*warning spoiler alerts*
CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, 1930 (book)
City of the Living Dead – Wikisource, the free online library is a short novel by Fletcher Pratt & Laurence Manning that tells the story of how scientists created increasingly more sophisticated Adventure Machines. At first the Adventure Machines were crude and not a replacement of reality but every generation of Adventure Machine became more sophisticated. At the end of the story the Adventure Machines are built into the body and minds of people and they cannot detach themselves anymore:
“I cannot, I am afraid, picture for you the universal decay of every kind of life save that furnished by the Adventure Machines. Adventure Machines for even the little children were produced. . . . After while it became difficult to find operators for the Machines; cities and towns were practically depopulated.”
City of the Living Dead is probably one of the oldest examples of simulated reality in fiction. The Adventure Machines are neural, interactive simulations that are so attractive that people choose this simulated reality above the real one.
STAR TREK, episode THE PRACTICAL JOKER, 1974 (tv series)
Practical Joker, The | Star Trek is the first episode in Star Trek where the Holodeck is introduced. The Star Trek Holodeck is a fictional device that uses highly advanced, static and dynamic holographic projections to create the illusion of solid virtual 3D objects and persons. The real people on the holodeck can interact with these virtual objects and persons and the holodeck uses the virtual and real input to calculate the next scene to be rendered on the holodeck.
The Star Trek Holodeck is an interactive, multi-sensorial, immersive environment that creates a simulated reality that is does not require people to wear a VR headset, touch gloves or have an invasive brain computer interface to plug into the brain directly. The technology of the Holodeck has disappeared into the background and only the experience remains.
SNOWCRASH, 1992 (literature)
In Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson (1992) we learn about the Metaverse which appears to users as an urban environment developed along a single road, the Street that runs along the entire surface of a planet. Users of the Metaverse gain access through personal terminals in the real world and see their characters or avatars with virtual reality display goggles on.
Snowcrash shows us a world after a worldwide economic collapse where governments have receded and power is with corporations and wealthy individuals. The Metaverse offers an escape out the reality.
THE MATRIX TRIOLOGY, 1999 (movie)
“What is real. How do you define ‘real’? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you know.” In the popular movie the Matrix (1999) Morpheus, the rebel leader explains to Neo, the protagonist, how the world he lives in is actually a neural, interactive simulation of the end of the 20th century in the distant future.
The Matrix is a dystopian view on the future where a superintelligent Artificial Intelligence has enslaved humanity in a neural, interactive simulation – the Matrix. Unlike the Metaverse in Snowcrash, the Matrix taps directly in to the human brain to control what people see, hear, feel, smell and taste. If the Metaverse in Snowcrash is bad, the Matrix is much worse, although most people in the Matrix live and die without even knowing they are enslaved.
READY PLAYER ONE, 2011 (literature / movie)
In Ready Player One (2018) the Oasis is a massive multiplayer online simulation game that is used by most of humanity on a daily basis. “The Oasis is a place where the limits of reality are people’s own imagination. You can do anything, go anywhere. Except for eating, sleeping and bathroom breaks whatever people want to do, they do it in the Oasis.” as Wade Watts tells us.
Like the Metaverse in Snowcrash, people have the choice to enter the Oasis and leave it when they want and like in Metaverse, the Oasis is a highly advanced virtual reality where players need to put on goggles and wear gloves to enter and play in different game worlds. Ready Player One shows us a future where climate change and overpopulation has forced most people to live in small spaces and spend most of their time in the Oasis.
BLACK MIRROR, episode SAN JUPERINO, 2016 (tv series)
“Black Mirror” San Junipero (TV Episode 2016) – IMDb tells the story of a young shy woman and extrovert, girl who fall in love in a small beach town resort set in the 1980s. San Junipero is not a real place but a simulated reality. During the episode it becomes clear that most people in San Junipero are not alive anymore and permanently live in this simulated reality, while other living people can visit them. Unlike most of the Black Mirror series, San Junipero has a happy ending. Kelly dies and happily lives together with Yorkie in San Junipero – forever.
San Junipero is a neural, interactive simulation like the Matrix. In the last shots of the episode we see each mind runs on a chip and is part of giant building which millions of minds of deceased people.
More simulated reality in ficction
Simulated reality in fiction – Wikipedia gives an excellent overview of many many more examples of simulated reality in fiction.
Which ones are your favourites?
