Simulated reality in fiction

Simulated reality is a theme that pre-dates science fiction. In Medieval and Renaissance religious theatre, the concept of the world as theater is frequent. Works, early and contemporary, include:

Literature

• Accelerando (2005) by Charles Stross
• Breakfast of Champions (1973) by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In this novel, Vonnegut's character Kilgore Trout, an amateur Sci-fi writer, writes a story that mocks individualism by suggesting that there is only one human man and one God, and the rest of humanity are robots, made to test the man's reactions; hence, a kind of simulated reality.
• The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges (not simulated reality, but subjective idealism/solipsism).
• The Cookie Monster (2004), by Vernor Vinge
• Darwinia (1998) by Robert Charles Wilson
• Diaspora (1997) by Greg Egan
• Discourse on Method (1637) by René Descartes
• The Electric Ant- short story by Philip K. [...].
• Eternity (novel) (1988) by Greg Bear, in particular his introduction of the Taylor algorithms as a means of determining the simulated nature of an artificial environment.
• Feersum Endjinn (1994) by Iain M. Banks (his later novel, The Algebraist, posits a religion that believes our universe is virtual).
• Flight: a Quantum Fiction novel (1995) by Vanna Bonta, posits that our universe is a virtual metaverse whereby collective and individual consciousness creates reality on the quantum level.
• Forever Free (1999) by Joe Haldeman
• The Futurological Congress (1971) by Stanislaw Lem
• Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality (1998) by Philip Zhai
• The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1974) by James Tiptree Jr.
• Glasshouse (2006) by Charles Stross
• ''Idlewild by Nick Sagan; this novel contains a simulated school inside a simulated world
• Illusions (1977) by Richard Bach: a pilot on the midwest summer barnstorming circuit meets a messiah who shows him that the world is merely "like a movie" designed by the Master to entertain and enlighten us.
• Irreversible (2008) by Liz Maverick : a young woman relives the most perfect week of her life over and over without being conscious of it, the subject of a corporate experiment to create and maintain a time loop. The week is totally manufactured, with actors hired to play friends and colleagues, medication designed to keep her tranquil, and an entire set of "stage hands" working to keep up the authenticity of the sets as they change for various occasions.
• Loop (1998) by Koji Suzuki
• The Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. [...]
• A Maze of Death (1970) by Philip K. [...]
• Moongazer (2007) by Marianne Mancusi : a post-apocalyptic underground society decides to pacify its citizens by plugging them into a simulated version of New York City before the war, meanwhile telling the people that they are actually traveling to an alternate reality where they can escape their constricted lives.
• Neuromancer (1984) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson
• Otherland (1998) by Tad Williams
• Permutation City (1994) by Greg Egan
• The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (1994) by Roger Williams
• The Reality Bug, a novel by D. J. MacHale, is set on a world destroyed by simulated reality.
• Realtime Interrupt, a novel by James P. Hogan, is set in near future, a cyber reality with its creator trapped inside.
• The Remnants series by K. A. Applegate is set on a ship which creates virtual landscapes.
• Riverworld (1979) by Philip José Farmer
• The Seventh Sally and The Princess Ineffabelle(from the cyberiad) by Stanislaw Lem
• Simulacron 3 (1964) by Daniel F. Galouye
• Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson
• Sophie's World (1991) by Jostein Gaarder
• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) by Philip K. [...]
• The Trouble with Bubbles (1953) by Philip K. [...]
• Time Out of Joint (1959) by Philip K. [...]
• Ubik (1969) by Philip K. [...]
• Valis (1981) by Philip K. [...]
• The Veldt (1951), short story from The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
• Vurt (1993) by Jeff Noon
• The Wonderland Gambit (1995) by Jack L. Chalker
• Words Made Flesh (1987) by Ramsey Dukes
• "They", a 1941 short-story by Robert Heinlein, focuses on a man who believes the universe was created to deceive him.

Film, plays & TV series

• .hack//SIGN, an anime series about a person whose mind is trapped in an online computer role-playing game.
• Avalon by Mamoru Oshii
• The Red Dwarf episodes "Better Than Life" and "Back to Reality", by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor.
• The Big O by Hajime Yatate and Chiaki J. Konaka. N.B. the reality in question has not been confirmed as simulated, but it is extremely likely.
• Brainscan by John Flynn
• "The Cage" and "The Menagerie", the unaired pilot and later episodes (respectively) of Star Trek, screenplays by Gene Roddenberry.
• Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) written by Sean Hood
• The Gamekeeper, an episode of Stargate SG-1.
• Danger Room A training simulator from the (X-Men) universe.
• Dark City by Alex Proyas, in which the sim is halted every night at midnight, rearranged, and then restarted. People are given false memories of different lives than they led in the previous 24 hours, reminiscent of last Thursdayism.
• "The Deadly Assassin," an episode of Doctor Who written by Robert Holmes.
• Die Another Day - James Bond, shows the protagonist wearing VR glasses which very closely reflect reality.
• Eternal Family, a 1997 surreal comedy anime OVA.
• eXistenZ by David Cronenberg, in which level switches occur so seamlessly and numerously that at the end of the movie it is difficult to tell whether the main characters are back in "reality".
• Ghost in the Shell, a 1995 postcyberpunk anime film and series
• Good Bye Lenin!, by Wolfgang Becker, a Berlin family tries to make the feeble mother believe that East Germany did not fall.
• Aeon Flux took place in a cartoon world.
• Harsh Realm the short lived TV series created by Chris Carter which took place in a virtual world.
• The Island, directed by Michael Bay.
• Jacob's Ladder, a 1990 thriller film directed by Adrian Lyne
• Lost Highway, a 1997 movie by David Lynch
• Lyoko The virtual world run by a super computer in the French anime Code Lyoko.
• The Matrix series by the Wachowski brothers
• The Thirteenth Floor, a 1999 film directed by Josef Rusnak
• Megazone 23 (1985-1989), an anime OVA series created by Noboru Ishiguro and Shinji Aramaki based on a simulated reality of Tokyo controlled by a super computer.
• In the Doctor Who universe.
• The Nines, a 2007 film which, unknowingly to the viewer, is focused completely on the subject of simulated reality.
• Noein a 24 episode anime directed by Kazuki Akane and Kenji Yasuda where a simulated reality is created.
• Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon
• Possible Worlds, both the play and the 2000 film adaptation of that play.
• The Prisoner the tv series
• Robotech: The Movie, a 1986 adaptation of Megazone 23.
• "The Sentence", an episode of The Outer Limits television series.
• Serial Experiments Lain, a 13 episode anime series by Chiaki J. Konaka.
• "Ship in a Bottle", episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which the fictional Professor Moriarty of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories is allowed to exist in a simulation of the world.
• In the Star Trek fictional universe, particularly in and since the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, holodecks are simulators aboard starships and other facilities used for training and recreation.
• Total Recall, 1990 Paul Verhoeven film, based on a Philip K. [...]'s story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.
• Tron (1982) by Walt Disney Pictures
• The Truman Show, in which the titular character unknowingly lives his entire life in a false reality created to make a voyeur television show about him
• The Twilight Zone has featured a number of episodes involving false or simulated realities of some sort.
• Vanilla Sky by Cameron Crowe (a remake of Abre los ojos by Alejandro Amenábar).
• La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream), a Spanish play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) that evolved from the legends of the early years of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.
• The X-Files has featured a number of episodes involving simulated realities of some sort.
• Welt am Draht a 1973 German film adaptation of Simulacron-3 from Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
• Zegapain, a 2006 anime series.

Interactive fiction

• A Mind Forever Voyaging by Steve Meretzky

Video games

• .hack series.
• Active Worlds
• Alternate Reality (video game)
• Assassin's Creed
• Chrono Trigger
• Creatures
• Darwinia
• Deus Ex
• Digital Devil Saga
• Enter the Matrix
• Eternal Sonata
• Fallout 3
• Harvester
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
• The Matrix: Path of Neo
• Persona
• Planescape:Torment
• Shadowrun
• Shin Megami Tensei
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
• The World Ends With You
• There.com
• ''Ultima (series), especially starting with Ultima V which simulated people's daily activities using a schedule, which was novel at the time.
• Xenosaga (series)
• Kingdom Hearts coded