EVERYDAY DIFFERENCES

Map of the World | Europe | Asia | Africa | North America | Central America | South America | Australasia | Antarctica
Timeline | Politics | Society | Science and Technology | Home

Details are different. For example, typewriters exist, although they are known as Autowriters in this world. They are different in layout to those of the real world, with the keys in a hemispherical arrangement [like an advanced version of the Hansen Writing Ball of the real world]. In addition to this, although there is no QWERTY keyboard, there was still a jumbled-alphabet keyboard layout invented to slow down typists - the KORWAM keyboard.

The various languages of the world are similar as their real-world versions, but have more than two hundred years of divergence from them. Thus slang, jargon and acronyms are all completely different. For example:

There are also more French loan words in English and Unionsprache, and other different loan words in the various European languages.

There is no Sunday opening of shops, and banking remains very old-fashioned by the standards of the real world. Shops are also quite old-fashioned. The banks and major shops which exist in Clive-Less World in 2000 are quite different to those in the real world. There are very few supermarkets, and no out-of-town shopping centres or malls.

With no British Empire, French is the most widespread language in the world. English is very much a minority language outside the Union, and even within it Unionsprache is slowly but surely overtaking both it and German in terms of use.

The various languages of the world are similar as their real-world versions, but have more than two hundred years of divergence from them. Thus slang, jargon and acronyms are all completely different. For example, in this world tanks are known as Cossacks (from their origin in the Kazakh Civil War), computers as Fountains or Founts, antibiotics as antimals (from 'anti-maladies'), and RADAR as ELOR, from 'Echo-Location by Radiant'. There are also more French loan words in English and Unionsprache, and other different loan words in the various European languages.

With no French Revolution, there is no metric system (and with no Napoleonic wars, also no baguettes). All nations tend to use their various traditional measurement systems. However, the Rational system of measurements that was invented as part of UER is used in some places, particularly Russia. There is no internationally agreed system of measurements analogous to the real-world S.I. system.

Scientific and engineering units are also different things as different people named and discovered things, and they use different basic measurement systems. Inventions also have different names. For similar reasons the controls of vehicles are entirely different to their real-world counterparts, to the point that one would have to learn to (for example) drive all over again if travelling from one world to the other. The same is true for the laws of the road (as well as other laws). Although the physical laws by which the vehicles operate are the same, the way specific types of vehicle are controlled is down to the designers of those vehicles, and is thus essentially arbitrary.

The Earth is known to be billions of years old. However, a different history of science has led the time since the formation of the Earth being divided into different geological ages and periods, which do not correspond to the real-world periods such as the Triassic or Jurassic.

Also because of the different history of science in this world, the number of known chemical elements is slightly lower here compared to the real world, and their names are also different.

Because the physical sciences are rather less developed than the real world, there is much less understanding of the structure of the universe and how it might have originated and developed than in the real world.

Other scientific theories have been developed earlier, and go by different names. This includes Chaos Theory, here known as Weather Mathematics, and the Gaia Hypothesis, here known as Bioteleology.

There is no international Red Cross movement or flag in this world. However, over time medical services have come to be associated with a unique widely-recognised symbol. This is a white flag in the centre of which is a royal blue circle. In the centre of this is a white snake wrapped around a rod, the symbol of the Rod of Asclepius, a Greek god of healing and medicine.

In some places an alternative version is used which it is claimed is less ambiguous when viewed from a distance. This consists of the same design, but with the Rod of Asclepius being replaced by a simple vertical white rectangle. This alternate version is far from universally accepted.