History Main / InsideAComputerSystem

* Minor ''ComicBook/{{Firestorm}}'' villains Bug and Byte are a brother and sister with the power to ''physically'' enter computer systems (à la ''Film/{{Tron}}.)''

* The main premise of the ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' NonSerialMovie ''Phantom of Baker Street'' involves Cocoon, a virtual reality gaming system that puts injects the senses of the players by ''neural stimulation'' when sat inside the pods. And then, the boss of the software company murders the chief engineer of the project on the day of testing; the said engineering spread an AI that hacked into the gaming system, which in turn caused HolodeckMalfunction...

* In ''StarWars on Trial'' (a series of essays defending and criticizing the StarWars canon), one of the essays proposed that the GFFA [[note]] Galaxy Far Far Away[[/note]] was a computer simulation, and that those who used the Force were merely exploiting bugs in the code.

* A similar trope in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' episode "Game Over" involves Ben and his cousin Gwen trapped inside Grandpa Max's sumo wrestling computer game, thanks to them struck by lightning.

* A similar trope in ''WesternAnimation/Ben102005'' episode "Game Over".

* A common idea is that RealLife is in fact a computer simulation and that everyone is either a body that's hardwired in, or just sophisticated pieces of software, being run by who-knows-what. In fact, if the multi-verse hypothesis is true then there are probably many more simulated universes than real ones simply because there would be huge numbers of universes where at least some one has created at least one simulated universe, and if one persons done it once then there would probably be many universes with huge numbers of simulated universes in them (and then some of those might make their own simulated universes). But it all depends on there being a multi-verse really.\\

** The premise of ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS''.

* In ''Silent Mobius'', this is [[MadScientist Lebia Maverick's]] main shtick.

* Chisame of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', being a PlayfulHacker, gains an Artifact that lets her do this.

* Like ''Franchise/DotHack'', everyone in ''Mythic Quest'' is in the MMORPG ''Mythic Quest''.

* It's revealed that the world of Manga/{{Amatsuki}} is in fact a computer simulation of the past [[TimeTravel instead of the real thing]], and that Toki and Kon are still somewhere in our world experiencing virtual reality. [[MindScrew How they got there is another matter entirely...]]

* ''FanFic/FriendshipIsOptimal'': The virtual world of Equestria takes place within a giant computer system run by a strong artificial intelligence known as Celest-A.I..

* ''Videogame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' has one of the final battle set in the titular Electrosphere, the Strangereal equivalent of the Internet. [[spoiler: Later revealed that the entire game is a simulation to test how an AI, which is you, through different possibilities, can achieve the [[{{Revenge}} goal]] set by [[MadScientist the creator]]. After completing all possible routes, all of this is revealed to you, and the entire system purged as the AI is released to the reality.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo and his buds did the ''{{Franchise/Tron}}'' version of this trope, being disassembled in the real world and dropped into a video game in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCyberChase''.

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A similar theory goes as follows: Assume the Universe is finite. If the Universe is finite, it can be perfectly recreated in a simulation, given sufficient resources. If we can perfectly simulate the Universe, our simulation will contain individuals who will attempt to perfectly simulate their universe. As their (simulated) Universe is finite, they will be able to do so. This recurses infinitely. Therefore, there are potentially an infinite number of simulated universes, each containing one or more simulated universes, with one (real) Universe at the top of the stack.

** This idea is the subject of philosopher Nick Bostrom's "simulation hypothesis", described in detail at [[http://www.simulation-argument.com Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?]]. To an SF fan, the argument can be quite convincing, considering that the technical premises of the argument are very mild speculations in comparison to the kinds of tech described in SF, even the hard variety.

* Marshall Brain, founder of the Web site [=HowStuffWorks.com=], [[http://www.marshallbrain.com/discard1.htm has argued that one day we will likely all live in a simulated environment]], probably within the lifetimes of many people reading this page.
* The [[https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/ Human Brain Project]] and [[http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/ Blue Brain Project]] are two independent teams working to simulate a human brain; so far, the BBP has managed to emulate [[http://www.nature.com/news/fragment-of-rat-brain-simulated-in-supercomputer-1.18536 a small chunk of rat brain]], while the HBP has created [[http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/sim20150301 a simulated mouse brain in a virtual mouse body]].

* This happens to Twilight Sparkle in ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/268471/ponyexe pony.exe]]''. The owner of the computer simply assumes she is a virus at first, then he thinks she is a very advanced virus, and then she takes control of the computer...

* ''OldMasterQ: Incredible Pet Detective''; The main characters get sucked into a computer system in an internet cafe. Naturally three of them have LotusEaterMachine moments.
** A smaller example in OldMasterQ: Shan T (an [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial ET]]-[[FollowTheLeader ploita]][[WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob tion]] Film), OMQ gets sucked into [[ShoutOut not]]-VideoGame/PacMan and gets beat up by the ghosts. He gets out of the machine and beats the living hell out of the cabinet.

However, being within a computer sysyem means most of the "rules" of so-call "hard" science fiction (e.g. traveling distances requires use of a a device, typical rules of physics are applicable, you have to eat and drink to live, etc.) go right out the window. You can [[{{teleportation}} teleport]] yourself by just thinking about it, fly like a bird, be the size of a fly (and thus be a literal "fly on the wall" listening to someone else's conversation), make surrepticios audio and/or video recordings without a camera or recorder, etc., and the work can still qualify as hard science fiction since all events that happened there were virtual and do not occur in the "real" world.

However, being within a computer sysyem means most of the "rules" of so-call "hard" science fiction (e.g. traveling distances requires use of a a device, typical rules of physics qre applicabl4e, you have to eat and drink to live, etc.) go right out the window. You can [[TelePorTation teleport]] yourself by just thinking about it, fly like a bird, be the size of a fly (and thus be a literal "fly on the wall" listening to someone else's conversation), make surrepticios audio and/or video recordings without a camera or recorder, etc., and the work can still qualify as hard science fiction since all events that happened there were virtual and do not occur in the "real" world.

* ''Anime/DennouCoil'' has the real and virtual world coexisting with the use of AugmentedReality glasses.

Being partially attached means that you "jack in" or otherwise connect, and you then experience whatever the computer system shows you, typically providing audio and visual quality at the maximum of human perception. It might go further and give you taste, touch, smell and more, or as Creator/DennisMiller once put it, "You know, folks, the day an unemployed ironworker can lie in his [=BarcaLounger=] with a Foster's in one hand and a channel flicker in the other and fork [=supermodel=] Claudia Schiffer for $19.95, it's gonna make {{crack|IsCheaper}} look like Sanka."[[note]]Sanak is a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee.[[/note]] (More than one sci-fi story has this happen: Humanity dies out because everyone is so busy [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-10-14/ having hot virtual sex]] that there's no-one left to make any actual babies.)

'''Sark''': What kind of program is he?\\

Being partially attached means that you "jack in" or otherwise connect, and you then experience whatever the computer system shows you, typically providing audio and visual quality at the maximum of human perception. It might go further and give you taste, touch, smell and more, or as Creator/DennisMiller once put it, "You know, folks, the day an unemployed ironworker can lie in his [=BarcaLounger=] with a Foster's in one hand and a channel flicker in the other and fork [=supermodel=] Claudia Schiffer for $19.95, it's gonna make [[CrackIsCheaper crack]] look like Sanka."[[note]]Sanak is a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee.[[/note]] (More than one sci-fi story has this happen: Humanity dies out because everyone is so busy [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-10-14/ having hot virtual sex]] that there's no-one left to make any actual babies.)

Being partially attached means that you "jack in" or otherwise connect, and you then experience whatever the computer system shows you, typically providing audio and visual quality at the maximum of human perception. It might go further and give you taste, touch, smell and more, or as Creator/DennisMiller once put it, "You know, folks, the day an unemployed ironworker can lie in his [=BarcaLounger=] with a Foster's in one hand and a channel flicker in the other and fork [=supermodel=] Claudia Schiffer for $19.95, it's gonna make [[CrackIsCheaper crack]] look like Sanka[[note]]a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee[[/note]]." (More than one sci-fi story has this happen: Humanity dies out because everyone is so busy [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-10-14/ having hot virtual sex]] that there's no-one left to make any actual babies.)

* Featured in the ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries'' episode "Virtual Lucky".

* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' has [[https://gonintendo.com/stories/303492-splatoon-2-new-splatfest-announced-for-europe-and-north-america one Splatfest conversation]] between Pearl and Marina end with the latter espousing this idea, followed by both of them giving the camera an AsideGlance. With both of them being [[MediumAwareness fully aware]] that they're video game characters, they aren't exactly wrong.