Simstim is short for
simulated stimuli. A term used(coined?) by
William Gibson in his works. Simstim is basically
virtual reality. The main difference between simstim and the concepts of virtual reality is that simstim actually allows you to have feelings "
run" in your head. Simstim devices can record the
physical,
emotional, and
sensual states happening and then
replay it back. In
William Gibson's works, many characters use simstim to escape from their own dreary lives. With simstim "videos" resembling
music videos at times, and placing the
user within their favorite
celebrity's head.
Want to feel someone else's
emotions, simstim can give you that.
Want to know what it feels like in the day of someone of the
opposite sex, simstim can give you that.
Want to know what
orgasm feels like for the opposite sex, or even for just someone else, simstim does it.
Simstim is used in
William Gibson's
Cyberspace trilogy:
Neuromancer,
Count Zero, and
Mona Lisa Overdrive. As well as many of his stories, such as
Fragments of a Hologram Rose which uses it as a main point.
The device in
Strange Days could also be considered a simstim device. The machine was able to record the events and feelings that the man was feeling, and then replay it back.
One could also trace back at least some of the ideas of simstim to
Phillip K. Dick's works, particularly
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The
mood machine in the book is an identifiable predecessor to simstim. This machine allowed one to program in a number, and each number referred to an
emotion and different degrees of it. This allowed a wide access to feelings that a person might not normally have.
Other similiar concepts can be found in
Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell, known as
simex, and
Shadowrun's simsense.