Simulated reality
From Wikiversity
Simulated reality hypotheses proposes that the universe we currently live in is a computer simulation running in an advanced computer. The idea came since the beginning of computer science, particularly with the discovery of stored and modifiable programs. Every epoch uses current science and technology to explain the world. In the Industrial Revolution, the metaphor was the clock and the machine. Now in the era of computers the metaphor is that the universe is a computer program...
This idea is seldom used in fiction. We can find some examples mostly in movies: The Matrix, Thirteenth floor.
