The science fiction novel Simulacron-3 was first published in 1964 by Daniel F. Galouye in the United States. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Daniel F. Galouye (1920-1976) was an American science fiction writer. ...

The book tells the story of the operator of a virtual city which is used for marketing research purposes. The simulation is so perfect that the inhabitants possess their own consciousness and do not notice at all that they exist only as electronic impulses in a computer. In the course of time, the protagonist notices increasingly that his world is not material, but also exists as nothing more than a simulation in a higher reality. Virtual reality (abbreviated VR) describes an environment that is simulated by a computer. ... Research Research covers the search for and retrieval of information for a specific purpose. ... A simulation is an imitation of some real device or state of affairs. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ...

Probably influenced directly by Philip K. Dick's trumanshow-esque novel Time out of Joint, Simulacron-3 can be rightly regarded as the first description of virtual reality, even if the topic was already treated more than two thousand years ago in Plato's allegory of the cave. A similar philosophical premise of human perception of reality being illusory supplied René Descartes with his maxim, cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982), often known by his initials PKD, or by the pen name Richard Phillips, was an American science fiction writer and novelist who changed the genre profoundly. ... The Truman Show (1998) is a movie directed by Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol, and starring Jim Carrey. ... Philip K. Dicks novel Time Out of Joint was originally serialised in the British science fiction magazine New Worlds Science Fiction (December 1959 to February 1960). ... Virtual reality (abbreviated VR) describes an environment that is simulated by a computer. ... Illustration of Platos cave Platos allegory of the cave is perhaps the best-known of his many metaphors, allegories, and myths. ... Philosophy (from the Greek words philos and sophia meaning love of wisdom) is understood in different ways historically and by different philosophers. ... René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ... René Descartes (1596-1650) The Latin phrase cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) is possibly the single best-known philosophical statement and is attributed to René Descartes. ...

The novel supplied the basis for the great cinematic success of 1999's The Matrix, and was even filmed twice itself: first in 1973 by Rainer Werner Fassbinder as a two-part television play under the name Welt am Draht (World on a Wire), and in 1999 by Roland Emmerich as The Thirteenth Floor. The Matrix is a film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Andy and Larry). ... 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... Fassbinder 1977 Rainer Werner Fassbinder (May 31, 1945 - June 10, 1982), German movie director and actor, was one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema. ...

Ironically, the novel does not supply an explanation for the term "Simulacron," and the expression is not even used in the book. The name is evocative of simulacrum, a superficial image representing a non-existent original, as well as Chronos, the ancient Greek personification of time (who is the source of the words chronograph, chronological, chronicle, etc.). A simulacrum is a Latin word originally meaning a material object representing something (such as an idol representing a deity, or a painted still-life of a bowl of fruit). ... In Greek mythology, Chronos (often mystically confused with the Titan Cronus) was the personification of time. ...