Questions tagged [communication]
For questions relating to the exchange of ideas and information between beings.
379
questions
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Would clickbait work inside someone's brain? Click here to find out!
Let's assume that there is a magic that can push information directly into people's brains. However, that magic has some limitations:
It can only "push" single sentences of 15 words or less
...
12
votes
14answers
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How would an inter-planetary [not inter-stellar] recycling/scavenging team know when ships have crashed?
In my world, there is a certain group of 'scavengers' — people who go around and pick out valuable (and salvageable, of course) objects from ships that have crashed [onto the surface of a moon/planet],...
3
votes
4answers
231 views
Controlling the late-medieval world with just a network of agents and instant communication
The World Controlling Agency
I have long had a concept about a world-spanning NGO; an organisation with the power to start and end wars, and whose CEO any monarch would kneel to rather than risk their ...
5
votes
5answers
164 views
Rapidly building a world-spanning communication infrastructure
In 2028, all the major telecommunications companies unified. "We already have to work tightly together in order to maintain cross-continent communication systems, and we can reduce costs if we ...
5
votes
5answers
855 views
Communications in a vacuum
We have a human, magically protected so they can function in a vacuum. How will they be able to communicate? (The closest equivalent of suit radios--except they aren't wearing a suit.)
I would think ...
6
votes
2answers
96 views
How to interpolate between the physical, material universe with relativistic reference frames and a spiritual objective reference frame?
I'm new here and I assume that it might be weird to have souls in a science-fiction question but hear me out. While souls in my setting do have some magical unexplainable supernatural properties, it ...
1
vote
2answers
109 views
How would basic telegraphs affect how ancient societies are governed? [closed]
At this point the only power source available are Galvanic cells, & the only other use found for them is light bulbs. Aside from the basic electricity everything is at the same level of technology ...
18
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7answers
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What EM band would be least noticed if I started globally broadcasting white noise on it?
Suppose I created a private network of peer-to-peer cellphones and started handing phones out to people globally. Now, these phones don't have to use the common cell phone bands of the EM spectrum... ...
2
votes
2answers
96 views
Would floating messages down a river be an effective means of mail?
Suppose there was a country with a mountain or mountain range that is the source of a few major rivers. Would floating messages down the rivers (to settlements or post offices on the river) be an ...
17
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15answers
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How would a robot make noise and speak without built in speakers?
A common trope with technologically advanced races is the lack of a need for speech. Machine races that self optimise usually forgo spoken languages all together, instead opting for completely ...
2
votes
8answers
2k views
How do dragons communicate? [closed]
Dragons are giant intelligent monitor lizards. They are intelligent enough to communicate in a human-like manner. They can hiss, but can't make anymore complex sounds. They are also quadrupedal, and ...
4
votes
7answers
315 views
How to write martial/magic arts manuals so they can be deciphered and practised in a distant future?
TL;DR
This question is about an information encoding method/system. The text below describes the types of information that need to be encoded and lists limitations existing in the world I am building. ...
3
votes
3answers
253 views
How would radios impact pre-modern society?
Suppose that radios (or magic with a similar effect) were available during the Medieval or Renaissance era. They're too expensive to give to every soldier or install in every town, but a knight might ...
2
votes
4answers
328 views
Use of Sound in a Radio and Electric Communication Enabled Species
Alright, so I was bouncing ideas off the wall about how the society of a species (maybe genetically modified humans?) with biological radio communication and electric field communication would look ...
12
votes
7answers
342 views
What type of lullabies would a dnd style dragon sing to their eggs? Especially Ice Dragons
Dnd style dragons come out of the egg knowing languages meaning that they had to learn it somewhere. I'm not interested in that. What I want to know is, that assuming Dragon lullabies are like human ...
2
votes
2answers
88 views
Range of radio with no ionosphere
Given a planet otherwise similar to Earth, but which has (for reasons outside the scope of this question) no ionosphere, what would be the effective range of radio communication?
I understand radio ...
6
votes
4answers
192 views
How would micromachines communicate?
The magic system of Second Earth boils down to "micromachines doing stuff". Of course, there are many layers of complexity to it.
These micromachines are produced in the bodies of sapient ...
4
votes
8answers
1k views
How could a message system made by spheres work?
In my story, people communicate through "orbs", which are spheres of a material similar to glass, but much more resistant. Basically people write a message on them with their fingers and the ...
11
votes
12answers
7k views
How can I store energy/data reliably for 300 million years?
Following this question: How can I implement time travel on a somewhat realistic way?
Considering I have a way of getting energy into the past (as said on the previous question), I need a way of ...
10
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7answers
3k views
How would the ancient aliens leave an instruction manual
In the future humans have used generational ships to explore the galaxy. It's taken centuries but we have finally found several habitable planets (they are not without their challenges of course).
On ...
-1
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2answers
88 views
Reconcile time travel paradox using entanglement
Imagine a crazy nut with exceptional intelligence managed to sent radiowave signals across multiple timelines, 10 years into the past and the future. That messages contained a blueprint of a time ...
28
votes
15answers
5k views
Why might radios not be effective in a post-apocalyptic world?
The setting is a post-apocalyptic world in the near-future (100-200 years), where remaining humans are living in a few domed cities scattered around the world. The reason for living in the domes, and ...
17
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20answers
6k views
How do telecom companies survive when everyone suddenly knows telepathy?
One day a small meteorite impact occurred somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, and moments later a mysterious green glow sweeps across the globe at an amazing speed.
All of a sudden everyone can hear ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
How do spaceships compensate for the Doppler shift in their communication frequency?
Assume all radio communication bandwidth used in interstellar communication is standardized to a certain fixed range and all must be frequency modulated but know that no agency is keeping track ...
3
votes
3answers
295 views
What might block satellite communications (or make them very hard to use)
Imagine a world with two allied nations (countries, kingdoms...) that are separated by a large geographical distance. Those two nations would be at about the same level of development as our (real ...
2
votes
2answers
103 views
How can an advanced civilization help another to overcome the first challenges of the space age?
An advanced civilization, like ours could be in a couple of hundred years, realized that the most challenging time in their history was when they had the knowledge to make global changes, but not the ...
0
votes
1answer
128 views
What would rotating ears look like on a humanoid species?
I'm trying to make a biologically accurate, human looking species. Since they can't make many sounds, they also use their ears' positions and rotation to have an advanced vocabulary. So the same sound ...
1
vote
2answers
101 views
Long range communication on a rogue Earth?
Imagine that, for unknown reasons, the Earth has left the solar system. It has been a while now since the event. It's so cold outside that the polar caps met at the equator and the atmosphere froze ...
3
votes
2answers
238 views
What if the speed of light was based off wavelength?
Im making a sci fi story (first part here) and I needed a cool and interesting way to make ftl communication possible, at first I thought, make the speed of light infinite but thats kinda boring so I ...
3
votes
3answers
289 views
An alphabet with alternating reading order
I am in the middle of designing a con-lang that features, among other things a letter reading order that alternates by line from left-to-right to right-to-left and back again. My justification for ...
34
votes
14answers
5k views
Moon base internet functionality
It's 2020 and I've decided the perfect location for my next villainous lair is on the Moon (Earth has too many pesky heroes after all). Fortunately, construction and transit shouldn't be too difficult,...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
What is the nature of the interstellar message to be accepted by a civilization comparable to humanity at the end of the nineteenth century (19th)?
In a sense, humanity has long been capable of transmitting interstellar messages (METI (messages to extraterrestrial civilizations) - attempts to transmit interstellar messages from humanity to ...
8
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7answers
2k views
How do I announce us to the entire galaxy?
The main problem with sending interstellar messages is that with the distance traveled, their power gradually decreases due to gradual scattering ( diffraction). Imagine that you threw a stone into ...
6
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5answers
612 views
Could aliens communicate by excreting slime?
Bear with me :) The aliens in my story are gastropod-like entities and I would really like them to communicate through the mucus they excrete. What could such communication look like?
Preliminary ...
7
votes
3answers
202 views
Could two smart phones work as an intercom on an alien planet?
This question is a follow up to a previous question asked by @AvengingEarth
Would a smart phone work on an alien planet?
I'm interested in taking a step further.
All conditions are as in the previous ...
asked Sep 16 '20 at 20:18
chasly - supports Monica
46.5k12 gold badges139 silver badges288 bronze badges
14
votes
9answers
1k views
Telex more popular than telephones
This question is inspired by the answer for another question.
What changes in technological development after the World War 2 could have led the telex machines to be more popular than telephones, ...
6
votes
2answers
220 views
Communication between City States in Giant Monster World
I'm building a world, which takes place about 300 years in the future after an event in the near future, in which giant elemental monsters started to roam around the earth. These creatures are an ...
12
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16answers
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What movies would you show aliens to show we are friendly? [closed]
Here is an idea that I wanted to play around with but unfortunately hit a brick wall with. Human explorers have found a less advanced intelligent technological species on a faraway planet. For the ...
23
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15answers
3k views
A Truly Universal Listening Device?
The CGI (Cosmic Gateway Interface) System is a set of commands which (nearly?) anyone anywhere can intone in order to trigger some kind of alien tech (which exists somewhere far away), which opens a ...
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9answers
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how could an alien species with modern technology communicate at long distances when their language is made up of sign language?
Let's say that these aliens have recently sent up a manned satellite into their orbit. Let's say these aliens mainly speak through sign language. How will these alien astronauts communicate with those ...
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9answers
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A plausible explanation for the "ansible?" - FTL communications
I need FTL interstellar communication in my story. Ursula K. Le Guin first used the idea of the "ansible" as a fictional device or technology capable of near-instantaneous or superluminal ...
9
votes
3answers
349 views
Most effective form of biological communication for long distance?
I have got a idea of a eusocial species that creates huge And wide colonies that can go through different environments from underground tunnels, to a island a few miles offshore, to miles away farther ...
3
votes
8answers
276 views
How would an alien civilization transmit an SOS signal for other sentient beings to pick up on?
This question describes the kinds of signals sentient beings would transmit to let others know of their existence. The methods described are geared towards communicating the mere existence of ...
4
votes
6answers
661 views
Is it feasible to use light as a transmission vehicle?
Let's just say I'm no scientist, so my understanding of these things is all surface. Having said that, I don't write hard science fiction. But I'm not quite as "magic-like" as Star Wars.
My ...
2
votes
1answer
118 views
How would caste system benefits population of hive mind?
Unlike bee population whereby the worker bee or scout bee feedback news through a complex domino style network to inform the rest of their community and then the queen bee(s) will still be busy ...
9
votes
5answers
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A light tower based communication system
I'm building a world with cities of extremely different technological capabilities. One has a monopoly on gunpowder and one has complete understanding of the magic system in the world.
The only ...
4
votes
4answers
454 views
Secure communications for the modern terrorist
This is my first post in this seemingly awesome forum.
I need some suggestions for mobile communications in my detective novel.
My story features a US police detective who is pitted against a group ...
16
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10answers
4k views
Is there any advantage to using a centralized hivemind?
Basically, there are 2 types of hiveminds: the common centralized and the uncommon distributed.
Centralized means that all units are extensions of the master entity (the badguy alien/robot stereotypes)...
6
votes
4answers
251 views
Would sound shifts be severe enough for two dialects to be mutually unintelligible after 400 years of no verbal contact?
A group of English-speaking settlers travel to the Earth-like exoplanet of Rataan, which is 5 light years away. They board the generation ship Genesis that will reach Rataan in 200 years (0.25% of the ...
6
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2answers
109 views
How could the connections of a hivemind work to ensure it can't be jammed or tapped?
So, Armchair Chem is an evil corporation that has access to technology some consider unnaturally ahead of its time (the correct term is anachronistic, but whatever).
One such is the Replica Forces. A ...