By abstract matrix I think I meant an matrix of abstract scenarios.
Ohh...
Also, I think maybe "decision tree", "flowchart", or "rule set" is a more commonly used term for what you describe than "matrix"; am I understanding you correctly?
Yeah, those terms work. "Matrix" fits better with how I visualize it in my head. I think "linked list" or "web" would be the most accurate. The problem I have with flowchart is that a flowchart is too organized. The actual process for taking a scenario and providing an action is much more organic. When a scenario presents itself I run the high level, abstract scenario through the system and respond appropriately. If the scenario doesn't change or gets worse I need more detail and drop into a different layer. While you could describe the whole thing as a flowchart, it probably wouldn't be the most efficient translation of what I am talking about.
In addition, an actual real life event is going to have dozens of active scenarios. I need to be able to access the matrix in multiple places at once. The process that actually acts is separate from this system and merely accesses it.
How did your matrix become a belief system?
I don't know. My guess is that it started purely as way to remember feedback loops that increased happiness and reduced stress. As I grew older and was taught about beliefs, ethics, decisions, and responsibilities I just translated those terms into what I was using to govern my actions. When it came time to organize my beliefs and thoughts I started categorizing things by scenario, keeping track of the actions, and drawing relationships between the various parts.
If someone asked me, "What do you believe about gravity?" I would look up scenarios and actions labeled "Gravity". This would return facts about gravity in the form of answers and there would be soft relations in the matrix to scenarios dealing with falling, balance, and various areas of physics.
These relationships would be another way to describe what I was calling an abstract scenario. The relationships themselves could be abstracted with more relationships, labels, and commentary.
Note: This is a description pieced together many, many years after my younger self subconsciously created it. This is part of my explanation of how I ended up me. I highly doubt all of this was as neatly defined as I present it to you here. Just know: The me in this post is me between the age of self-awareness and 17 years old. I am currently 25.
An action based belief system asks what to do when given a specific scenario. The input is Perceived Reality and the output is an Action. Most of my old belief system was built with such beliefs. A quick example: If the stop light is red, stop before the intersection.
These beliefs form a network of really complicated chains of conditionals:
Each node can be broken into more specific instructions if need be:
I did not sit down and decide that this was an optimal way to build a belief system. It just happened. My current best guess is that I spent most of my childhood trying to optimize my behavior to match my environment. And I did a fantastic job: I didn't get in trouble; didn't do drugs, smoke, drink, have sex, disobey my parents, or blaspheme God. My matrix put in a situation and an action came out.
The underlying motivation was a set of things I liked and things I didn't like. The belief system adapted over time to accommodate enough scenarios to provide me with a relatively stress free childhood. (I do not take all the credit for that; my parents are great.)
The next level of the system is the ability to abstract scenarios so I can apply the matrix to scenarios that I had never encountered. Intersections that were new would not break the system. I could traverse unfamiliar environments and learn how to act quickly. The more I learned, the quicker I learned. It was great!
The problem with this belief system is that it has nothing to do with reality. Essentially, this system is the universal extrapolation of guessing the teacher's password. If a problem was presented, I knew the answer. Because I could abstract these question/answer pairs, I knew all of the answers. "Reality" was a keyword that dropped into a particular area of the matrix. An action would appear with the right password and I would get my gold star.
That being said, this was a powerful system. It could simulate passwords to teachers I hadn't even met. I would allow myself to daydream about hypothetical teachers asking questions that I expected around the corner. Which implies that my predictor beliefs were driving the whole engine. The Action beliefs were telling me how to act but the Predictors were creating the actual situation/action matrix. Abstraction and extension of my experiences were reliant on my ability to see the future accurately. When I became surprised I would begin the simulations until I found something that worked within my given experiences.
This worked wonders during childhood but now I have an entire belief system made out of correctly anticipating what other people expected from me. Oops. The day I pondered reality the whole system came crashing down. But that is a story for another day.