Questions tagged [civilization]
For questions about groups of societies and their defining characteristics and achievements.
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How does a species who cannot distinguish left from right build their cities?
Fran is on holidays to planet Earth. She is having difficulty coping with the local geometry.
At this second Fran is thirsty. She can see a lemonade stand nearby. She knows a human would have no ...
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What would be left of a civilization founded in dinosaur times?
65 million years ago, a mass extinction event (likely caused by the Chicxulub Meteor) wiped out the dinosaurs, and their remains were hidden from us for millions of years.
Humanity was not around ...
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How could a language that uses a single word extremely often sustain itself?
The most commonly used word in english is "the" accounting for about 6% of all the words being used. The second most common word is "be" account for less than 1% of all the words used (see ngram ...
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What sort of problem would drive a near omnipotent civilization to seek an "outside the box" solution?
The Setup
A while back, I read an article in which the author compared the rise and fall of civilizations in the universe to a forest.
In the forest, small plants come into being, grow, and die over ...
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Would a fighter pilot with an invincible space ship be able to conquer the galaxy?
Setting
Not so long ago, in a galaxy not too far away, there were two civilizations at war. Both were at war because the leaders of both wanted more and more power. Both were advanced and mined the ...
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Why would a civilization outfit buildings with separate portals for entering and leaving them? [closed]
Human buildings usually have one or more doors which combine the function of an entrance and an exit, emergency exits being the only notable example I can think of, albeit designed for contingency use....
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Why would a civilization develop a taboo against a highly nutritious food that grows well in its climate?
A human civilization, civilization X, decides that food Y is not fit for consumption. Food Y grows well in its climate, is highly nutritious and tasty, and is not harmful to its inhabitants. Food Y ...
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How would they learn astronomy, those who don't see the stars?
I imagine a planet similar to ours, except for two details:
The presence of everlasting clouds
No yearly seasons
Explanation: In this world clouds are very high and thick, so that sunlight (or ...
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Is Honesty always the best policy? What could go wrong if a society valued honesty over every other virtue?
Let's say you have a culture which is pretty much like ours, except honesty is the highest virtue. In particular, being honest about something is always better than being dishonest, no matter the ...
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What are the primary triggers for the decline and fall of great empires?
Let's focus specifically on the devolution of empires. How is it that something so powerful falls?
The collapse of Rome, Byzantium, the Han, the Mayans and so on. What similarities can be seen in ...
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Why would a crash landed generation fall back to the stone age?
Background
In the mid 22nd century, a super plague has killed 99% of human life, many survivors are killed in the ensuing riots and fighting. The few billionaires that are hiding in their bunkers ...
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How do you tell time on a world with 9-year days?
On my world, the day lasts 9 years: 4.5 years of light, followed by 4.5 years of dark. The inhabitants of this world survive by migrating along the ring of dusk and dawn.
How do these people tell ...
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Only Three Books: Restarting Physics after civilization collapses [closed]
Global famines have dropped the population to 1 billion people and global civilization has collapsed. In an effort to save future civilization some time, you want to provide some information to kick ...
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How many people are necessary to maintain modern civilisation?
Modern Earth; a series of connected events (natural disasters, mass migration, drug-resistant pandemic, collapse in biodiversity, armed conflict) have led to a significant reduction in human ...
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Can I Have A Destroyed Civilization with No Ruins?
I'm working on the timeline for my world, but I keep getting stuck at the origins. I want to have had an advanced civilization (modern levels, maybe a bit beyond) that was destroyed in a vaguely ...
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If dinosaurs had a civilization, how primitive must it have been to leave no trace in the present?
I am thinking of, yes, a simple story with intelligent dinosaurs, but I am not interested (And I sincerely prefer) that they are not sufficiently advanced in my history to be comparable to modern ...
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What could make a remote village also have reasonably high traffic?
I've got a European medieval-themed world and my focus is everyday life in a small village (population of 300~500 people) in the mountains. I'm trying to stay away from action, adventure, violence, ...
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What methods might an ancient civilization use to desalinate sea water?
Following on from my previous question here concerning the ancient civilization I have called the Androy and their struggle to survive terrible drought conditions on their planet.
After years of ...
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How far could civilisation develop within one lifetime - starting from nothing?
This question here asked if it would be possible to reach the moon within a lifetime for a civilisation starting with "nothing". The answer to that question, quite clearly, is: no way.
But ...
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Only Three Books: Restarting Chemistry after civilization collapses
Global famines have dropped the population to 1 billion people and global civilization has collapsed. In an effort to save future civilization some time, you want to provide some information to kick ...
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Warrior caste in an utopian society: what would keep them peaceful for centuries?
There is an Earth-like planet with human-like inhabitants. After almost destroying the ecosystem with weapons of mass destruction, toxic waste and such, the civilization changed to survive and an ...
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How Would Civilisations on Different Planes of a Cube Planet Interact?
If there was a life-supporting planet that was cubical rather than spherical, would it be feasible for there to be a unique but similar civilisation on each 'Plane'?
I know that cube planets are ...
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If it wasn't maintained for hundreds of years, would the Channel Tunnel collapse?
The title says it all. If it wasn't maintained for hundreds of years, would the Channel Tunnel collapse?
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How "advanced" can a stone age society get?
I'm working on a world where, with very few exceptions, metalwork is not possible/unwanted, and I'm trying to figure out what major differences one might see in daily life, and what would be necessary ...
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Can two civilizations on nearby stars develop independently but be at a similar technological level?
One thing that a few science fiction films seem to get wrong: it is extremely unlikely for two civilizations to evolve completely independently and yet be within a few hundred years of each other ...
user329
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How long would it take to remove all trace of a civilisation, with malice and intent?
If you look at the history of the earth today, we've got quite a long timeline - about 4.5 billion years.
We've got a few hundred years of 'good' historical record, and it gets progressively more ...
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How would a medieval village protect themselves against dinosaurs?
In this world, dinosaurs are wildlife that usually don't bother people, but people still want to make sure they're safe from the occasional man-eaters or gigantic herbivores that want to eat their ...
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How old do surviving children need to be to keep human civilization from failing?
This question is inspired by several similar questions on this site.
The scenario: at one moment, all people above the age X disappear without a trace. How low this X can be that human civilization ...
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In what era or tech level in earth's history did people have the ability to cross a super-earth's ocean 50,000 km wide?
I have a huge planet with two continents separated by a wide ocean. Inhabitants think that their continent is the whole world because the other side is too far and they never visited it. What if ...
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Why is this culture against repairing broken things?
This culture is approximately at the very early Renaissance levels of development. There is a cultural semi-religious taboo against repairing broken things - you are expected to take care of your ...
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Is it possible to rule a galaxy without mastering teleportation?
I would like to know if a very advanced civilisation could rule an entire galaxy without mastering teleportation or any other method that allows traveling faster than light (unless you give ...
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Could a civilisation exist as 'space-nomads'?
In a civilisation similar to humans (although not necessarily humanoid) living on a planet the size of Earth, could the whole civilisation (no limits on size, although I was thinking a few thousand at ...
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What is the minimum size of a self-sufficient industrial country?
Imagine there is a country in which there are all important natural resources (oil, gas, metal ores, wood, etc.) in their natural form and which lies in a temperate climate region. There may be some ...
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Why might a civilisation of robots invent organic organisms like humans or cows?
In a civilisation of robots (of unknown origin) on an isolated, desolated planet, what motivation might they have for purposefully trying to invent organic organisms?
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Humans born without legs: how would they thrive?
or, Anatomically Correct Weebles
A group of behaviorally modern humans was cut off from the rest of the earth-like planet millennia ago. (Myths hold that the separation occurred four to five ka BP, ...
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Why would a scientifically advanced future community believe in multiple gods?
Polytheism was a common form of religion in ancient times. People believed that different gods lived and controlled various parts of nature (ie the sun, the moon, thunderstorms), and praying to these ...
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How would a mermaid jail work?
I'm trying to write a mermaid civilization, although I have one major roadblock when developing a criminal justice system. My mermaids are air breathers (like cetaceans) so I'm not sure how I would ...
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How can a technologically advanced species be conquered by a less advanced one?
When worldbuilding, what elements can be introduced that can justify the conquest or overtaking of a technologically superior species by one that is not as advanced, or much weaker.
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How does a migratory species farm?
On a world I am building, the day and night cycle lasts 9 years, resulting in the majority of animals migrate across the planet. One of the problems that my sapient races (one on the out going night ...
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On a world where everyone is nomadic, how does civilization start?
As previously stated, I am constructing a world that has a day lasting nine years. The inhabitants must always be on the move in order to avoid the freezing wastelands of the night, but not so fast as ...
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If a civilization could plant only three crops, which ones would cover all nutritional needs?
For example, beans and rice cooperate to make a "complete" protein, providing all of the amino acids the body can't synthesize on its own -- in fact, most traditional dishes that combine legumes and ...
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How do I make an ancient culture without borrowing from known ancient cultures?
Everywhere I've looked, the way we traditionally make a civilization or society feel ancient is by applying ages or architectures from our own history, hence my term "bronzification." A similar ...
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How would industrial civilizations contacting each other for the first time protect themselves from diseases?
In a world big enough for human civilizations as knowledgeable about medicine as ours to develop without contacting each other, how could they initiate that contact without exposing each other to ...
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Why would animal people wear clothes?
In my world, there are anthromorphic animal people, similar to the ones in Skyrim. There are many types, so I will just call them all this. Due to them having fur, most specifically the cat people and ...
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How can I have a permanent post-apocalyptic world?
I've recently been looking into post-apocalyptic settings for a possible novel. I like the feel of people trying to survive off of the land with nothing but the clothes on their back, or banding ...
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On a planet without seasons, how would people track years?
On a planet without axial tilt and with a roughly circular orbit, there would be no seasons. The climate on the planet would be, as far as I can tell, exactly the same at any time of year, and the ...
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Need a specific event that wrecks the surface, allows the race to survive in bunkers, and affords an aftermath suitable for them to rebuild
One rule: it cannot be caused by aliens or AI invading the planet. But it is okay if an alien race causes the destruction in any other way.
It's an Earth-like planet. I need the effects of the ...
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Why would civilizations have no major technological development even after ten thousand years?
Basic Introduction (story background for anyone interested)
I have a character whose punishment for causing massive genocide was immortality for ten thousand years. To be more specific, after his ...
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How do people live in bunkers & not go crazy with boredom?
This is a problem I ran into while writing a piece set into a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy future.
For a short background: I proposed a world where a large Island-country had disaster struck and ...
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In what sequence should an advanced civilization teach technology to medieval society to maximize rate of adoption?
If a small group of an advanced civilization got stranded in a medieval-like society on another planet and they start to interact in a peaceful way, what would be the first technologies that they ...
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