Quite a leap beyond today's tech, but here goes... Scan in a particle-by-particle copy of the Universe (or, if storage is limited, a room filled with... what you want to manipulate.) Then, be God to it through a "virtual presence" interface. Scan in a room with your boss in it, commit horrific crimes, re-load, do it again differently, etc. Use your imagination.
-- dsm, Dec 22 2000

Common enough sci-fi theme. Explored recently and in depth by Greg Egan, among others.
-- egnor, Dec 22 2000


What Egnor said. My personal favorites is the multi-part German TV movie "Welt am Draht" ("world on a wire") directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based (like the more recent "13th floor") on the novel "Simulacron 3" (1964) by Daniel F Galouye (which I haven't read).

A society has developed simulation technology to the point of being able to test new products and political strategies in the simulation. Enter the usual questions about what constitutes reality and identity, and whether those at the bottom of the simulation hierarchy really are as real as they think they are, all wrapped in a psycho thriller that actually uses the levels of simulation as more than just a backdrop.
-- jutta, Jan 07 2001


what i could never figure out is the behavioural logic, in Star Trek, relative to the HoloSuites.

I bet that if we had this technology in real life, people would enter the HoloSuite and never leave, as they would be able to do anything and go anywhere.
-- tentacle, Jan 07 2001


[tentacle] If we had that technology in real life, 80% of the users would be having sex with it--which is about the same percentage that use the Internet for porn too.
-- deacon, May 12 2001


Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy -- which of the 5 books, I can't recall. "Restaurant at the End of the Universe"?
-- Rhetoric, Sep 11 2002


Where I can download this games?!Where should I click on?
-- Olcia, May 08 2004



random, halfbakery