The Matrix

On February 8, 2029, computer systems across the world were struck, seemingly at random, by a computer virus unlike anything seen before. It eradicated code, burned out hardware, and effortlessly tore through all known Internet defenses. No one claimed responsibility for unleashing the virus on the world, but in a matter of hours it crashed the entire Internet. Copies of its code leaped from system to system as soon as an infected computer was connected to any other. The global economy crashed, uncountable fortunes were lost, nations crumbled, and chaos ensued. The U.S. military created a task force code-named Echo Mirage to battle this virus using the latest technology (experimental sensory deprivation tanks with the ability to allow a user to perceive the Internet in a radical new way). Half of the team was lost in the first encounter with the virus, and most of those who remained were killed or worse in following encounters. On March 1, Major David Gavilan rebuilt Echo Mirage, drafting computer hackers and eccentric scientists in place of the more rigid military men and women who composed the first team. They spent five months training, preparing, and inventing new technology before engaging the Crash Virus on August 30. Within twenty minutes, four members were dead, but the virus suffered actual damage for the first time, and it retreated to tend its wounds. It took two years to track down and purge the last remnants of the code from the remains of the Internet. On November 8, 2031, the Virus was officially declared dead. Only seven members of Echo Mirage survived to celebrate. Between the birth of the Crash Virus and the eradication of same, the world changed. The amount of knowledge lost is incalculable, with stock ownership wiped out, identities erased, and whole studies of science evap- orated, never to be seen again. Technology was set back by decades, and it took a long time for the world to be even remotely trusting of computers again. Planes had fallen from the skies, telemedical surgeries had gone awry, entire power grids collapsed (or exploded!) … and those in power, reviewing the battles of Echo Mirage and the Virus, saw that the table-sized “cyberdecks” that had grown from the old sensory deprivation tanks allowed computer hackers to make an absolute mockery of any defenses that they thought they had. The time of the cyberdecks was upon us, and from them arose the Matrix. Almost anyone was now able to have immersive experiences across the worldwide Matrix. Certain protocols dictated bottlenecks be put in place to protect minds from experiencing the 3D nature of the Matrix too vividly. More than a few tech-based corporations began making plans to implement a wireless Matrix that would be able to integrate the world’s devices without the need for physical connections. In time, the Corporate Court gathered Matrix security personnel from each AAA megacorp and founded the Grid Overwatch Division, or GOD (see separate entry), tasked with executing law enforcement on behalf of the corps.

November 2, 2064, the Matrix born in the wake of Echo Mirage died at the hands of maniacal terrorists and the intervention of one or more artificial intelligences. As before, vast layers of knowledge were lost, planes fell from the sky, and death stalked from house to house in a wave of chaos. Unlike the first Crash, there had been steps taken to preserve some data; not enough, and many of these data repositories were destroyed in the suddenness of the second Crash, but enough remained that the world wasn’t set quite so far back. Within two years, a new Matrix had arisen, stronger and faster than before and one that, perhaps most importantly, allowed for high enough bandwidth via wireless connections that decking evolved to meet the new standard. This period is well known for shoddy Matrix protections, as the newborn Matrix 2.0 stood on fawn-like legs and was unable to defend itself as well as what had come before. The realm of the Matrix moved from one almost exclusive to corporations and deckers to one touched by the common man and by hackers, ordinary people using commlinks to bend the Matrix to their will with no need for expensive cyberdecks. While the first Crash had resulted in most rejecting computers, the second encouraged the entire world to move online. The corporate overlords could not allow such control to slip away, so another change was in the works, one that did not require a Crash to be put into place.

In late 2069, rumors grew that there were some people who could access the Matrix with the power of their minds alone. These “virtuakinetics” were first publicly dismissed as mere fancy, but privately, corporations moved to discover the truth. Emerging virtuakinetics were ferreted out, brought to private facilities, then tested, prodded, poked, and in some cases dismantled as the search for how this was possible began. As hints of the horror began to leak out, the emerging peoples, who chose to call themselves “technomancers,” fought back, showing the corporations that the Matrix was not im- mune to their power. The corporations, fearing a third crash, huddled together and returned with a plan, creating the Matrix 3.0. At first, the bedrock of this new version was found only on Zurich-Orbital itself, but the code that made it possible, and which rebuffed the attempts of thousands of hackers who wanted to test it for themselves, was soon shared with the Big Ten and rolled out and over the previous Matrix. In short order, the Matrix 3.0 initiative replaced the second Matrix worldwide, ending the great hacker wave of the past decade.

Entering the Matrix in VR plunges you into a virtual universe, a shared consensual hallucination with every other entity inside. Everything is rendered in incredible detail powered by a century of digital graphics innovation. Most of the time, we can tell the difference between the Matrix world and the real one, but not always—such is the sophistication of the experience. Inside, we can travel at nearly unlimited speed, and all our interactions are with icons, 3D digital representations of the persons, places, and things of the Matrix. People in the Matrix take a virtual form called a persona. A user’s persona is tied inextricably to their brainwave patterns and global metadata. All around are the personas of other Matrix users. Alongside personas in the Matrix are devices. Any real-world devices connected to the Matrix, which in 2080 is nearly all of them, also appear as icons. Default VR settings filter out other visual stimuli as well, such as data trails, marks, and files, unless a user has a particular reason for wanting to see them. Data trails are visual representations of files, programs, and other data that move constantly through the Matrix. If filters did not turn these streams off, nothing else would be visible except for an all-encompassing data stream. Files in the Matrix are small and most often take a form that suggests their function. A collection of stories, for example, may appear as a book, while a song file may appear as a music note or music instrument. Hosts loom large over the average users of the Matrix like huge, floating island cities. Inside hosts, physics are experienced however they are programed to behave. Most mimic real-world physics for the sake of ease of use, but this is not always the case. Hosts are basically what the old crew called nodes, and they are the places of the Matrix. Besides devices, there are other icons that can be interacted with on the Matrix, known as files. Files can be as simple as raw data such as electronic mail or accounting details, but they may also be as sophisticated as programs that analyze local physics, take in details of nearby icons, and then anticipate all movements those icons may make next, all in a matter of milliseconds. GOD rules the Matrix from a host outside the Matrix proper. Its physical servers are on a satellite in orbit. In the Matrix, they are unseen, keeping watch far above the hosts, only making their presence known when necessary to wield their power against a rule-breaker. The Foundation is the base on which the Matrix exists and is the substance of which hosts are made. Hosts are connected to the Foundation via a “foundation” particular to that host.