Simulacron-3
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| Simulacron-3 | |
| Author | Daniel F. Galouye |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
| Publication date | 1964 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
The science fiction novel Simulacron-3 (also published under the title Counterfeit World) was first published in 1964 by Daniel F. Galouye in the United States, and is one of the first literary descriptions of virtual reality.[citation needed]
[edit] Plot summary
The novel tells the story of a virtual city (total environment simulator) developed by a scientist and intended for marketing research purposes, thus ridding this virtual city of its burdensome "pollsters" (opinion polling agents) who must, by law, be allowed to poll anyone for their opinion on any subject.
The computer-city simulation in the story is so well programmed that its inhabitants possess their own consciousness yet are unaware, except for one, that they are only electronic impulses in a computer. The simulator's lead scientist, Hannon Fuller, dies mysteriously and a co-worker, Morton Lynch, vanishes. The protagonist, Douglas Hall, is with Lynch when he vanishes and Hall subsequently struggles to suppress his inchoate madness. As time and events unwind, he realizes more and more that his own world is probably not "real" and may be nothing more itself than another computer-generated simulation.
The term "Simulacron 3" refers to the just-built simulator, ostensibly because it is the third attempt at "simulectronics" (this fictional world's technology which simulates reality). However, the "3" of the book's title also refers to its three levels of "reality" in the novel (or, three levels of computer simulation, if the reader surmises that the 'final,' "real" world is itself simulated). The word "simulacron" is close to simulacrum, a superficial image representing a non-existent original.
The novel has been filmed twice, first in 1973 by Rainer Werner Fassbinder as a two-part television play under the name Welt am Draht (World on a Wire), and in 1999 by Josef Rusnak as The Thirteenth Floor.
[edit] Similar works
Frederik Pohl's 1955 short story The Tunnel Under the World deals with similar themes, including a satirical critique of marketing research, though the simulated reality it describes is mechanical (an intricate scale model with only the inhabitants' consciousnesses residing in a computer) rather than purely electronic. Philip K. Dick's 1959 novel Time out of Joint covers similar ground, describing a man unaware that he is living his life in a physical simulated environment until changes in his apparent reality begin to manifest themselves. Stanislaw Lem's 1960 short story Skrzynie profesora Corcorana also deals with scientists building a machine simulating a complete reality for human consciousness trapped inside a computer. The much later film The Matrix (which was released at the same time in 1999 as Simulacron-3's second film adaptation) describes a world in which the entire population is unaware that their minds are contained within a simulated world.
