What about the dreamed worlds of "Lathe of Heaven"?

Why would anyone want to be stuck in the Matrix world?

Great. Now I have to be saved by Keanu Reeves.

What about Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty novels? Although I guess that's fantasy, not science fiction.

Matrix, Superman's Flower and Total Recall are all pretty much the same thing but with different levels of kung fu.

I totally would have jumped into the Nexus from ST:Generations.

I want to meet the other 2 saps who chose Tarkovsky like me. You guys rock.

Ren & Stimpy's world.

@gybryant: I know. Remember when everyone was like, "OMG! It's a terrible force sweeping the galaxy that makes everyone who falls in experience their most wonderful fantasies. WE MUST STOP IT!"

And did I not mention "The End of Mr. Y" yesterday? I am AWESOME.

Sorry for the outburst, but I'm working off of pure nervous energy right now.

@gybryant: Agreed. The ability to be live an fantasy you desire, and, as demonstrated in the movie, the ability to leave the Nexus if you ever get tired of it and deposit yourself anywhere AND anytime in the galaxy is hard to beat.

I agree with B, I think Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty would be it but would have to be the right character... and a weekend might not be enough.

I voted for THE CELL. The visuals in that movie were stunning. The rest of it, notsomuch.

The Cell is a mashup of Dreamscape and The Silence of the Lambs. But it's unbelievably good-looking. So I'll go there.

@moff: @EBone: Yeah, I never got what the big deal was, other than the whole star destroying thing.

Not sci-fi, but I also wouldn't mind a bag of Dream's dust from Sandman:Preludes and Nocturnes. Throw me in a bacta tank with an ounce of that. Good times. Good times.

how is being traped in the matrix any different than being traped in my day to day life now? wasn't that kinda the point of the matrix?

Eff yeah, Scarlett Thomas! The three people who voted for it must be the only 3 that have read it.

@gybryant: My thoughts exactly. Why was it they thought the thing was bad again?

Ah a dream come true... I finally have the best Chinese food ever created! All courtesy of the Matrix... Neo, don't mess with my Honey Walnut Prawns!!

I already live inside my own fantasy world, but I often recommend Baron Munchausen's to others.

@foolish-rain: Geroge Orr didn't care for it.

While the nerds will be dodging slo-mo bullets in the Matrix, I'm going to the Cell, gluing that horse back together, and grabbing J. Lo's butt.

what about the wonderful world of Disney? I hang out with Pooh and all his loveable friends!

@Imipolex_G-Unit: To this day, that horse creeps me out.

MARS....NEEDS....WOMEN

@EBone: Maybe they didn't put the Nexus in the poll since we'd all have voted for it?

Carter-Zimmerman Polis from Greg Egan's 'Diaspora'.

@Evil Tortie's Mom: Well the nexus is "real", meaning it is somewhere you go to/into physically, as opposed to just your mind while your body stays in one place.

Picards Ressikan life was an amazing episode. Except for the fact that every time I see it now, I hear "Office Space" lines coming out of Batai's mouth, it is one of the deepest episodes IMO. The fact that he makes such a change in his life by giving up the enterprise and starting a family, which from a man who thinks no families should be on his ship is a big thing, just was awesome.

This may be a silly question, but...how do we know we're not trapped in a scifi dream world right now? Will the sleeper one day awaken?

My pick would be either the aforementioned Nexus or the artificial afterlife in the novel White Light.

The ones on this list all have some unfortunate drawback.

Post-Revolutions Matrix might be pretty nifty.

@pinafore: dude, i love that book. i make everyone i know read it!

@rfreeman57:

@Ray Gunn: any dream world involving 40s-ish russian guys in yellow mesh and tighty whities is not for me. god, i'm squirming even as i write this.

i'd go for Lovecraft's dream worlds.. not the best of creatures dwell there, but i'm a sucker for onyx.

The Cell may have been really pretty and cool, but it was *someone else's* dream. That part rather sucks.

I'll second both Baron Münchhausen's fantasy and Lovecraft's Dream Lands. Cat's like me. :>

@Zantor: Yeah, but that's because he didn't have the right drea...ohhhh.

I want to live on Serenity.

Ummm.. Help? Where are you guys seeing results? How do you vote? Confused. Very very confused. Is there something wrong with my browser, maybe? All I see is the story, the picture of the silhouette, an empty white box to the left of the picture, an empty white box above the comments, and the comments.

@Chrysla: What browser are you using?

@gybryant: I am using Firefox

@gybryant: I am using firefox. - thanks for helping!

I can't believe "Better than Life" from Red Dwarf didn't make it onto the voting list!

Total Recall - hands down. I mean the guy doesn't really know he's in a sim, and he accepts the reality of being the hero and center of everything. What other simulated reality has that? Btw, too bad that the movie wasn't called "We can remember it for you wholesale"

I voted for the Matrix, but...It's not sf, but the movie What Dreams May Come holds a special interest for me. I guess when I die I'll find out.

I'm with the Nexus-lovers and Matrix-haters, though I voted for that other Picard deal. Love the Matrix, but for anybody now over 10 or so, living there isn't a fantasy so much as a rerun. Anybody ever wonder what the machines had in mind for forty or fifty years down the line when they didn't have any history to go by? Let the humans dictate? Just Groundhog Day everybody without them knowing it? Actually, that would be a Dark World, wouldn't it? That would be a choice: lots of variety and no pesky commute.

@Nimravus:

Didn't the outside of the Nexus shred starships to bits?

And I don't think they were trying to stop the Nexus, they were trying to stop Soren from blowing up a sun and murdering 9 billion people to change the Nexus' trajectory to scoop him back up.

Which, totally off-topic: if Whoopi left the Nexus but an "echo" of her remained, would Soren return to the Nexus and discover his own echo-self there from when he left?

Back on topic: Nexus for the win.

@CyberKender:

I totally second Baron Munchausen syndrome (not the 'by proxy' version of that illness, though). Sailing ships to the edge of the world, through space and onto the moon where Robin Williams' plays a dementedly horny 'man on the moon' speaks of all sorts of win. ;)

Black Mercy, definitely. Didn't work too well on the Atom, though.

The "rape orgy" dream from ZARDOZ!

just TRY and tell me I'm wrong.

I feel obliiged to mention "Better Than Life" from Red Dwarf

I vote for "Anarchy Online". Leets are cute.

The explorations of people's psyche, in Psychonauts, were The best dream worlds I can think of. The Cell is a close second though. Here's a link to some pictures of the game. [www.psychonauts.com]

But we already are living in The Matrix! ;o)

It's all about Total Recall's fake implanted memories. They're just as good as the Matrix, but without all of that humanity enslaved by machines icky business.

@rfreeman57: This may be a silly question, but...how do we know we're not trapped in a scifi dream world right now? Will the sleeper one day awaken?

All I have to do is check my bank account to be sure.

Hey don't forget the living vicariously through other peoples far more exciting lives in Strange Days.

One mans dull and mundane existence is another mans technicolor.

Definately a controlled dream like Total Recall or a non-malfunctioning Vanilla Sky.

I'm reading Lathe of Heaven right now, surprisingly enough.

@ Ray Gunn: I see Tarkovsky, I press the button. I wish I had a choice.

I love "The Inner Light" it always makes me feel so sappy.