Martian Time Slip

Martian Time Slip is a 1960s psychological novel that happens to be set on mars. The characters have a general outlook of unlimited personal freedom, often at the expense of others. However, there is sufficient collectivism to have a self-sustaining colony on Mars. The planet was not uninhabited when the colony was founded. However, the martians are a dying race, seen as inferior, and reluctantly supported.

The primary gimmick is psychotic characters that slip into and out of this world. They cannot tell if they are experiencing reality or some altered state. However, with some, the "altered state", may in fact be reality - just at an alternate point in time. Thus, one kid is fearful of his future reality of himself in a nursing home, and retreats back to his prior reality in the womb.

A black market operator commits suicide. His primary customer decides to take over his business, while also getting involved in Martian land speculation. The predictive abilities of the kid seem to be of great worth. However, the ability also seems to be able to alter the reality. He decides he doesn't like somebody connected with the opposition inland speculation, and decides to kill him at the first instance he meets him. However, instead he gets killed. Luckily, this was an alternate reality. However, he instead gets shot by a rival black marketeer (though he thinks that it was also just an alternate reality.)

What is real, and what it not? And does it matter? If we could see the long-term impacts of our short-term advantages, would we still undertake them?