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The idea of a parallel world is a very loose term. While the idea conjures up imagery of science fiction tales including time travel, wormholes and space exploration, the term is more based in reality than we believe. While people haven’t discovered any alternate dimensions, our actual world is devised up of an endless amount of cultures and lands to explore. Now with new technology such as television and the Internet people can suddenly conjure up images all over the world. With this new technology people can see images never seen before however the price of this is a loss of exploration.

It is hard to believe that a few hundred years ago that the planet was uncharted and mysterious. The idea of a someone discovering a new continent must have been the closest to discovering a true parallel world. One of the most famous and memorable fiction made about this feeling is the comic strip Little Nemo. The comic strip, which began in 1871, followed the boy Nemo who while sleeping would travel to slumber land and have various adventures. While this parallel world was a surreal and fantasy world filled with magic and monsters the world was clearly a caricature of the real world. When Nemo dreamt that he was in the ice kingdom he was in Russia and when he was in the jungle he was actually in Russia. The comic shows the childlike feeling people have while discovering new things. And while Little Nemo shows the brighter side of colonization, it gives a glimpse into a world filled with wonder and mystery that does not exist anymore.

Although the planet is now fully mapped and, humans are still trying to find ways to simulate the feeling of exploration. Video games emerge such as Second Life where people literally build and create their own worlds. And while the feeling of walking through a poorly constructed 3D environment may not compare to discovering Africa, it shows that there is a need and desire for discovering a parallel world.

Parallel Worlds - The novel "We"

Parallel worlds are the alternate futures and pasts of our reality— different and darker shades of what is and what could be. While parallel pasts rethink our history, parallel futures follow the possible consequences of our actions in the present. These types of parallel futures, dystopias, project a fearful conscience of the current living— if we continue to live a certain way, our future will be disastrous. Writing that depicts such parallel futures are like light houses in the dark-- warning us of impending danger of crashing into shore if we do not take caution.

Dystopian texts portray types of parallel worlds where mankind has either failed or succeeded too far with his technological advancements. The successful, technologically advanced futures are the most intriguing, because man's fabulous achievements are always failures in the end. Technology comes with a price, as man sacrifices himself in order to achieve things greater himself. Consequently, man assumes the role of God and loses his self in the process- sacrificing his spirit, emotions, morals, history in exchange for perfect equations, formulas, and ultimate human order. The dystopic world is then utopic in having an overly organized society.

One of my favorite dystopian novels that depicts such hopelessness (or doomed triumph) is "We," written by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The diarist/protagonist, D-503, is a first hand witness to the inevitable and terrifying future, and his candid thoughts not only capture the experience of the future but project the changes within mankind- his altered sense of identity, attitude, behavior, emotions, beliefs, etc. Zamyatin shows the future humankind to be repulsed by the very thought of actually being human-- morality, poetry, and emotions such as happiness are to be shunned or distorted into praise for the oppressive government ruling over the narrator's world. The concept of soul is dead within such a society. The Garden of Eden is replaced then by the Garden of Superior Technology and Infallible Logic:

"The ancients' God created ancient-- that is, prone to error-- man, and so erred himself. The multiplication table is wiser and more absolute than the ancient God. It never-- repeat, never-- makes a mistake. And there's nothing happier than figures that live according to the elegant and eternal laws of the multiplication table. No wavering, no wandering."