![]() |
Science Fiction
Dictionary Latest By
"The permanent government now is the anchorpeople. They don't get elected, and year after year they're responding emotionally to this or that."
|
![]() |
![]() This is a very early description of what today might be called "virtual reality".
The device involves a telepathically-projected full-sensory interactive movie beamed to a man in a sensory-deprivation chamber. In the novel, he seems to go to imaginary Technocratic utopia, which he inhabits for months of perceived time (in a single night of real time).
Here's a description of what the experience is like from the novel.
"It is as real as life, but it moves swiftly as a dream. You seem to pass through certain things slowly and completely, in the tempo of life. Then, when the transitional moment comes, between the scenes, your sensations pass with unbelievable rapidity. The Chamber has possession of your mind. It tells you that you are doing such and such a thing, it gives you all the feeling of doing that thing, and you actually believe you are doing it. And when it snatches you away from one day and takes you into the next, it has only to make you feel that a day has passed, and it is as though you had lived through that day. You could live a lifetime in this way, in the Chamber, without spending actually more than a few hours."
Compare to the Telepadion Instructor from An Adventure on Eros (1931) by J. Harvey Haggard, the magic spectacles from Pygmalion's Spectacles (1935) by Stanley G. Weinbaum, the Saga technology from Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956) and by four and a half decades The Eden Cycle. I'd also mention the feelies from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), although the feelies did not offer a fully immersive experience, and stimsim from William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984).
Because the machine hypnotizes the audience into forgetting they are in a virtual-reality scenario, the experience is more like that of the hero of The Eden Cycle in the first described scenario of that book. It also highlights the main problem with such a technique. The protagonist of "The Chamber of Life" winds up falling in love with a fictional character. And not falling out of it when he wakes up.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for submitting the quote, descriptive matter and references for this item. Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
resources:
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
|
![]() |
Science Fiction
Timeline
Wearable Energy Harvester
'... he had tightened the chest to gain maximum pumping action from the motion of breathing.'
Drones Participate In Buddhist Rites
'...a prayer wheel swung into view and began spinning at a furious pace.'
'Feel the AGI' OpenAI Leader Now OpenWorship
'And are all the people willing to be governed by a machine?'
Forward CarePod The AI Doctor's Office
'It's an old model,' Rawlins said. 'I'm not sure what to do.'
Mika The Robot-Boss
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...'
Yamaha Motoroid 2 No Handlebars Self-Balancing Motorcycle
'He rode the bike with an intense lack of physical grace...'
|
![]() |
![]() |
Home | Glossary
| Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact
Us | FAQ | Advertise | ![]() Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™ Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved. |
![]() |