sentences:  The hypothesis has been a central plot device of many science fiction stories and films.There is a long philosophical and scientific history to the underlying thesis that reality is an illusion.This skeptical hypothesis can be traced back to antiquity; for example, to the "Butterfly Dream" of Zhuangzi, or the Indian philosophy of Maya, or in Ancient Greek philosophy Anaxarchus and Monimus likened existing things to a scene-painting and supposed them to resemble the impressions experienced in sleep or madness.