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SF ALTERITY

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           [SF Alterity]
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                   [terms] (index of indexes)

SF Alterikty


  
Intro

There are several problems in terminology:

   Alternate time streams/histories: Change one thing in the past...
                                     Get a new present/future.
       "Man in The High Castle"
       "Ground Hog Day"
       "Sliding Doors"
       "Butterfly Effect"
   

   Alternate/Parallel Realities: Parallel Worlds.
       "All the Myriad Things"
       "Dimension of Miracles"

   False Realities/Hidden Truths: What we think is true isn't.
       "The Matrix"
       "Men In Black" 
       "Momento"
  
All other things are (sort of) sf, fantasy, or trad lit.

   Quantum Realities









Bibliography


"All the Myriad Things" by Larry Niven.
     In this short story, Niven (trained in maths) creates
     our reality in which (somehow) knowlege of the various
     alternate realities occur. Basically, the idea is that
     everytime we make a decision, reality splices off. The
     plot expands greatly on the outline of Borges' 
     "The Garden of Infinitly Forking Paths" -- note that 
     the two short stories share only the "plot model".


"Butterfly Effect"
   ** need to watch ***

"Dimension of Miracles" by Robert Sheckly.
           After winning the Galactic Sweepstakes Carmody,
           (he didn't even know that he was entered) is
           tranported to Galactic Centre. Unfortunately,
           after he collects his prize no one there knows
           WHICH "Earth" he's from. He (along with the
           prize) must flick from Earth to Earth to find
           his own one. One of the Earth's is where the
           dinosaurs didn't die out -- they evolved and
           have a civilisation.


   
"Ground Hog Day". [Fim]. 
        After dissing THE groundhog (who has the same
        name), "Phil Collins" (played by Bill Murray)
        is forced to live and re-live the same day
        (February 2nd; Ground Hog's Day) over and over.
        Even though he can change anything in that day,
        the next morning he wakes up in bed, and the
        day starts all over again.


"Man in The High Castle" by Philip K. Dick.
        In an alternate present, the United
        States is occupied by the Germans in 
        Japanese as a result of sucessful assasination
        of FDR and their consequent winning of World
        War II. At one point one the characters 
        ??name?? "sees" our reality, but for all of
        characters in the book: There's IS the reality.
        In their reality our's is the plot outline of
        a book called "" -- the author divined 
        our reality by consulting the taoist "I Ching".
     

"The Matrix". [Film].

     Residual self image.


"Men in Black". [Film].
           A New York city cop, "??name??" (played by
           Will Smith) finds out that the Earth is 
           actually inhabited by extraterrestrials
           who live here to escape political (etc) 
           problems. The problem of managing the ET
           problem (as well as Earth's place in the
           Galaxy) so that normal people don't have
           worry/adjust is a group of people called
           "The Men in Black". ??name?? is given the
           choice of "going back" (memory erasure) or
           "getting in the game" -- which he chooses,
           and thus becomes the anonymous Man in Black
           now refered to as "J".

"Momento". [Film].
           A man, "" (played by ??name??) suffers 
           from a memory problem: He can't form new 
           memories. Unfortunately, he is trying to track
           down the man who murdered his wife (possibly
           reason he suffered the brain disorder). To 
           keep track of things he takes poloroid photos,
           writing notes on them, as well as having
           FACTS that he's sure of tatooed onto his
           chest. Every fifteen minutes or so, he "wakes"
           up to an ever-present "now" -- often finding
           himself somewhere and in some situtation that
           he has no idea as to how he got there, or what
           is going on.

 
"Sliding Doors". [Film].
         ** need to watch **