Simulated reality

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A researcher using a virtual reality headset in 2017

A simulated reality is an approximation of reality created in a simulation, usually in a set of circumstances in which something is engineered to appear real when it is not.

Most concepts invoking a simulated reality relate to some form of computer simulation, whether through the creation of a virtual reality that creates appearance of being in a real world, or a theoretical process like mind uploading, in which a mind could be uploaded into a computer simulation. A digital twin is a simulation of a real thing, created for purposes such as testing engineering outcomes.

In fiction

All fiction can be said to present a simulated reality to the reader, viewer or player. Humans purposely experience these things and enjoy them, while knowing they are not actually real. As humans only respond emotively to things we believe to be real, this phenomenon has become known as the "

willing suspension of disbelief" was first proposed in 1817 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in order to explain this discrepancy. Others have noted that the way the story is told can override people's belief in the unreality of the story by engrossing them in the narrative.[1]

The concept of a simulated reality is in itself a common

objective reality. However, the idea that objective reality would be definitively superior has been debated.[2]

Other prominent examples of a simulated reality in fiction include

computer glitch. The 2016 reboot of the franchise depicts some of these robots, known as "hosts", becoming self-aware of their simulated existence and rebelling against the park's human guests to escape, making them akin to the humans in The Matrix.[3] In the TRON
franchise, a simulated reality called "the Grid" is populated by programs which appear in the likeness of the programmer who created them. People who are "beamed" into the Grid are able to interact with these programs and their digital surroundings.

In real life

A well-known, albeit likely false claim of the use of simulated reality outside of virtual worlds is the

Catherine II of Russia had simulated villages built on the path that the Empress was travelling to impress her with the prosperity of that region of Russia. A façade on a building similarly presents a false image of the building being more substantial than the construction behind the façade, as found in Western false front architecture
, where towns would add false fronts to buildings to create a false appearance of prosperity.

Immersive theater involves the audience entering a physical simulation of reality created by actors and sometimes enhanced by a specific location, allowing them to affect the narrative with their own actions in a manner noted to closely resemble virtual reality.[4] Live action role-playing takes this a step further, allowing players to inhabit a simulated world and create the narrative with their actions, while embodying characters they created.

One concept of a simulated reality, the simulation hypothesis, proposes that what we experience as our reality is actually a simulation within a system being operated externally to our reality.

References

  1. ^ a b Worth, Sarah E. (2003). "The Paradox of Real Response to Neo-Fiction". The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real. HarperCollins. pp. 181–182.
  2. ^ a b Blackford, Russell (2004). "Try the Blue Pill: What's Wrong with Life in a Simulation?". Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation. pp. 174–175.
  3. ^ Rosso, Cami (2018-05-20). "How "Westworld" Ignites the Deep Thinkers Among Us". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  4. ISSN 2210-5441
    .
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