Simulacron-3

1964 Galouye, Daniel F[rancis] (1920-76). Simulacron-3. New York: Bantam. U.K. ed. as Counterfeit World. London: Victor Gollancz, 1965. Rpt. London: Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1983. PSt, WU

Dystopia which pollsters or “certified reaction monitors” (colloquially known as “busybodies”) are constantly checking on the population with the goal of eliminating risk from business, politics, and religion. An invention allows them to be replaced by electronic simulations, so it is opposed by powerful forces. Its inventor had intended it as a means of achieving a better, more orderly society, but it creates dual worlds of reality and simulcra and some people pass between the two worlds. Basis for the films Welt am Drat (World on a Wire) (1973) directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-82), with a screenplay by Galouye and Fassbinder, and The Thirteenth Floor (1999) directed by Josef Rusnak, with a screen play by Galouye, Rusnak, and Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez.