A lot of people are mentioning brain-in-vat type fiction, so I'll just name-drop the earliest example I know of (and my favorite) - "William and Mary" by Roald

A lot of people are mentioning brain-in-vat type fiction, so I'll just name-drop the earliest example I know of (and my favorite) - "William and Mary" by Roald Dahl in 1959. I'd be curious if anyone can name an earlier example.