Matrix Revisited

good piece. Sooooooooooo, do we build our own matrix, or is built by others and the way they interact with us? Is this a simulation or is it and illusion? ...and how do we when our matrix comes in touch with reality. Is the matrix our physical body or only partly (your reference to surgery while awake) How does the illusion relate to our spirituality? Stuff for another blog. 

1. We build our own matrix with the constant help of others - mostly indirect. Through language and the man-made environment, for example. A city may be regarded as a matrix. It exists through wide agreement on what it is, why it exists, the rules it enforces (walls, laws, roads). The city is called into existence because we all agree on what it means. To see this, imagine what a city is to, say, an e-coli bacterium or a crow.

2. It's a simulation that employs illusions sometimes. For example, we have the illusion that our eyes look out on the world constantly and smoothly. The brain allows us to miss blinking and saccades (rapid, constant jerky eye movements). It's a simulation in the sense that it models certain relevant aspects of reality fairly accurately at the scale required.

3. For mammals, the simulation is accomplished by the central nervous system and is implemented through states of that system. Humans extend this by means of communicating nervous systems and constructions in physical reality that convey "meaning", such as roads and doors.

4. Spiritual "reality", including entities like God and angels, are furnished in the matrix of some individuals and cultures. For such individuals, the "reality" of such entities is not questioned but is held at arm's length, such as one's belief in a country called Turkmenistan. It's real, "out there" but little is known about the details.