There are two interdimensional portals in Salt Lake City. One is in an optical supply store in a mall downtown. In the back is a tiny dead end office the size of a closet. Two low-level intern types in white lab coats work back there clacking away on keyboards.
The other is in front of the west-side target. It's a wall-like structure in red just by the entrance. There's a large round opening.
In both cases, to get to the other dimension you just walk through. More on this later.
Dimension A-001
Lawns aren't a thing. Instead those spaces look like miniature botanical gardens with useful trees and plants. Instead of public parks there are public orchards. A side effect of this is that it's hard to see around corners for traffic. Cars have extended side view mirrors to help with this, and intersections have buffer zones that you can "creep" into. Where a home would have a yard, instead there are gardens. For poorer families or rentals these are mostly wild, but do still bear useful crops. Genetic engineering has brought about hardy strains that require little watering or care.
Robot walkers with four long stilt-legs and a central pod of arms dangling in the center peck around these gardens, taking care of weeds. They're called "Harveys" short for harvesters, and possibly after the inventor. They look a bit like giant insects, the size of horses, and with a main body umbrella-ed in solar panels.
Older cars sometimes have driver side "pee holes" a slot in the seat that empties into a removeable tank full of blue antiseptic fluid. Didn't find out why this was. Could you crap into them as well?
Getting rained on is considered bad luck so people keep several spare umbrellas handy.
US dollars have famous poets on them rather than presidents. One of the many charming aspects of this reality. Also, the dollar was never unfixed from the gold standard so even though it's 2021 the prices look like 1971. Purchasing power has increased, though so generally people are living better, a real middle class where its normal to own your home outright.
Strangely, there are a lot of homeless people, but more of the van-life type. I think this is on account of common food sources and high wages at traveling jobs. The term tourist has come to mean this- someone who works a mobile job.
The internet exists but social media is about twenty years behind. a Myspace type service called Gobuddy.com is popular. For some reason the Kardashians are still famous and have a presidential dynasty comparable to the Kennedy family. As far as I can tell they do a pretty good job. Politics are not so partisan, centrists are the norm.
If someone sneezes you're supposed to clap them on the back and say "out damn spot". If it's a stranger you just make a slapping motion in the air.
Both women and men wear gold wedding rings. No diamonds to be found. Instead ultra-rare star sapphires are the romantic jewel of choise. A common custom for a woman is to embed shoes with several ounces of gold. These are nut usually worn, but kept at home. Gold-filled shoes are considered good fortune and are kept facing outwards in the master closet. Speaking of which overall I'd say this dimension is pretty superstitious, at least in the US.
Typewriters are in alphabetical order. No QWERTY, but otherwise the same.
One downside: no dogs. Instead goats have filled that role and many varieties have similar dog-type intelligence. They fit in better with the verdant nature of the world. Dogs just never evolved the same way. People know about wolves, and some cultures breed them, but in the US, it's goats. People have pet goats that live in the house and sleep in the bed. It's disconcerting.
Whale and dolphin languages were cracked in the sixties and they are considered sentient species with full human rights. The ocean is home to hyper-intelligent dolphin colonies. They can hold elected office as well and are transported around in mobile tanks the size of garbage trucks.
Still no interstellar travel.
The dominant form of Christianity is something like the Amish, except more tolerant of certain types of technology. It's huge. The second-largest religion is Wicca and somehow the two co-exist. I didn't spend a lot of time sorting it out.
It was World War I that ended with the invention and use of nuclear weapons. An early emergence of a broader and more powerful version of the EU became the "world's policeman". While the US developed roughly the same it's considered more like a very large Switzerland. The US has sixty-four states. Use your imagination.
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