Stories are often governed by association rather than logic. In this case, the association is something like “impossible things can’t exist; if you find out that the world is impossible, it will cease to exist”. This motif has occurred before in literature.
I’m having a hard time finding examples in that list that feel like they really match the idea. Most of them seem to be about people figuring out they’re in a Matrix and then punching the Matrix Lord in the face. One example I remember which does go directly from realization to nonexistence is Orqwith in Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol. The idea that you can directly affect the physical universe, though not necessarily to the point of nonexistence, by messing with sufficiently complex calculations shows up pretty much as is in Greg Egan’s Luminous.
Stories are often governed by association rather than logic. In this case, the association is something like “impossible things can’t exist; if you find out that the world is impossible, it will cease to exist”. This motif has occurred before in literature.
I’m having a hard time finding examples in that list that feel like they really match the idea. Most of them seem to be about people figuring out they’re in a Matrix and then punching the Matrix Lord in the face. One example I remember which does go directly from realization to nonexistence is Orqwith in Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol. The idea that you can directly affect the physical universe, though not necessarily to the point of nonexistence, by messing with sufficiently complex calculations shows up pretty much as is in Greg Egan’s Luminous.