Men Like Gods

Features a utopian parallel universe. The hero, Mr. Barnstaple, a depressive journalist, is, along with a few other Englishmen, accidentally transported to the parallel world of Utopia, 3,000 years ahead of humanity. Utopia lacks any world government and functions as a successfully realised anarchy. Sectarian religion, like politics, has died away, and advanced scientific research flourishes. Life in Utopia is governed by "the Five Principles of Liberty," which are privacy, free movement, unlimited knowledge, truthfulness, and free discussion and criticism. The Earthlings are quarantined on a rocky crag after infections they have brought cause a brief epidemic . There they begin to plot the conquest of Utopia, despite Mr. Barnstaple's protests. He betrays them when they try to take two Utopians hostage, and he is forced to escape execution for treason by fleeing perilously, ending his month-long stay in Utopia. But he brings with him back to Earth a renewed determination to contribute to the effort to make a terrestrial Utopia.