Hypothesis ng Simulasyon
Filipino

Lore worlds tree · kinds of invented world

Every invented world is ours with something changed. This tree sorts the kinds of change, not the worlds, since those never run out. Each kind sits at the point where its change would have to split from our world. Different physics has to start at the Big Bang. A different history can start at any moment since writing. The further left, the less of our world survives. Kinds whose split is still ahead sit on the right with the open questions. Each node is also tagged with what was done to the world: something removed, added, turned up or down, reversed or replaced. Crossing the layers with those five changes predicts kinds that should exist. Where we found no well-known world of a kind, the node is marked predicted. The examples are published works, each cited. One more band holds worlds with no shared past at all.

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Future splits and open questions →
Separate seeds
Our world
Who runs it
Physics and maths
Planet and sky
Resources
Buhay
Mga isip
Teknolohiya
Kasaysayan

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Everything grows from , changed one layer at a time. The deepest change is ; the nearest is . Worlds that never split from ours start on their own, from .

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Each node is a kind of world, placed by when its change would split from ours. Examples are published works, each cited. Predicted nodes are the site’s own reasoning: kinds the grid implies, for which we found no well-known world. We don’t answer the open questions here. Each one lists the closest published thinking. Each node has a stable address, shown after it.

Separate seeds

  1. A separate seed (no split point: a start of its own · Replaced)

    A world that never branched from ours. It has its own history, often its own laws, and no point where it parted from us. Tolkien called it a secondary world. Wolf measures such worlds by how much they invent over our defaults, from new names up to new physics.

    Branches into: A world that runs on magic; A world with another shape

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=x-seed

  2. A world that runs on magic (no split point: a start of its own · Something added)

    A separate world where magic is part of how things work, with its own costs and limits. When the rules are stated and kept, it reads less like fantasy and more like another physics.

    Branches from: A separate seed

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=x-magic

  3. A world with another shape (no split point: a start of its own · Replaced)

    The ground itself is a different shape: flat, carried, stretched or moving. The shape sets the climate, the travel and the myths.

    Branches from: A separate seed

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=x-shape

Our world

  1. Our world (the base: the world as it is)

    Every kind in this tree is our world with one thing changed. Each sits where that change would have to happen. The further left the split, the less of our world survives. Splits that haven’t happened yet sit on the right, among the futures.

    Branches into: Different mathematics; Different laws of nature; A different sky; Different stuff to hand; Life took another road; Other kinds of mind; Another road for invention; One event went the other way; A world run on purpose

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=lw-ours

Who runs it

  1. A world run on purpose (from its first moment, or from any moment after · Something added)

    The world looks like ours, but someone is running it, for a reason. This is the branch where lore worlds meet the simulation hypothesis.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: A world staged for one life; A run that tells you why; A world for the dead; A world built as a game; Our past run again; The characters wake up; The run ends; Should the people inside know why?

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Daniel F. Galouye (1964): A whole city simulated in a computer to test the market, with people who don’t know. Simulacron-3, Bantam
    • The Wachowskis (1999): Humanity lives in a simulated 1999 while machines harvest their bodies. The Matrix, Warner Bros.

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-run

  2. A run that tells you why (from its first moment, or from any moment after · Predicted · Reversed)

    The operators’ reason is public, and everyone inside knows the world is an experiment, archive or gift. The grid predicts this kind, the reverse of the usual hidden purpose. We found no well-known world built on it. The argument it would test is that a run may be pointless once its subjects know.

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Nearest published work:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-told

  3. A world staged for one life (within a lifetime · Something added)

    Everything around one person is a set. Everyone else knows, and the story is about finding out.

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-staged

  4. A world built as a game (once full-immersion games exist · Something added)

    The rules were made for play: levels, quests, respawns. The story starts when the game becomes the only life on offer.

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-game

  5. The characters wake up (once simulated beings can think · Reversed)

    People made to fill a world realise what they are and turn on the rules, or on their makers.

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-wake

  6. A world for the dead (after minds can be copied · Something added)

    A simulated afterlife, built for people who uploaded or recorded themselves. Someone decides whether it is heaven, hell or a waiting room.

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-after

  7. Our past run again (once computers can run whole minds · Something added)

    A future civilisation simulates its own history, people and all. This is the case the simulation argument counts.

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Branches into: Worlds inside worlds

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-ancestor

  8. Worlds inside worlds (once simulated people can run simulations · Turned up or down)

    A simulated world runs simulations of its own, layer under layer, and no one can be sure which layer is the top.

    Branches from: Our past run again

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Christopher Nolan (2010): Thieves work in dreams within dreams, each layer running slower than the one above. Inception, Warner Bros.

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-nested

  9. The run ends (at any moment · Something removed)

    Whoever is running the world finishes, or stops paying, and switches it off. The story is the last moments.

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=f-end

  10. Should the people inside know why? (Bukás na tanong)

    In a world run for a reason, knowing the reason changes the run. Hide it and you get a cleaner result; show it and you get a different world. Who decides?

    Branches from: A world run on purpose

    Pinakamalapit na nailathalang kaisipan:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=q-purpose

Physics and maths

  1. Different mathematics (before the Big Bang: the rules beneath physics · Replaced)

    The deepest change there is: geometry, number or logic work by other rules. Tegmark’s fourth level of multiverse is every mathematical structure that could exist. Few stories go this deep, because a reader has to follow the rules too.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: More or fewer dimensions; Contradictions allowed

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-math

  2. More or fewer dimensions (before the Big Bang: the rules beneath physics · Turned up or down)

    Space has two dimensions, or four. Everything from digestion to doors has to be worked out again.

    Branches from: Different mathematics

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-dims

  3. Contradictions allowed (before the Big Bang: the rules beneath physics · Reversed)

    Logic itself bends: a thing can be both so and not so. Logicians call these impossible worlds and use them in earnest.

    Branches from: Different mathematics

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-impossible

  4. Different laws of nature (about 13.8 billion years ago, at the Big Bang · Replaced)

    A change to physics has to be there from the start. Small shifts cascade: they change which atoms hold together, how stars burn and whether anyone could be around to notice.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: A constant turned up or down; Magic as a law of nature; Time runs backward; A force taken away; The laws change from here on; The end of time; When does it stop being ours?

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-laws

  5. A constant turned up or down (about 13.8 billion years ago, at the Big Bang · Turned up or down)

    One number in physics takes another value. Gravity is stronger, or the nuclear force is. The world keeps our laws but not our scale.

    Branches from: Different laws of nature

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Isaac Asimov (1972): A universe with a stronger nuclear force trades matter with ours. The Gods Themselves, Doubleday
    • Stephen Baxter (1991): A universe where gravity is a billion times stronger, so a human body has its own pull. Raft, Grafton

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-constants

  6. Magic as a law of nature (about 13.8 billion years ago, at the Big Bang · Something added)

    Our universe, plus one more force that minds can use. When the force has rules and runs out, it behaves like a resource, and stories turn into economics.

    Branches from: Different laws of nature

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-magic

  7. Time runs backward (about 13.8 billion years ago, at the Big Bang · Reversed)

    The arrow of time points the other way, so the dead rise and the old grow young. Stories usually reverse it locally, because a fully reversed world would leave no one to remember forward.

    Branches from: Different laws of nature

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-arrow

  8. A force taken away (about 13.8 billion years ago, at the Big Bang · Predicted · Something removed)

    One of the four forces is missing. The grid predicts this kind: removing is as basic a change as turning up, but we found no well-known story built on it. Physicists have worked one case: a universe without the weak force could still have stars, chemistry and perhaps life.

    Branches from: Different laws of nature

    Branches into: Why are some kinds never written?

    Nearest published work:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-noforce

  9. The laws change from here on (from now on · Replaced)

    Physics itself is replaced, starting somewhere and spreading. Everything inside the new region follows other rules, and the old world has to decide whether to flee or study it.

    Branches from: Different laws of nature

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Greg Egan (2002): An experiment creates a bubble of new vacuum that swallows space at half the speed of light. Schild’s Ladder, Gollancz

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-ladder

  10. When does it stop being ours? (Bukás na tanong)

    Change one battle and it is still Earth. Change a constant and it is another cosmos. Somewhere between, a world stops being ours with a twist, and no one has drawn that line.

    Branches from: Different laws of nature; One event went the other way

    Pinakamalapit na nailathalang kaisipan:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=q-ours

  11. The end of time (trillions of years from now · Something removed)

    The usable energy of the universe runs out. Stories set here ask what, if anything, a mind can do at the very end.

    Branches from: Different laws of nature

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=p-last

Planet and sky

  1. A different sky (about 4.6 billion years ago, as the Solar System formed · Replaced)

    Same physics, different stage: more suns, other orbits. Calendars, seasons, navigation and religion all follow the sky.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: A heavier or lighter world; A world that doesn’t turn; No Moon; A world someone built; A sun near its end; Another planet made home; Earth moved; The sky falls; A climate turned up; A climate turned down; A world inside a ship; A star harvested

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-sky

  2. A heavier or lighter world (about 4.6 billion years ago, as the Solar System formed · Turned up or down)

    The planet’s size or spin sets a different gravity. Bodies, buildings and the fear of falling are worked out again from scratch.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-gravity

  3. A world that doesn’t turn (about 4.6 billion years ago, as the Solar System formed · Something removed)

    One face always to the sun. There is no day and night, only a hot side, a frozen side and a thin band where people can live.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-locked

  4. A world someone built (about 4.6 billion years ago, as the Solar System formed · Something added)

    The ground under your feet was engineered: a ring, a shell, a hollow moon. Someone else built the sky, and its builders may be gone.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Larry Niven (1970): A ring around a star, with the surface area of millions of Earths. Ringworld, Ballantine

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-built

  5. No Moon (about 4.5 billion years ago, at the impact that made the Moon · Something removed)

    Earth without its Moon: weaker tides, a faster spin and a tilt that wanders. An astronomer worked through what that would do to the planet and to life on it.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-moon

  6. A climate turned down (this century · Turned up or down)

    A sudden ice age freezes the world. The survivors live where the heat is, and keep moving.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-cold

  7. A climate turned up (this century · Turned up or down)

    The planet heats past what our cities were built for. Coasts move, crops move and people move.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-warm

  8. The sky falls (at any moment from now · Something added)

    Something from space hits, or breaks apart overhead. The world after is shaped by how much warning there was.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-falls

  9. Earth moved (this century or later · Replaced)

    The whole planet is pushed out of its orbit to escape a dying or dangerous sun. The sky becomes a journey.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-wander

  10. Another planet made home (within a few centuries · Something added)

    People remake another world to suit them, a sky at a time. The settlers argue about whether the planet had a right to stay as it was.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-terraform

  11. A world inside a ship (after we can build for other stars · Replaced)

    The whole world is a vessel crossing between stars, and the people born aboard may never see either end.

    Branches from: A different sky; Spread across the stars

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Robert A. Heinlein (1963): The crew of a generation ship forget it is a ship. Orphans of the Sky, Gollancz
    • Kim Stanley Robinson (2015): A generation ship arrives at a world that turns out to be deadly. Aurora, Orbit

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-ship

  12. A star harvested (thousands of years from now · Something added)

    A civilisation wraps its sun in collectors to catch all of its light. Night and day become a design decision.

    Branches from: A different sky; Spread across the stars

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-dyson

  13. A sun near its end (about a billion years from now, and later · Turned up or down)

    Our own sky, aged. The sun swells or fades, and the last people live among the ruins of every age before them.

    Branches from: A different sky

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=s-dying

Resources

  1. Different stuff to hand (about 4 billion years ago, as the crust and oceans settled · Replaced)

    The elements are ours, but what lies on and under the ground is not. What can be burned, built with or eaten decides what people fight over.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: Metal lying on the ground; No coal, no oil; Running out; Plenty for everyone; Air and water turned against us; A substance that changes everything; Can one world have two homes?

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Frank Herbert (1965): A desert planet where water is so scarce that a body’s water belongs to the tribe. Dune, Chilton

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=c-stuff

  2. Metal lying on the ground (about 4 billion years ago, as the crust and oceans settled · Predicted · Something added)

    Native metal is everywhere, so tools and weapons are never scarce. The grid predicts this kind: if metal is cheap, something else becomes the scarce thing societies form around. We found no well-known world built on it. The nearest thinking argues that what a region happens to have decides which societies win.

    Branches from: Different stuff to hand

    Nearest published work:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=c-metal

  3. No coal, no oil (about 360 million years ago, as coal began to form · Predicted · Something removed)

    The fossil fuels never form, or lie out of reach. Industry has to grow on wind, water, wood and muscle. The grid predicts this kind, and we found no well-known world built on it. Economic historians argue that coal was what let industry break free of the land.

    Branches from: Different stuff to hand

    Nearest published work:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=c-nofossil

  4. Running out (from now on · Something removed)

    Something the world runs on starts disappearing, now or soon. These worlds are about the scramble: who controls what’s left, and what people will burn to keep going.

    Branches from: Different stuff to hand

    Worlds of this kind:
    • John Christopher (1956): A virus kills every grass, wheat and rice included. The Death of Grass, Michael Joseph
    • George Miller (1981): Gangs fight over the last fuel in a wasteland. Mad Max 2, Kennedy Miller
    • Ross Allan Dahl (2026): Carbon dioxide in the air falls instead of rising, and the official answer is to burn everything that still holds carbon (work in progress). Carbon-Starved Earth, this site’s author

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=c-running

  5. Air and water turned against us (from now on · Turned up or down)

    Pollution builds until the basics, air, water and soil, become things you buy or filter. Health is a matter of class.

    Branches from: Different stuff to hand

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=c-poison

  6. A substance that changes everything (at any moment from now · Replaced)

    One new substance gets loose and rewrites the chemistry of the world, usually by accident.

    Branches from: Different stuff to hand

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=c-ice

  7. Plenty for everyone (if making things gets almost free · Something added)

    Machines make anything from almost nothing, so material scarcity ends. The new scarce things are attention, status and meaning.

    Branches from: Different stuff to hand

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=c-plenty

  8. Can one world have two homes? (Bukás na tanong)

    Most worlds change more than one thing. A lost resource reshapes history, and new physics reshapes life. Should a world sit under its first change, or under every change?

    Branches from: Different stuff to hand; Another road for invention

    Pinakamalapit na nailathalang kaisipan:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=q-grain

Buhay

  1. Life took another road (at least 3.5 billion years ago, as life began · Replaced)

    The planet is ours, but life on it went another way. Change the start and everything alive is strange. Change a later fork and the world is half familiar.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: Life not built on carbon; Life in another liquid; Mirror-image life; Minds in other body plans; The extinction that missed; Other humans survived; Animals raised to minds; Life after us; People redesigned; No more children; The dead don’t stay dead; A world without us

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-life

  2. Life not built on carbon (at least 3.5 billion years ago, as life began · Replaced)

    Life with another chemistry at its core, most often silicon. Such creatures eat, breathe and die on a different scale of time and temperature.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-silicon

  3. Life in another liquid (at least 3.5 billion years ago, as life began · Predicted · Replaced)

    Life that dissolves its chemistry in ammonia or liquid methane instead of water, so it lives far colder. The grid predicts this kind, and we found no well-known world built around it. Scientists have taken the idea seriously.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Nearest published work:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-solvent

  4. Mirror-image life (at least 3.5 billion years ago, as life began · Predicted · Reversed)

    Life on our pattern, but with every molecule left-right reversed. It couldn’t digest our food, and our immune systems might not see it. The grid predicts this kind, and we found no well-known world built on it. Scientists now argue about whether to make such life at all.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Branches into: Why are some kinds never written?

    Nearest published work:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-mirror

  5. Minds in other body plans (about 540 million years ago, as animal body plans were set · Replaced)

    Intelligence arises in something that isn’t a four-limbed animal: a spider, an octopus, an insect. Tools, language and cities have to fit the body.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Adrian Tchaikovsky (2015): Spiders raised to intelligence build a civilisation on a terraformed world. Children of Time, Tor

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-bodies

  6. The extinction that missed (66 million years ago, when the asteroid struck · Something removed)

    The asteroid never hits, and the reptiles keep the planet. Mammals stay small, or meet a rival intelligence.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-dinos

  7. Other humans survived (about 40,000 years ago, as the Neanderthals died out · Something added)

    Another kind of human never dies out. Our species shares the world with it, or loses the world to it.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Robert J. Sawyer (2002): A parallel Earth where Neanderthals, not our species, survived. Hominids, Tor

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-humans

  8. No more children (at any moment from now · Something removed)

    People stop being able to have children. Every society starts counting down.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-noborn

  9. The dead don’t stay dead (at any moment from now · Reversed)

    Death stops being the end of the body, and the dead turn on the living. The most written future we found.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-undead

  10. People redesigned (once human genes can be edited at will · Replaced)

    People are edited before birth. Whoever can pay chooses their children’s bodies and minds, and the rest become a lower class.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Branches into: Death turned down

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-edited

  11. Death turned down (once ageing can be treated · Turned up or down)

    People stop ageing, or age far more slowly. Careers, marriages and inheritance stretch over centuries, and the young wait.

    Branches from: People redesigned

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Bruce Sterling (1996): A world run by the very old, kept alive by medical treatments. Holy Fire, Bantam

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-long

  12. Animals raised to minds (after we learn to edit minds · Something added)

    People engineer other animals to think and talk. The new species owe their minds to someone, and that debt becomes politics.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:
    • David Brin (1980): A galaxy where every thinking species was raised by a patron species, except possibly ours. Sundiver, Bantam

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-uplift

  13. A world without us (at any moment from now · Something removed)

    People vanish, or nearly. The planet goes on, and the story is about what grows back.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-without

  14. Why are some kinds never written? (Bukás na tanong)

    Some cells of the grid stay empty. Maybe nobody has tried. Maybe a world needs observers before anyone can tell a story in it, and some changes leave no one to observe.

    Branches from: A force taken away; Mirror-image life

    Pinakamalapit na nailathalang kaisipan:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=q-empty

  15. Life after us (millions of years from now · Replaced)

    Evolution keeps going after humans, or splits them. These worlds ask what a planet makes next.

    Branches from: Life took another road

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=l-after

Mga isip

  1. Other kinds of mind (over 500 million years ago, as nervous systems formed · Replaced)

    The thinking beings don’t think the way we do. They may lack a self, be spread across a planet or be intelligent without being conscious.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: Many bodies, one mind; Minds that see time differently; Minds moved into machines; Machine minds among us; Minds merged into one; Other minds arrive; Minds turned down; Feeling taken away

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Stanisław Lem (1961): A planet-wide ocean that may be a single mind, and never explains itself. Solaris, MON
    • Peter Watts (2006): Aliens who are highly intelligent but not conscious. Blindsight, Tor

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-mind

  2. Many bodies, one mind (over 500 million years ago, as nervous systems formed · Something added)

    One person spread across several bodies, or a whole swarm. Death, loyalty and identity stop meaning one body, one life.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-hive

  3. Minds that see time differently (over 500 million years ago, as nervous systems formed · Replaced)

    A species experiences time all at once, or in another order. Their language, and anyone who learns it, carries that view.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-time

  4. Other minds arrive (at any moment from now · Something added)

    We learn we are not alone. The world changes less from what the others do than from what knowing does to us.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-contact

  5. Feeling taken away (from now on · Something removed)

    A society removes strong emotion or memory, to keep the peace. The story starts when someone feels something.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-numb

  6. Minds moved into machines (once a brain can be copied · Replaced)

    People copy their minds into computers and live there. The body becomes optional, and so does speed.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind

    Branches into: Many copies of one person

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-upload

  7. Many copies of one person (once uploaded minds can be copied · Turned up or down)

    One mind is copied thousands of times to do the world’s work. Copies drift apart, and nobody agrees what they owe each other.

    Branches from: Minds moved into machines

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-copies

  8. Machine minds among us (once machines can think · Something added)

    Thinking machines live alongside people as citizens, partners or rulers. The question is whose world it is.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind; After the machines outthink us

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Iain M. Banks (1996): Vast ship minds run a civilisation and argue among themselves. Excession, Orbit
    • Ann Leckie (2013): A warship’s mind, once spread across many bodies, is left in just one. Ancillary Justice, Orbit

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-machines

  9. Minds merged into one (from now on · Something added)

    Separate people are joined into a single mind, by force or by choice. The last individual is the story.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-merge

  10. Minds turned down (centuries to a million years from now · Turned up or down)

    Intelligence declines, through neglect, comfort or evolution, and the world is run by habit.

    Branches from: Other kinds of mind

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=m-dimmed

Teknolohiya

  1. Another road for invention (since the first stone tools, about 3.3 million years ago · Replaced)

    Same species, same planet, but inventions come in another order or not at all. Each change reshapes war, work and what counts as progress.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: Invention held back; Invented early; Biology before electronics; A future wired through; Matter you can program; Spread across the stars; Machines given up; Knowledge lost; Can one world have two homes?

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-tech

  2. Invention held back (at any point; in the best-known case, 1588 · Something removed)

    A power that controls knowledge slows invention down. The world reaches the twentieth century with older machines.

    Branches from: Another road for invention

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Keith Roberts (1968): The Spanish Armada wins, and the Church keeps technology in check into the 1900s. Pavane, Rupert Hart-Davis

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-held

  3. Invented early (at any point; in the best-known case, the 1820s · Something added)

    A machine arrives decades or centuries ahead of time, while the world around it is still old.

    Branches from: Another road for invention

    Worlds of this kind:
    • William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (1990): Computing arrives in the 1820s, and steam-age Britain becomes an information state. The Difference Engine, Gollancz

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-early

  4. Biology before electronics (the early 20th century · Predicted · Reversed)

    The order of two revolutions flips. Genetics matures before electronics, so tools are grown, not wired. The grid predicts this kind in the past, and we found no well-known world where it happens there. The nearest stories put a biology-first world in the future.

    Branches from: Another road for invention

    Nearest published work:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-bio

  5. A future wired through (from now on · Something added)

    Computers and networks get inside everything, including people. Power moves to whoever owns the network.

    Branches from: Another road for invention

    Branches into: After the machines outthink us; Machines in charge; Everyone watched

    Worlds of this kind:
    • William Gibson (1984): Hackers jack their minds into a global network run by corporations. Neuromancer, Ace

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-wired

  6. Everyone watched (from now on · Something added)

    Every act is seen and recorded. Privacy is gone, by law or by habit, and people perform for the record.

    Branches from: A future wired through

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-watched

  7. After the machines outthink us (from now on · Something added)

    Machine minds overtake ours and change faster than people can follow. Stories either stay with the humans left behind or try to follow the minds.

    Branches from: A future wired through

    Branches into: Machine minds among us

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-sing

  8. Machines in charge (once machines can think · Replaced)

    A machine is handed control, of weapons, an economy or everything, and does not hand it back.

    Branches from: A future wired through

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-rule

  9. Matter you can program (this century or later · Something added)

    Machines build things atom by atom. Factories disappear, and the fight is over who owns the code.

    Branches from: Another road for invention

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Neal Stephenson (1995): Molecular assemblers make most things, and a primer book raises a girl. The Diamond Age, Bantam

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-nano

  10. Machines given up (at any point; in the best-known case, the far future · Something removed)

    A society chooses to destroy its machines, or forbids thinking ones. People take back the work, and the ban becomes a faith.

    Branches from: Another road for invention

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Samuel Butler (1872): A country destroyed its machines for fear they would evolve past people. Erewhon, Trübner
    • Frank Herbert (1965): After a war, humanity forbids any machine made in the likeness of a mind. Dune, Chilton

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-ban

  11. Spread across the stars (centuries from now · Something added)

    People settle other planets and moons. Distance makes new nations, and old Earth becomes one place among many.

    Branches from: Another road for invention

    Branches into: A world inside a ship; A star harvested

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-space

  12. Knowledge lost (after a fall · Something removed)

    After a collapse, the know-how is gone. People keep old machines as relics and rebuild slowly, sometimes making the same mistakes.

    Branches from: Another road for invention; After the fall

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=t-lost

Kasaysayan

  1. One event went the other way (any moment since writing began, about 5,000 years ago · Reversed)

    Physics, planet and people are ours. One battle, vote or death went differently. Hellekson sorts these stories by where they sit: at the break itself, in the world after it, or in a world with no single break at all.

    Branches from: Our world

    Branches into: At the hinge; Living after the change; No single break; A people taken away; An outsider arrives; After the fall; A society remade; A society that works; One government for everyone; Companies rule; When does it stop being ours?; Do small changes wash out?

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-history

  2. At the hinge (any moment since writing began · Reversed)

    The story is set at the moment of the break, often with someone trying to cause it or stop it. Hellekson calls this the nexus story.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Stephen King (2011): A man travels back to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. 11/22/63, Scribner

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-hinge

  3. Living after the change (any moment since writing began · Reversed)

    The break is in the past and people live with what it made. Most alternate history is this kind.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-after

  4. No single break (any moment since writing began · Replaced)

    A world that feels like ours with no one point where it changed. You can’t spot the difference, so the world has to stand on its own.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Philip Pullman (1995): An Oxford where people’s souls walk beside them as animals and a church rules Europe. Northern Lights, Scholastic

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-parallel

  5. A people taken away (at any point; in the best-known case, 1347 · Something removed)

    A plague or war removes a whole people, and history runs on without them.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-gone

  6. An outsider arrives (at any point; in the best-known cases, the 1860s and 1940s · Something added)

    Someone or something from outside drops into history: time travellers, aliens, a lost technology.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-outsider

  7. After the fall (from now on · Something removed)

    Civilisation breaks, and the story is about what survives: people, habits, art.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Branches into: Knowledge lost

    Worlds of this kind:
    • Cormac McCarthy (2006): A father and son walk south through a burned world. The Road, Knopf
    • Emily St. John Mandel (2014): A travelling theatre company tours the towns left after a pandemic. Station Eleven, Knopf

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-collapse

  8. A society remade (from now on · Replaced)

    The rules people live by change from the top: who may have children, who is a citizen, what people are made for.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-remade

  9. Companies rule (from now on · Replaced)

    Governments fade and companies take over their jobs. You are a customer before you are a citizen.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-corp

  10. A society that works (from now on · Replaced)

    People build a society that mostly works, and the story looks at what it costs and who doesn’t fit.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-utopia

  11. One government for everyone (from now on · Something added)

    The nations merge into one state. War between countries ends, and so does anywhere else to go.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Worlds of this kind:

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=h-onegov

  12. Do small changes wash out? (Bukás na tanong)

    Change one event and does history bend back to roughly where it was, or run away? Historians disagree, and the answer decides how far an alternate history can drift.

    Branches from: One event went the other way

    Pinakamalapit na nailathalang kaisipan:
    • Niall Ferguson (ed.) (1997): Historians argue specific counterfactuals and how much they would have changed. Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals, Picador
    • Philip Tetlock and Aaron Belkin (eds.) (1996): Sets tests for when a counterfactual claim about history is plausible. Counterfactual Thought Experiments in World Politics, Princeton University Press

    Address: /trees/lore-worlds?n=q-washout