>Off this threadlet subject but I think you'd enjoy these books, the "His Dark Materials" if only for teh inter-universal subtle differences, besides the story's one wher teh soul is outside the body and corporate in an animal one's choosing. eg electricty is called "ambic power", derived from amber which, as you probably know, in Greek was "electro(n/s)" from which we get the word "electricity". One little evolutionary difference in language. Similar in many ways to "Brazil" in techno differences.
I love such things... been there, done that:
http://www.ndragan.com/sf/sf01/sf01.html