speculative virtual reality theme

also known as: simulated reality

There is technology that places people within simulated and immersive environments that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. It must exceed in capabilities the virtual reality technology of today. In extreme cases the technology makes it practically impossible to distinguish the simulated world from reality.

79 total · 25 choice · 34 major · 20 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
bbf1x08 choice Sinclair was interrogated inside an elaborate simulation of the Babylon 5 habitat.
blackmirror-specialx1 choice Joe's digital clone was placed inside a simulated reality to get it to confess to a murder. The Greta digital clone was digitally embodied in a digital world.
blackmirror4x01 choice Robert Daly simulated an ultra realistic Star Trek-like space adventure game universe in the cloud.
blackmirror4x04 choice The walled-off society inhabited by Amy and Frank turned out to be an elaborately simulated reality.
blackmirror7x03 choice The story concerns a technology, "ReDream", through which the Hollywood star Brandy Friday was put into a virtual world generated from an old film. Characters from the film were semi-sentient and semi-independent. One character, Dorothy, seemed to become almost real.
blackmirror7x06 choice The story turns on the USS Callister crew's struggle to survive in, and later extricate themselves from, an all-immersive virtual universe reminiscent of Star Trek.
ds93x02 choice The peace treaty negotiations were conducted in an elaborately simulated reality perpetrated by the Dominion.
movie: Arcade (1993) choice The main novelty of the film is a virtual reality game, called Arcade, that used a murdered boy's brain cells in order to make the game's villain more realistic.
movie: Avalon (2001) choice A main novelty of the film is that it is set in the highly realistic military-themed virtual reality shooter game "Avalon".
movie: eXistenZ (1999) choice A main novelty of the film is the titular virtual reality game eXistenZ. People connect to the game via "bio-ports" in their spines, and once plugged in it is so realistic that the lines between where the game leaves off and reality begins hopelessly blurred.