In this article ❧ I tell the origins of the concept of Matrix and comment on a SciFi classic.
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The first time the term "Matrix" appeared in Science Fiction was 1969. In The White Room, L. P. Davis referred to it as an interphase to hold characters inside it. In 1981, William Gibson read before four attendants at a science fiction convention in Denver Burning Chrome, a short story that anticipated his Sprawl Trilogy. That was the second time “Matrix” loomed in Science Fiction. Most people, however, knew about the mysterious universe till March 1999, the release date of the movie of the same name, featuring Keanu Reeves as Neo, for many, a prominent character in the Cyberpunk genre.
Gibson’s Burning Chrome, The Matrix is defined clearly as “an abstract representation”, a massive “simulation” of the data systems that rule society.
Hackers
Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus has a predecessor in Bobby Quine, a human hacker that decides to blow up Chrome to favor a woman he loves. Bobby is thin and pale, and Morpheus is beefy and black; both wear dark glasses. A substantial difference between Morpheus and Bobby is that the last one is “losing his touch” (although many other characters in The Matrix universe might have found Morpheus losing his touch too.)
The Origins of Chrome Browser
Chrome is the entity in the matrix —and a real person— Booby and Y are robbing. The tandem of hackers tear it down thanks to a Soviet program. Now, my question is if this had to do with the idea of baptizing the browser Chrome. Officially, the name of the browser came from the popularity of chrome as paint for cars. Do you guess a connection here?
Sources
Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, December 8). The matrix. Wikipedia. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix