Skip to main content

Simulacron-3

Simulacron-3 (1964) (also published as Counterfeit World), by Daniel F. Galouye, is an American science fictionnovel featuring an early literary description of virtual reality.

Simulacron 3 is the story of a virtual city (total environment simulator) for marketing research, developed by a scientist to reduce the need for opinion polls. The computer-generated city simulation is so well-programmed, that, although the inhabitants have their own consciousness, they 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 progressively grasps that his own world is probably not “real” and might be only a computer-generated simulation.

Symbolically, the title term "Simulacron-3" refers to the just-built virtual reality simulator and ostensibly references a third attempt at "simulectronics" (the reality-simulating technology), however, the "3" also refers to the novel’s three levels of "reality," or three levels of computer simulation — if the final, "real" world is simulated. Moreover, "simulacron" is closely derivative of simulacrum, a superficial image representing a non-existent original.

Simulacron-3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baconian method

The Baconian method is the investigative method developed by Sir Francis Bacon . The method was put forward in Bacon's book Novum Organum (1620), or 'New Method', and was supposed to replace the methods put forward in Aristotle 's Organon . This method was influential upon the development of scientific method in modern science ; but also more generally in the early modern rejection of medieval Aristotelianism . Bacon's method is an example of the application of inductive reasoning . By reasoning using "induction", Bacon meant the ability to generalize a finding stepwise, based on accumulating data. He advised proceeding by this method, or in other words, by building a case from the ground up. He wrote in the Novum Organum that: "Our only hope, then is in genuine Induction... There is the same degree of licentiousness and error in forming Axioms, as in abstracting Notions: and that in the first principles, which depend in common induction. Stil...
4 comments
Read more

To PC or NPC: That is the question

When it's time to gear up and get LARPing (live action role playing), you have a decision to make. Do you want to play as a PC (player character) or NPC (non-player character)? For most LARPers, there are several factors involved in making this decision. A PC generally gets to make his or her own choices and become a hero (or villain) on an adventure. An NPC is usually tied to plot and limited in such choices, although there are sometimes phenomenal combat and role play opportunities available to NPCs as well. To PC or NPC: That is the question - National LARP | Examiner.com
Post a Comment
Read more

Fundamental attribution error

In social psychology, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect) is people's tendency to place an undue emphasis on internal characteristics to explain someone else's behavior in a given situation, rather than thinking about external situational. It does not explain interpretations of one's own behavior—where situational factors are more easily recognized and can thus be taken into consideration. The flip side of this error is the actor–observer bias, in which people tend to overemphasize the role of a situation in their behaviors and underemphasize the role of their own personalities. As a simple example, consider a situation where Alice, a driver, is about to pass through an intersection. Her light turns green, and she begins to accelerate when another car drives through the red light and crosses in front of her. The fundamental attribution error may lead her to think that the driver of the other car was an unskilled or rec...
Post a Comment
Read more