Talk:Simulacron-3

Claims of influence

I removed the following from this article:

greatly influenced Ringu 3: Loop (1998), The Matrix (1999), and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (2004)

Feel free to put it back if you can find a cite. — Hex (❝?!❞) 22:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Neo has the book in The Matrix; we may infer that the makers of the movie read it, yes? 2A02:A44E:E127:0:8CDA:ADDE:95DE:A2E7 (talk) 09:00, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

We don't "infer" anything, that's original research.  — Hex • talk 12:10, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

21st century parallels

I would like to add some links showing where I got the info about the military use of a virtual world. Since there are none in this item right now, I'll drop them here and come back later once I'm hip to the method.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/23/sentient_worlds/

http://www.jfcom.mil/about/experiments/uresolve.htm

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/30/0018211&from=rss

Makuabob (talk) 00:53, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I had to remove your addition to the article - it was original research. If you can find a published source that relates military virtual worlds to this novel, you can cite it. — Hex (❝?!❞) 11:07, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm,... I actually got the info about the military use from a book by Tim Guest named "Second Lives." I can go back and find the chapter where he explains how the military takes troops about to be deployed to an area with a different culture (Oh, let's say Baghdad) and have an enitre squad log-on to the equivalent of a MMORPG where some of the avatars are computer-controlled units while others are members of the squad-in-training. Evaluators monitor the squad members' reactions to various scenarios. If something like this doesn't resonate with the theme of Simulacron-3, what does?

Makuabob (talk) 21:12, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

It may resonate, but our policy on article content won't allow it unless you can cite something talking about it. Sorry. — Hex (❝?!❞) 01:05, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

“[O]ne of the earliest literary descriptions of virtual reality”

Simulacron-3 (1964) (also published as Counterfeit World), by Daniel F. Galouye, is an American science fiction novel featuring one of the earliest literary descriptions of virtual reality.

Weinbaum’s “Pygmalion's Spectacles” predates this by three decades. The “Like-subject works” section lists several more precursors. (One might be led to believe that the section was appended in order to undermine the above claim.)

I chose to mark the statement as “dubious” rather than delete it because it presently serves as a thesis statement for the article. Perhaps someone familiar with the work could make the claim more specific, or find some other remarkable aspect of the work. (We could otherwise just end the sentence at “novel”.) — Dan337 (talk) 06:34, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

It's most definitely not the earliest description of virtual reality. Maybe it is an early example of virtual reality with a very slight hint at the implementation of VR, but e.g. the Magic Theater in Hesse's "Steppenwolf" also is a virtual reality setup. Nomentz (talk) 08:48, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I changed it to "an early description" which is true but not a sweeping claim. — Hex (❝?!❞) 16:20, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Stanisław_Lem, anyone?137.205.100.185 (talk) 12:04, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Yes, The Matrix was inspired by this book. They even wanted him to write the sequels for them!

“The Matrix is surely the kind of film about the matrix that the matrix would have been able to produce.”

These were the infamous words that Jean Baudrillard used to break his silence on The Matrix movies in a 2004 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur. Baudrillard’s idea of simulation — which we explored in-depth in a previous instalment — was the primary inspiration behind the Wachowski siblings’ movie series.

His 1981 book Simulacra and Simulation was not merely a prop in The Matrix but was the main inspiration for the movies and was required reading for the whole cast. After the release of the first movie the Wachowskis reached out to Baudrillard inviting him to work on the sequels but he turned down the offer and in this interview we learn why. 2A02:A44E:E127:0:8CDA:ADDE:95DE:A2E7 (talk) 09:16, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

The interview linked looks like a great citation - for our article about Simulacra and Simulation. But this article is about Simulacron-3, a completely different book.  — Hex • talk 12:19, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

P.S. If you're going to copy text, as you did here from this blog post, you need to attribute its origin and make it clear that you're quoting someone.  — Hex • talk 12:22, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Cover art

What's the backstory regarding the cover art? Doesn't seem to have anything to do with the story. Viriditas (talk) 21:51, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

I see now that it is uncredited per ISFD, but presumed to be Paul Lehr, which lines up. I added uncredited to the infobox, with plans to add a future footnote about Lehr as it does appear to be his work. Viriditas (talk) 22:12, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

Now I see we have no article about Paul Lehr, which is kind of mind blowing, given his influence. I suppose my work is cut out for me. Viriditas (talk) 22:13, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

I have a collection of quite a few SF novels from this period and easily ¾ of them have random "It's Science Fiction!" paintings as cover art involving planets, spacecraft, weird faces, abstract wobbly stuff and so on. I guess publishers were just paying artists for vibes-based art rather than forking out more to commission specific illustrations actually based on the books.  — Hex • talk 11:36, 30 January 2026 (UTC)