We make meaning through increasingly complex patterns of linked ideas. At first a concept sits alone, but then it gets connected to others. And a web of deeper understanding starts to form.
Some neuroscientists refer to these webs as ‘inference networks’. Arthur Koestler, in his book The Act of Creation, called them ‘matrices of thought’ – a concept that was instrumental to the development of Alan Kay’s idea of the Blue Plane.
In Latin, matrix means 'womb'. A meaning matrix is a pattern of connected concepts, a matrix, from which meaning is birthed.
Meaning matrices form our Schema – our plane of consciousness. As long as that schema operates with others that are similar in form (based on shared culture and experiences) it remains relatively stable.
But when there is an intersecting of alternatively configured schemas, or when there is new learning that doesn’t fit the existing schema, there is a disruptive reconfiguration of that meaning matrix – something called a Paradigm Shift.