Questions tagged [computers]
For questions regarding a device that can be programmed to carry out a set of certain set of tasks without external intervention.
234
questions
2
votes
9answers
444 views
How might computers have developed in a Islamic theocracy? [closed]
In this scenario, the first programmers are Muslim scholars living in an Islamic theocracy. They are educated in Arabic and understand the classics of Muslim science and theology.
How would their ...
2
votes
7answers
234 views
A big primitive computer in orbit, very big, powerful but old technologies from 80's, V2.0 on-topic revamp
I have to point out, it is an attempt to make this on-topic, all thanks to @JBH, so tell us in the comments how well we did. the old one is history now.
50 years ago my grandfather created humanity's ...
-4
votes
5answers
178 views
Can we represent all objects in the universe in a small cube? [closed]
Imagine this. An alien culture needs the information of all objects that are present in the universe. Could a cube with an internal structure be constructed so that all objects of the universe can be ...
1
vote
4answers
208 views
A Far Future in which Network Security Does Not Exist [closed]
In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future, There Is Only Analogue
These days, our society seems to be growing increasingly fond of, even dependent on, wireless networks, to the point of obsession, if you ...
3
votes
2answers
141 views
What is the viability of mineral-infused seawater as an effective conductor for an aquatic species' electrical needs?
In another post on this brilliant site I saw someone suggest that an aquatic species could make insulated tubes filled with seawater to transmit electricity, with the only downside being that seawater ...
45
votes
29answers
7k views
How long can it really take to calculate a hyperspace jump?
It is a common trope in sci-fi that engaging a vessel's faster-than-light travel requires performing some complicated mathematics that takes a non-trivial amount of time.
I want to know to what extent ...
3
votes
0answers
118 views
Will extreme cold damage hard drives? [closed]
At one point in Snowpiercer (the Netflix series)
to keep some hard drives warm (or room temperature) in a research outpost in the context of a snowy post-apocalyptic world where the average outside ...
39
votes
11answers
6k views
Most efficent way to transmit binary data by human voice
Suppose two people want to transmit some binary data (a png image perhaps) by voice.
Two of my characters want to share binary data but they can only use their voice and no other form of communication ...
1
vote
0answers
45 views
Without biological research, would be people ever able to come to an idea of neural networks? [closed]
Without biology, would people come to an idea of computer neural nets?
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votes
5answers
181 views
The future with infinitely fast computers [closed]
Imagine that people discovered a technology that allows executing any algorithm instantly regardless of its complexity.
E.g.
Decryption of any encrypted data happens instantly
Simulation of systems ...
-1
votes
3answers
415 views
A big primitive computer in orbit, very big, powerfull but old technologies from 80's, what is a potential fiat money value for its use? [closed]
This question about the economy of technological solution, there 800 of such on wb
Was looking for materials for the answer to the question
Semiconductor foundries are a thing of the past. Rebuild the ...
22
votes
11answers
4k views
Semiconductor foundries are a thing of the past. Rebuild the computer industry if you can
After the uncontested absorption of Hong Kong in 2020, China reasserted control over Formosa in 2022. In 2023 the Korean government reopened its war against its southern rebels, leading to their ...
3
votes
4answers
313 views
Throwing away muscle memory to make brain backups smaller. Would it work?
Overlord is the best 5-episode anime, as I only acknowledge the existence of episodes 14-18, the rest is gorehound edge bait I can only recommend to people who are still flaming about the titan CGI. ...
3
votes
2answers
95 views
How could VR access affect the security of the underlying system?
How might access within a VR world affect security within the real world layer of the VR system? Would there be a reasonable way in which gaining access using VR would allow access that might bypass ...
5
votes
3answers
2k views
What's a reasonable location in the body for a bio-implant?
Fairly straightforward. I'm writing a character with a regenerative ability that's prone producing cancerous tumors when healing from substantial injury. A friend suggested having some sort of ...
-1
votes
2answers
184 views
Magic is Software: Why isn't there an overabundance of magical frameworks? [closed]
So, magic in this world is basically telling various types of micromachines to do things. In its original state, magic only existed as "sorcery". Sorcery was a flexible and efficient, but ...
-4
votes
1answer
118 views
Doxxing users on the Dark Web [closed]
I'm not a hacker, but one idea has intrigued me. Imagine the story is set in a contemporary version of our modern world, and the main character is a brilliant hacker who wants to create a virus that ...
11
votes
8answers
3k views
Would beings with a base 8 number system be advantaged for electronics?
I am looking forward to create anthropomorphic dragons/lizards with 8 fingers (3 + thumb). As they base their number system on it, the powers of 2 are recurrent.
Would this grant any advantage for the ...
3
votes
11answers
3k views
Can FTL travel be achieved with mid-20th century technology? [closed]
Let's say that the FTL system is based upon that of Star Trek, but deviations can be made. FTL technology was discovered through the reverse-engineering of a starship that crashed on the civilization'...
5
votes
6answers
459 views
Uses of a computer no upper limit on processing power?
Edit: I do not have the best technical understanding of computers so some of my terminology may be misused. I guess a simpler way to imagine this hypothetical computer is one whose overall performance ...
5
votes
3answers
191 views
Adaptating computers to creatures with 4 fingers
What would be the ideal layout for a 4-fingered usage of a keyboard? I thought about making keyboards square and and have less keys.
Here is the alphabet : 28 characters total. The alphabet is ...
4
votes
2answers
260 views
Duplication of human advantages by biological machines
People often postulate in works of fiction that humans (and other sentient biological organisms) have powers that machines will never duplicate, but by machines people often think about constructs ...
0
votes
1answer
165 views
Ideal material for Von Neumann Probes
So, I understand that a common way to explore the universe and colonise worlds is through Von Neumann Probes. Self-replicating and efficient... except for the fact that, as far as I have seen in ...
3
votes
1answer
79 views
How could the display technology of self-rewriting books work?
Oh yes, it's Artifact Time! with Best Dad and Ozen the Immovable!
If you watched Hairy Plotter and the Gas Chamber of Secrets, you probably remember the scene where the Horcrux of Adolf Hitler is ...
5
votes
1answer
172 views
How could two AIs “battle” within a closed off computer?
This is not so much for a story as much as something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
I’m really drawn to the idea of a sort of world that exists on a server somewhere.
The ‘gods’ that ...
0
votes
3answers
119 views
How much brain power per KG/volume?
When writing a futuristic story I always try to minimise the impact of computerization. Its rather uncomfortable writig a story when technology is advanced enough that humans arent in a position to ...
5
votes
1answer
196 views
Finding ways to robots feel pleasure
Given a world where a human-like brain is synthetizable, I wonder:
A human-like artificial brain would most likely crave sensorial overwhelm. Pleasure to humans is something deeply associated with ...
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votes
2answers
145 views
What might a world look like where basic programming skills are as common as literacy today? [closed]
In the other related question, I am exploring how might a world like ours develop to a world where programming skills are considered to be basic literacy.
Currently, possibly less than 1% of world ...
1
vote
4answers
156 views
What could have been the history of a world where programming skills are considered to be basic literacy?
Sometimes I hear from other professionals, "it has become impossible to talk to IT professionals, what they talk it sounds like gibberish".
There are lots of efforts for better connecting to ...
-2
votes
1answer
112 views
A new type of paradox? [closed]
Imagine we had this incredibly powerful computer that can simulate our universe, and that we somehow knew the initial conditions of the big bang (or the planet earth) down to the exact detail. Fast ...
25
votes
14answers
9k views
Can programming "mutate"?
Can the programming of simple nanobots randomly change to create a similar effect as mutations in DNA?
This question has a very similar idea as I wanted, although in this case the nanobots are capable ...
2
votes
1answer
99 views
what is the maximum theoretical density for qubits?
What is the maximum amount of qubits that could be put in a cubed centimeter and still function? The technology level is near future, within the next 50 years.
bonus question:
how much computing ...
8
votes
10answers
2k views
How would a Grey Goo robot compute given that it has no fixed form?
This is something that confuses me with amorphous characters, monsters, robots etc... How do they compute when their particles don't have a fixed form? They are in a sense modular robots only taken to ...
27
votes
28answers
14k views
Way to prove you are human when the Turing test is not sufficient
In a story I am working on there are 5 AI on a space station of varying levels of social, image recognition and general intelligence. At least one is good enough to pass a Turing test and do image ...
1
vote
4answers
192 views
The biggest e-ink display in the world [closed]
tl;dr: What could be an approximate size of the biggest e-ink display with current Kindle-like pixel density if we would use nowadays the biggest available computing power to make it usable?
Imagine ...
7
votes
4answers
276 views
Would Mind Uploaded People on Fast Computers have any Unique Skills or Knowledge?
In my setting, there are basically no biological life forms left, as everyone has either been mind-uploaded or is an artificial intelligence. It is supposed to take place at a very distant point in ...
9
votes
9answers
1k views
Would a biological interface be of any use in a computer?
Would a computer using biological components as an interface be any good? Would that protect it against hacking? Or provide more complex processing?
The way I'm going with this is that computers are ...
2
votes
0answers
72 views
How to to experience fully immmersive VR? [closed]
I'm talking about full BCI, altered electrical feedback from brain to computer you'd need,technical issues.
31
votes
17answers
14k views
How much tech advancement could be made out of modern processor appearing in 1980s?
I rewatched terminator 2 and got intrigued by a particular quote:
[microchip]
scary stuff, radically advanced. I mean it was smashed, it didn't work, but it
gave us ideas, took us in new directions. ...
5
votes
3answers
245 views
The cure for all bacteria-caused diseases
Which minimal order of magnitude is required to simulate single cells and microorganisms in cyberspace?
In an utopian future, people will be possibly able to rapidly design new cures, be their ...
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votes
3answers
158 views
What could an algorithm for fast prime factorization look like? [closed]
For hundreds of years mathematicians have been looking for a method to quickly factorize a natural number.
For example:
3894757 = 877*4441
Today there's no way ...
-4
votes
4answers
187 views
what are some ways to store information mechanically?
what are some ways to store largish amounts of information mechanically? What would a mechanical computer use for memory storage if it was entirely mechanical?
edit: guys why is this downvoted? I don'...
45
votes
26answers
13k views
What is a recently obsolete computer storage device that would be significantly difficult to extract data from?
For my story I need a data storage device that will be reasonably familiar to adult readers. My character will have obtained this device and know that vital information is stored on it, but not ...
5
votes
4answers
170 views
What's the deciding factor in what my Foresight can predict?
When you have foresight, it's guaranteed that confusion will be your epitaph (thumbs up to the one person who gets the joke). Basically, it only grants you advantage on actions, so you still can't ...
0
votes
2answers
169 views
How could this three-second foresight work?
"However, King Crimson has already seen through it. Your movements in the future. The trajectory of your movements in the future."
"No matter who you may be, everyone goes through their ...
3
votes
2answers
183 views
A mathmatician just discovered a way to solve any NP-Complete problen in N*log(n) time. How does the world change? [closed]
The title sort of says it all. We discovered through some ingenious use of obscure mathematics a way to solve any NP-Complete problem with an algorithm that completes in a Big-O of n*log(n) time.
...
11
votes
6answers
501 views
How would a civilization without reading and writing develop general-purpose computers?
Related:
Technological development without writing (related to general technological development without writing)
How would a society without linear alphabetic writing have devised human-readable ...
4
votes
3answers
339 views
Your computer made you rich by perfectly predicting 50/50 and 1:3 decisions, but only 50µs in the future. What did you control? [closed]
You have a Time Displacement Teleportation Device (or two). Your computer is making split-second decisions, & it knows an outcome or event 50µs from now and can correct decisions. You now control ...
7
votes
5answers
878 views
What Technology is Needed to Virtually Simulate...Everything?
This is not my question.
In my story, I have a machine that you can connect to using electrodes. It allows one to enter a small virtual reality room where everything from gravity and electromagnetism, ...
37
votes
12answers
9k views
Is It Possible to Make a Computer Virus That Acts as an Anti-virus?
After receiving answers to this question, I now know that viruses cannot be written in machine code in such a way that they can universally infect all kinds of systems. Every machine has a unique set ...