protomatter
The ultimate basis of physical substance, before it has been given form.
uncountable
Perhaps the last named, mass-energy, comes closest to converying the Aristotelian idea of protomatter as the basic stuff of the universe. Whatever quarks may be, or leptons and hadrons in their various forms, it seems generally agreed that all are manifestations of mass-energy, the ultimate matrix to which science seems to have come in identifying the material cause of the universe.
A hypothetical substance from which the universe was created.
uncountable
It is possible that the two principal alternative conceptions of the inexhaustibility of the microworld (an infinite "linear" hierarchy of structures or some primordial entity infinite in itself— single "protomatter" or an infinite number of simplest and equally elementary constituents) do not exhaust all approaches that are feasible here.
An unstable substance that is powerful and dangerous.
uncountable
The No Damage option occurs when the computers are directed to control the protomatter environment from directly harming the user. This is because MegaCorps prefer their executives alive rather than dead.
Where it comes from
From proto- + matter, partially as a calque of Ancient Greek πρώτη ὕλη (prṓtē húlē, “fundamental undifferentiated matter”) in Aristotle.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry protomatter (CC BY-SA 4.0).