# Anyone written a sci-fi story wherein: **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654 "2018-05-23T03:32:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/1 "2018-05-23T03:32:09Z")
…you know the notion that we are all living in a simulation? Well in this story, such a simulation is created. But from the creators POV, his simulated world has advanced well beyond the creators in terms of physics and quantum mechanics. The simulated world does some kind of experiment that destroys it like a stranglet that destroys the world or nano tech run amuck…but it spreads to the observers world. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/2 "2018-05-23T03:53:56Z")
For a further twist, the “real world” could hasten to cut off their sim world from the rest of their sim galaxy to keep the effect from spreading but we’re told they’re too late. On the final page…in the real world…one scientist says to the other “look outside the window, the stars just went out.” ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/3 "2018-05-23T05:27:49Z")
Greg Bear’s Blood Music sort of has this premise, it is a creation, but not a simulation. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/4 "2018-05-23T06:51:29Z")
The Ring-Spiral-Loop series\* by Koji Suzuki sort of goes there. The simulation wasn’t more advanced than the real world, but the disease created within the simulation eventually escaped into the real world (and it got even weirder still\*\*). - The movie Ring was based on the first book, but since the adaptation of Spiral didn’t do well, the later movies (including the American series) ignored it. It’s too bad, I think Rasen was better than Ring 2… \*\* Weeeeell, OK, the nature of the disease (the cursed video tape, only by this point, it isn’t only video) is pretty lunatic to start with, but piling more different weirdness on can be safely called ‘getting even weirder’. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/5 "2018-05-23T07:57:23Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > On the final page…in the real world…one scientist says to the other “look outside the window, the stars just went out.” That ending line is very similar to ‘The Nine Billion Names of God.’ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/6 "2018-05-23T11:22:05Z")
In the first issue of the PLANETARY comic book, we see that a team of inventors and pulp heroes (think Lamont Cranston, and Tom Swift, and Doc Savage) rigged up some kind of quantum computer that worked by calculating a lot of “possible alternatives, none of them quite real” and “would perform each calculation across universes, each possible answer being processed in a different world” with “each alternative universe vanishing, one by one, until the answer made itself real.” What they didn’t count on was that one of those not-quite-real worlds — when on the brink of destruction like I was just saying — would be home to, if you will, a team of comic-book types: think Clark Kent, and Diana Prince, and Bruce Wayne; think of a whole Like-Unto-The-Justice-League, complete with enough Green-Lantern-esque power to cross the gulf of reality as their realm’s decoherence approached. And, well, those supers invaded… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/7 "2018-05-23T11:38:55Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > …you know the notion that we are all living in a simulation? > > Well in this story, such a simulation is created. But from the creators POV, his simulated world has advanced well beyond the creators in terms of physics and quantum mechanics. The simulated world does some kind of experiment that destroys it like a stranglet that destroys the world or nano tech run amuck…but it spreads to the observers world. Not a simulated world, but a miniature one (as with others above) is the classic 1941 story _Microcosmic God_ by Theodore Sturgeon, in which a genius creates a miniature race and subjects them to stressful situations that causes them to invent their way out – and their inventions are often completely new things, which the genius profits from in our everyday world. The story has been heavily anthologized (most notably in _The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. I_, and has its own Wikipedia page > **[Microcosmic God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcosmic_God)** > > "Microcosmic God" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Theodore Sturgeon. Originally published in April 1941 in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction, it was recognized as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the Nebula Awards by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1970, and was named as one of the best science fiction stories in polls by Analog Science Fiction and Fact (the renamed Astounding) in 1971 and Locus in 1999. In 1976, it was also pu A hig... ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/8 "2018-05-23T13:16:55Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > …you know the notion that we are all living in a simulation? > > Well in this story, such a simulation is created. But from the creators POV, his simulated world has advanced well beyond the creators in terms of physics and quantum mechanics. The simulated world does some kind of experiment that destroys it like a stranglet that destroys the world or nano tech run amuck…but it spreads to the observers world. There’s something like that (loss of control of an artificial universe) in Greg Egan’s _Permutation City_ ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/9 "2018-05-23T13:29:09Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > There’s something like that (loss of control of an artificial universe) in Greg Egan’s _Permutation City_ Just the one I was going to suggest. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/10 "2018-05-23T13:38:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > > > …you know the notion that we are all living in a simulation? > > > > Well in this story, such a simulation is created. But from the creators POV, his simulated world has advanced well beyond the creators in terms of physics and quantum mechanics. The simulated world does some kind of experiment that destroys it like a stranglet that destroys the world or nano tech run amuck…but it spreads to the observers world. > > Not a simulated world, but a miniature one (as with others above) is the classic 1941 story _Microcosmic God_ by Theodore Sturgeon, in which a genius creates a miniature race and subjects them to stressful situations that causes them to invent their way out – and their inventions are often completely new things, which the genius profits from in our everyday world. The story has been heavily anthologized (most notably in _The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. I_, and has its own Wikipedia page > > [Microcosmic God - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcosmic_God) That story is the first thing I thought of upon reading the OP. The miniature species in the story hasn’t, as far as I remember, broken out by the end of the story but I think it was implied that it would, eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/11 "2018-05-23T15:19:12Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > That ending line is very similar to ‘The Nine Billion Names of God.’ Just read the wiki synopsis. I have several ‘end-of-the-world’ anthology books, but I haven’t read that one. Very cool. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/12 "2018-05-23T17:58:58Z")
The idea of a simulation “escaping” into the real world is the basic premise behind the [AI Box](http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox/) experiment, which could be considered either science fiction or terrifying sober predictions about what will happen when AIs are smarter than we are. The claim is that a more advanced simulation can’t possibly be contained within the simulation. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/13 "2018-05-23T18:22:40Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Just read the wiki synopsis. I have several ‘end-of-the-world’ anthology books, but I haven’t read that one. Very cool. Do you have the End-of-the-World anthology **After the Fall** , edited by Robert Sheckley? Sheckley called for a collection of _upbeat_ End of the World stories, and it’s hilarious. My favorite is Philip Jose Farmer’s contribution, _The Making of Revelation, Part I_. God gets Cecil B. DeMille to cast and direct the Apocalypse. deMille, in turn, gets Harlan Ellison to script it, because he’s the only writer who isn’t afraid to argue with God. It’s sort of a RiverWorld approach to producing Armageddon. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/14 "2018-05-23T18:27:43Z")
Here’s the Internet Speculative Fiction Database page on **Microcosmic God** , by the way. I wanted to post it earlier, but the isfdb was down, or something. [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41157](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41157) There are about 75 entries for appearances of the story. Granted, there are a lot of repeats of the same title, because the isfdb includes all editions, but it’s still very impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/15 "2018-05-23T18:40:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Do you have the End-of-the-World anthology **After the Fall** , edited by Robert Sheckley? Sheckley called for a collection of _upbeat_ End of the World stories, and it’s hilarious. My favorite is Philip Jose Farmer’s contribution, _The Making of Revelation, Part I_. God gets Cecil B. DeMille to cast and direct the Apocalypse. deMille, in turn, gets Harlan Ellison to script it, because he’s the only writer who isn’t afraid to argue with God. > > It’s sort of a RiverWorld approach to producing Armageddon. Yes! I love it! I have that, and the other short story books are Catastrophes, The Last Man on Earth, Armageddons, and The End of the World. My favorite short story in that group is Charles Harness’ “The New Reality”. Basically the Devil is trying to split a photon to destroy the laws of physics and the British version of the secret govt. org. in Puppet-Masters is trying to stop him. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/16 "2018-05-23T20:04:10Z")
well that just sounds like slavery, with extra steps! ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/17 "2018-05-23T20:47:55Z")
Some similarities. > **[Picoverse: Metzger, Robert A.: 9780759292932: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Picoverse-Robert-Metzger/dp/0759292930)** > > Picoverse \[Metzger, Robert A.\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Picoverse ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/18 "2018-05-23T21:44:45Z")
They did a STAR TREK episode where Data is cosplaying as Sherlock Holmes on the Enterprise’s holodeck, beating various simulations with ease. Geordi casually requests an adversary “capable of defeating Data,” figuring that they’ll get a Moriarty who could challenge Sherlock Holmes. Of course, from the foolish way he worded that, they get a Moriarty who realizes he’s a character in a simulation; and who realizes that said simulation is running on a futuristic ship; and who realizes how to override various controls on that ship… ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-written-a-sci-fi-story-wherein/814654/19 "2018-05-23T22:05:00Z")
In Greg Egan’s “Eternity” a simulated enemy is able to escape the simulation “sandbox” to take over the entity that’s simulating it.