Sunday, November 15, 2009

The 5 Science Fiction Tales That Made Us Love Virtual Reality

The 5 Science Fiction Tales That Made Us Love Virtual Reality


For almost as long as there has been science fiction, there's been virtual reality, teaching us about worlds inside machines before we even knew what the internet was. Here are five of the earliest, and best, VR stories we grew up with.

[CHECK OUT THE 5 SCIENCE FICTION TALES (and videos) THAT MADE US LOVE VIRTUAL REALITY HERE]

Doubledown Note:  Unfortunately there is no mention of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Every Second Lifer knows that "Snow Crash" is truly the originator of the concept of "Virtual World" and "Metaverse." 

Film adaptation of Snow Crash??
The novel was optioned shortly after its publication and subsequent success, although it has never progressed past pre-production. John Raffo and Jeffery Nachmanoff both completed drafts under the supervision of director Marco Brambilla while the project was set up at Touchstone Pictures and Kathleen Kennedy's production company, but due to the large budget required, neither was given a green light.

Also, there is no mention of a few others that I think deserve honorable mentions. These include the movies "The Matrix", "Strange Days", "Cool World" and the book "Vurt" by Jeff Noon.

Are there any other Virtual World science fiction stories, or Virtual Reality stories I missed?  Please post those in comments, and I'll add them to this blog post.

4 comments:

Dan said...

"The Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand", by Samuel R. Delany.

This book has high information connections from galaxy wide data stores to individuals through a surgically implanted connections to the brain. Ones own memories "feel" different from information received over the web, they are fuzzy, less clearly and brightly outlined. (Published in 1985, it is the first time I have heard of the "web" and spider metaphor for the internet.)

everyone lives in "virtual rooms", projected environments, similar to SL Holo-deck rooms. Similar to the whole of SL actually..

It's a rolicking tale, a great trip. It ends in an uncomfortable way, like many of Delany's works. It's one of my favorites.

Tomkin Euler

Troy Mc said...

The novels of Charles Stross and Greg Egan feature a lot of virtual reality.

Anonymous said...

I would perhaps add the softly erotic video for Amazing by Aerosmith. Complete with VR goggles... and the dreamy sequence on the bike... Not bad.

Unknown said...

Well if we're headed into the music video virtual reality realm, we have to include the two originals:

Dire Straits: "Money for Nothing"

and

A-Ha: "Take on Me"