In his talk _How to Invent the Future_ Alan Kay talked about oblique thought planes, what he called Pink and Blue Planes. This concept integrates with Koestler's metaphor of "matrices of thought" that he explored in his book, _The Act of Creation_. We can think of these matrices existing on distinct planes - each being a different domain of thought in a moment of time.
Meaning Matrix
A matrix can be multi-dimensional and spatial, more like the complexity of our neural networks. They are also more in line with how we might visualize our personal pattern language that provides us with meaning and defines our consciousness.
These "matrices of thought" are composed of knowledge sets that are meaning nodes connected together. The connected flow between these nodes create our understanding of how the world works - our meta-meaning. In the language of object-oriented programming (OOP), these nodes are "objects" and the connections are "message passing".
This meaning matrices form our Ontological Schema - our plane of consciousness that some refer to as Cognitive Model. 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 of our schema. Something that is called a Paradigm Shift.
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