Author: Jaconaazar Souza Silva
Institution: Federal Institute of Brasília (IFB), Recanto das Emas Campus
Position: Laboratory Technician in Audiovisual Arts
Symbolic Location: Recanto das Estrelas, Brasília – DF, Brazil
Project: XChronos — Consciousness in Motion
Date: April 2025Author: Jaconaazar Souza Silva
Abstract
This paper proposes a symbolic and ontological reading of the film The Matrix through the conceptual framework of the XChronos project, which reimagines time as a conscious and symbolic traversal. By relating the concepts of Chronons, Hexachronons, and Metachronos to central elements of the narrative, the article reveals the film as a philosophical metaphor for the collapse of artificial temporality and the awakening of temporal consciousness.
The analysis transcends technological interpretations, treating time not as an external stream but as a living language shaped by presence, meaning, and integration.
1. Introduction: Matrix as Ontological Mirror
Released in 1999, The Matrix, by the Wachowski sisters, remains one of the richest modern allegories of reality, freedom, and consciousness. Beyond its philosophical, technological, and sociopolitical readings, the film opens a fertile field for an ontological investigation of time as symbolic phenomenon.
It is precisely at this intersection that the XChronos project positions itself: a proposal for reorienting our experience of time, where time ceases to be something that merely “passes” and becomes a symbolic field we traverse with awareness.
2. The Matrix as a Prison of Unsymbolic Time
Inside the Matrix, time is a functional simulation—operating in predictable cycles, obeying structures of control, and keeping individuals unconscious of their real movement.
It is a model of artificial temporality.
In XChronos terms, this simulation embodies the negation of the Chronon—the absence of time lived with awareness.
The Matrix is time that turns by itself.
XChronos is time that responds to the consciousness that touches it.
3. The Red Pill as the First Chronon
When Neo takes the red pill, he is not merely waking up to another world; he is entering his first true Chronon:
A moment of intensity, rupture, and revelation.
This moment is not defined by seconds, but by the expansion of the now as a symbolic traversal.
It marks the collapse of artificial time and the birth of experiential time.
4. Bullet Time and the Expanded Chronon
The iconic “bullet time” effect — where Neo slows perception and witnesses bullets suspended in midair — is a perfect metaphor for the dilated Chronon.
This visual language illustrates a fundamental principle of XChronos:
Consciousness can suspend technical time and collapse it into radical presence.
This suspension is not a product of physics, but of subjective expansion — the deepening of symbolic attention.
5. The Matrix as an Inverted Hexachronon
In XChronos, Hexachronons are structured across six symbolic axes:
- spatial movement
- emotional state
- mental presence
- environmental context
- symbolic meaning
- cosmic synchronicity
The Matrix represents the inversion of these axes:
| Hexachronon Axis | Inverted in the Matrix |
|---|---|
| Real physical movement | Simulated motion |
| Authentic emotional state | Programmed conditioning |
| Expanded mental presence | Continuous distraction |
| Natural environmental context | Artificially constructed surroundings |
| Symbolic meaning | Functional reduction of sense |
| Cosmic synchronicity | Disconnection from universal intelligence |
Thus, the Matrix is an anti-Hexachronon — a cycle of time emptied of consciousness.
Neo’s role — and the role of every symbolic subject — is to reverse the cycle and restore meaning.
6. Seeing the Code: From Chronon to Metachronos
Neo’s final transition, when he stops perceiving appearances and begins to see the symbolic code that structures the Matrix, marks the ascent to Metachronos.
In XChronos, Metachronos is:
the awareness of time-awareness.
The moment when traversal becomes reflective language.
The warrior becomes philosopher.
The awakened subject contemplates not only the flow of time, but its architecture.
This manifests in his communication with Murphy via Morse code — the watch becoming symbol, and the symbol becoming bridge between worlds.
7. Conclusion: XChronos as the Exit Language
The Matrix is not merely a technological fable; it is an aesthetic meditation on time, the real, and the symbolic.
It embodies the philosophical cry:
“Awaken to the now!”
The XChronos project echoes this same call:
- A rupture with automated time,
- A traversal beyond quantitative illusion,
- A reconnection with consciousness as the sculptor of time.
The Matrix represents the prison of domesticated now.
XChronos is the mirror of revealed now.
References
- Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L. (1999). The Matrix [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.
- Souza Silva, J. (2025). About XChronos: The Copernican Clock of Consciousness in Motion (English). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15181968
- Souza Silva, J. (2025). Chronons, Hectachronos, and Hexachronons: A Proposal for a Symbolic Measurement Model of Subjective Time. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15178055
- Kastrup, B. (2019). The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality. Iff Books.
- Han, B.-C. (2015). The Transparency Society. Stanford University Press.