“If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others"

In 1977, novelist Philip K. Dick spoke at a science fiction convention in Metz, France about "orthogonal time," the possibility of travel between alternate realities, and the role of what religion calls God.

"A newspaper article about this speech could well be titled: AUTHOR CLAIMS TO HAVE SEEN GOD BUT CAN'T GIVE ACCOUNT OF WHAT HE SAW," Dick jokes.

"The subject of this speech is a topic that has been discovered recently and may not exist at all. I may be talking about something that does not exist, therefore I am free to say everything or nothing... Once in a great while, [a writer] happens by chance onto a thoroughly stunning idea new to him that he hopes will turn out to be new to everyone else."

...

"We in the field [of science fiction writing] know this idea as the 'alternate universe' theme. Let us say, just for fun, that [alternate universes] exist. If they do, how are they linked to each other? Are they (or would they) be linked? If you drew a map of them, showing their locations, what would the map look like?"

Dick argues: "We are living in a computer-programmed reality and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed and some alteration in our reality occurs... This might account for the sensation people get of having lived past lives. They may well have -- but not in the past. Previous lives in an unending and repeating present like a great clock dial."

(This video is cut from the original version to remove French-language repetition.)