Questions tagged [communication]
For questions relating to the exchange of ideas and information between beings.
370
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Reverse to serve man [closed]
In the classic Twilight zone episode "to serve man" the aliens come to Earth to solve our many problems and have a book entitled "to serve man". We think it means to serve us like ...
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8answers
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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 ...
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7answers
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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. ...
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3answers
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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
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4answers
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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 ...
6
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3answers
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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
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2answers
81 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 ...
5
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4answers
166 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 ...
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8answers
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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 ...
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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 ...
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7answers
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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 ...
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2answers
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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 ...
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15answers
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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 ...
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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
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4answers
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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
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3answers
278 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 ...
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2answers
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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
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1answer
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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 ...
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vote
2answers
81 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 ...
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2answers
230 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
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3answers
271 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 ...
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14answers
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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,...
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4answers
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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 ...
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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 ...
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5answers
604 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 ...
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3answers
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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
46.3k12 gold badges138 silver badges288 bronze badges
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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
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2answers
211 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 ...
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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 ...
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15answers
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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
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3answers
339 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 ...
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8answers
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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 ...
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6answers
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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
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1answer
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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 ...
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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
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4answers
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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 ...
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10answers
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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)...
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4answers
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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 ...
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1answer
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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 ...
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3answers
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Intercontinental radio broadcasting in a post-apocalyptic world
I'm in the process of planning a post-apocalyptic novel. The gist of it is that the vast majority (99.9%+) of all humans simply disappeared from the face of the earth, or so it seems. The story ...
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2answers
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I want my gryphons and birdfolk to have facial expressions. How?
So, Both birdfolk and gryphons have a head structure, similar to that of birds of prey, i.e: forward facing eyes. Sure, the color of the plumage and the beak-type can vary, but one problem is still ...
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2answers
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A dragon, a gryphon and a tengu are flying toghether. How can they actually communicate?
One problem, I think writers often overlook, is the problem of flying creatures communicating with each other. I call this the "I can't hear you over the sound of the f@cking headwind!"
For my world, ...
0
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3answers
167 views
Semi-FTL quantum communications
I'm trying to come up with idea's that have some plausibility of sending information FTL.
So we can entangle particles together. When you measure them you influence them. If you measure one up the ...
5
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2answers
343 views
How to build a wormhole for FTL communication? [more Engineering than Physics question]
I came to SE WB while I was researching about space radiators for my sci-fi. I don't remember where exactly I found an answer to my question (Maybe? Idr) but I stunned with this site. You all looks ...
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3answers
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Facial expressions for dragons?
Though this applies to lizardfolk and most creatures with a snout as well, I'm having trouble giving more facial expressions to dragons. Sure, they can wink, bare their fangs and laugh out loud and ...
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How do you send out SOS in space if there is no absolute coordinate?
Imagine your spaceship encountered a gravitational anomaly and discovered that you are lost in space, your computer tells you that you are still inside the Milky Way galaxy but it cannot find the ...
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7answers
846 views
An effective way for interstellar communication?
Radio waves travel at the speed of light. Communication across vast interstellar distances is difficult due to weak signals and slow multi-year duration. I honestly imagine it to be like old times ...
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5answers
290 views
Are (near) instant data transfers feasible on an intergalactic scale?
Inspired partially by this comment on one of my answers, I got to thinking on what the quickest way to communicate would be on an intergalactic scale.
Say humans have colonised the galaxy, and use ...
