Simulated reality

Simulated reality describes a hypothetical environment that, although experienced as real, is actually a highly detailed simulation of reality. Unlike the currently technologically achievable concept of virtual reality, which is easily distinguished from the experience of "real" reality, a simulated reality would be impossible to tell apart from "real" reality. Hyperreality describes postmodern ideas regarding the perceptions of reality which in some ways parallel this concept.

Simulated reality in fiction

Simulated reality is a theme that pre-dates science fiction. In Medieval and Renaissance religious theatre, the concept of the world as a theater is frequent. Works, early and contemporary, include:

Related Topics:
Science fiction - Religious theatre - World as a theater

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Literature:
• Jorge Luis Borges's many short stories (and essays)
• Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
• Ubik by Philip K. Dick
• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
• Valis by Philip K. Dick
• Permutation City by Greg Egan
• Riverworld by Philip José Farmer
• Simulacron 3 by Daniel Galouye
• Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
• Possible Worlds by Robert Lepage
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• Ring Stories by Kouji Suzuki
• Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson
• Otherland by Tad Williams
• The Wonderland Gambit by Jack L. Chalker
• Forever Free by Joe Haldeman
• Film, plays & TV series:
• "Doctor Who, The Deadly Assassin" by Robert Holmes
• Avalon by Mamoru Oshii
• The 13th Floor by Josef Rusnak
• La vida es sueño, a Spanish play that evolved from the legends of the early years of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
• Dark City by Alex Proyas
• Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly
• eXistenZ by David Cronenberg
• The Game by David Fincher
• The Matrix trilogy by the Wachowski brothers
• Serial Experiments Lain by Chiaki J. Konaka
• The Truman Show by Peter Weir
• Vanilla Sky by Cameron Crowe (a remake of Abre los ojos by Alejandro Amenábar)
• The Big O by Hajime Yatate and Chiaki J. Konaka(it should be noted that the reality in question has not been confirmed as simulated, but it is extremley likley)
• The Cage / The Menagerie - unaired pilot, later episode of Star Trek, screenplays by Gene Roddenberry
• Total Recall, directed by Paul Verhoeven
• Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon
• Better Than Life in Red Dwarf, by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
• Interactive fiction:
• A Mind Forever Voyaging by Steve Meretzky
• Video games:
• Final Fantasy X by Yoshinori Kitase
• ' by Hideo Kojima
• ' by Minato Koio