strict determinists).

The idea behind this: the future is fixed if you have all the data.But in practice:

• We never have all the data.

• Things like the weather, the economy, or human behavior are incredibly complex and sensitive to tiny changes — this is called chaos.
  

Do we really have free will?

If everything is calculable, it seems like we don’t have real freedom of choice. This idea — determinism — is not new.

Already in the 3rd century, Greek Stoics believed that everything follows the logos (reason, natural order) and that everything has a cause. In the Middle Ages, questions about divine providence and predestination were central, especially in Islamic, Jewish, and Christian philosophy.For example: if God knows and determines everything, is the human will still free?

In the 17th century, philosophers like René Descartes and Pierre Gassendi thought mechanistically about nature: everything operates according to causes and laws. Isaac Newton built on this with his laws of nature, creating the image of the universe as a giant clockwork. Pierre-Simon Laplace went even further: if there were an intellect (later called “Laplace’s demon”) that knew all the forces and positions in the universe at one moment, the past and the future could be calculated precisely.

The Matrix as a symbol of determinism The film The Matrix (1999) introduced this philosophical idea to a wide audience in an entertaining way. In the movie, the Matrix is a world of numbers, in which we humans are trapped without knowing it. According to the film, it’s possible to “step out of the Matrix” and see the truth — though that truth turns out to be far less rosy than the illusion we normally live in.

We often think we like being free and making our own choices, but true freedom comes at a price. Many people unconsciously prefer to live confined by what media, religion, family, and their environment dictate. And honestly, if that makes you happy, that’s perfectly okay. The most important thing is that you live the happiest life you can — because not everyone will be happy facing the raw truth outside the Matrix.

What does Matrixism offer? Matrixism can help you wake up and step out of the Matrix — but even more importantly, it can help you create your own Matrix.Not by telling you what to do (like praying three times a day), but by helping you figure out what you want:

• Do you want to pray?

• Or meditate?

• Do you want one god or multiple gods, or do you see the universe as the ultimate force?

Matrixism teaches you how to design your life in the way that allows you to reach your fullest potential. We’re not here to tell you how to live — we’re here to help you learn how to “code” the life that fulfills you.