In the role-playing game
Shadowrun,
simsense is the common term for a device that uses
ASIST technology (developed in the mid-2020's by
Echo Mirage) and
direct neural interface devices like the
datajack to transmit a sensory experience to the user, usually recorded on an optical chip. For the
plebians (read-
NPCs), simsense is mostly a form of recreation and/or way to escape the troubles of life; for shadowrunners and more professional computer-using types, it's the gateway to
decking.
There are a number of varying levels of sensory stimulus. Baseline is the cheapest because it only replays the
physical stimuli- someone
going down on you, the impact of the concrete as you leap from a moving car, and the like. Full-X is the next level, as it is capable of replaying emotional parts- the casual disattachment of
casual sex, the fear of knowing that the cabbie you had hitched with was
out to kill you. The extra processing is more costly, but is also generally more provocative an experience.
The more powerful chips produce effects so powerful, they are as or more addictive than the street drugs of the late 20th century.
BTL, an abbrieviation for
Better Than Life (pronounced "beetle"), usually uses a high-volume
ASIST output while directly stimulating the
limbic centers of the brain. There are few limits to what kind of sensory experiences
BTL chips provide, and they are almost always addictive to the point where the user will simply play back the experience time after time, ignoring the demands of food and water from his body. Most
deckers run their ASIST systems at levels that are just below
BTL ranges, which would explain the immediate and fatal nature of
black IC. There are chips more powerful than
BTL called
2XS, which usually only have to run once or twice before they kill the user outright.
Concepts similar to
simsense are
simex of
Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell and
William Gibson's Neuromancer.