# Alternate worlds with modern tech **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 26, 2013, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998 "2013-06-26T23:50:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/1 "2013-06-26T23:50:26Z")
Looking for stories set in worlds with modern levels of technology/culture, but not based on our Earth, so different landforms, cities, countries, history etc. Anyone know any? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/2 "2013-06-27T00:45:43Z")
[Anathem](http://www.amazon.com/Anathem-Neal-Stephenson/dp/006147410X). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/3 "2013-06-27T02:44:24Z")
What medium? ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/4 "2013-06-27T05:09:43Z")
Ooh, Neal Stephenson, I’ll check that out. I was thinking books, but movies or TV would be OK too. Slightly lower tech, e.g. steampunk, is also good. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/5 "2013-06-27T12:12:09Z")
If you’re talking about tech alone, there’s **Brazil**. In literature, Jasper fforde’s Thursday Next ( **The Eyre Affair** , etc.) series is set in a present day with some major technological differences in among the general weirdness. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/6 "2013-06-27T13:01:14Z")
Is _Brazil_ not set on earth?! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/7 "2013-06-27T13:07:15Z")
There’s **Ada** by Vladimir Nabokov, with Victorian/Edwardian level of technology (albeit very slightly different) and with the same land masses as the Earth, and similar political structures, but the countries are in completely different places from where they are on Earth. But the general societal and technological feel is very similar to Earth in that until the characters make a phone call or turn on the lights, which you do with slightly different tech, you forget you’re not on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/8 "2013-06-27T13:58:21Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Is _Brazil_ not set on earth?! It’s an alternate history, which means it’s an alternate world in everything but geography (and since we don’t see much of the geography, it’s possible that’s different, too). ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/9 "2013-06-27T14:02:49Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s an alternate history, which means it’s an alternate world in everything but geography (and since we don’t see much of the geography, it’s possible that’s different, too). As I read the op (“different landforms”) he is looking for works set on worlds that are not Earth. I don’t think there’s anything in \*_Brazil_ to indicate that it’s not set on Earth. The way I read the OP, he’s looking for things _explicitly_ set on non-earth worlds. (You could assume _Brazil_ isn’t set on Earth and there’d be nothing inconsistent about that, but nothing about the film forces this assumption.) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/10 "2013-06-27T14:41:30Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > [Anathem](http://www.amazon.com/Anathem-Neal-Stephenson/dp/006147410X). Actually, while the world superficially resembles our own, they have some very advanced technology lying around - “New Matter” and stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/11 "2013-06-27T14:47:32Z")
Maybe so… it has been a long time since I read it. I don’t even remember what “new matter” is. My recollection was that there was an only slightly advanced level of tech in that book, but I may be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/12 "2013-06-27T16:04:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Actually, while the world superficially resembles our own, they have some very advanced technology lying around - “New Matter” and stuff like that. Interestingly enough however, while when it was written _Snow Crash_ featured a lot of sci-fi tech as the years go by it becomes more and more mundane. We might not have Rat Things or Magnapoon’d Kouriers quite yet, but not only is the World application in essence “just” a real-time Google Maps, the creation of Google Maps was directly inspired by it. Similarly, strip away its VR display aspect and the Metaverse is basically Second Life or WoW, if there were WoW booths in the streets of L.A. The Library of Congress and its countless gargoyles ? Wikipedia, YouTube, Blogger and Google, essentially - except Wiki’s gargoyles work for free :). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-worlds-with-modern-tech/661998/13 "2013-06-28T02:05:54Z")
_Perdido Street Station_ by China Miéville, perhaps?: > **[Perdido Street Station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdido_Street_Station)** > > Perdido Street Station is a novel by British writer China Miéville, published in 2000 by Macmillan. Often described as weird fiction, it is set in a world where both magic and steampunk technology exist. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was ranked by Locus as the 6th all-time best fantasy novel published in the 20th century.\[a\] > Perdido Street Station is the first of three independent works set in the fictional world of Bas-Lag, and is followed by The Scar and Iron Council. > Perdido Stree...