Questions tagged [dystopia]
For questions about societies in which there is great suffering or injustice, often totalitarian or post-apocalyptic in nature.
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What are the consequences of making people's life choices publicly tradable on a stock market? [closed]
I'm working on a system for a world where individuals are traded like publicly owned companies on a stock market - but I know nothing about economics. Besides ethical consequences, is there anything ...
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What would make more sense for a floating city on Earth in a dystopian future: flux pinning or magnetic repulsion?
Here are some of the general characteristic regarding both FP and MR:
Flux Pinning
Requires a superconductor (usually type 2) that is cooled to extremely low temperatures
Requires a magnet whose ...
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How do Mexican drug cartels manage their land?
I've been writing a dystopia that revolves around a world that has gained a heavily ranked organization system, and parts of it, including parts of Mexico, are run by Gangs and Cartels. How do they ...
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How would a toxic halophilic bacteria (vibrio vulnificus) mutate and make all coastlines uninhabitable?
I am writing a speculative fictional story set in the future, where the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus mutates and makes life so dangerous for humans along the coast that everyone has to retreat into the ...
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What would climates be like outside areas of controlled weather? [closed]
If weather was controlled in circuitous paths of airships, Swipes lets call the rainbands, where it rains predictably every 7 days, and these Swipes were 1000's of miles apart, what would the other ...
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Will a Humans Tolerance Keep Going Until Full Immunity?
Context: This is a post apocalypse low fantasy, soft science world. In it megacorps have built a protected city for citizens to survive. The world outside the walls in dangerous, with toxic gas, ...
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Why might a repressive order allow for flamboyant newscasters?
Thanks in advance and sorry if this isn't within the scope of the forum, I'm new but I've lurked so I totally get it if this doesn't really fit.
Anyway, let's get into it. Setting is a far-future ...
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Digital camouflage [closed]
In the near future our net (digital) activity is monitored and logged into kind of social credit system. How would our protagonist go about
Hide illegal activity (Could it be camouflaged as legal ...
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In a world where everyone has a tracking implant, how might those be subverted? [closed]
In a dystopian world where all citizens are tracked through a small device under their skin, how might one go about "outsmarting" the technology to move about unimpeded? My only thought is ...
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In a righty-dominated society, how can authorities prevent a right-handed child from being born to two lefty parents?
In this society, superstitions regarding right- and left-handed people are accepted as fact. (I'm going to be politically incorrect and call them "righties" and "lefties" ...
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What specific experiments would psychologists perform in a school? [closed]
It's the future America: the US is ruled by an elite band of Psychologists, who function as the political and moral leaders of the country. The Psychologists wish to institute a system of universal ...
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Does technological advance necessarily start a war between men and women in a dystopian future? [closed]
Technology of the future is likely to remove the differences of possessing power, strength and resources between genders. Moreover, it is likely that one gender becomes completely independent on ...
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If every action a human does is tracked, would serious crimes be greatly reduced?
Background
Humans originate from the Skytree, a tower operated by an impartial AI. On birth, they are sent to their assigned communities, or Communes, where they live out the rest of their lives. ...
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How would the UK be affected if 90% of the world’s population died from a virus? How long would it take before it would impact climate change? [closed]
The idea I'm currently working with would be the world overpopulated, things a bit further in the future in terms of the effects of climate change than now, being hit with a global virus that kills ...
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What is the stumbling block for a world of "Alphas"? [closed]
In 149597871's utopia, there will be no need for that as only a small minority of "alpha" males would be allowed to impregnate girls while the rest of the (beta) men will only support them ...
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What ways could an underground society decompose bodies?
What methods could an underground society with no access to the surface help to speed the decomposition rate of bodies?
Ideally, is there a method they could speed decomposition and still use the ...
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How would a group with strong leadership skills create an initial government? [closed]
A group of 1000 political “dissenters” and their families have been captured and forced into an underground bunker. Because many of them have some sort of background in politics and/or leadership, it ...
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What would the survival rate be for a group of people forced into an underground, bunker style community?
Suppose 1000 people were forced underground into a relatively well set up bunker style community. Assuming they have no official leadership or organization to begin with, they must rapidly learn their ...
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Most in-demand items/skills in dystopian future [closed]
Civilization as we know it has fallen. You want to begin to rebuild and/or set up a village shop to turn a quick buck.
What goods or services from the past (aka, now) would be most in demand?
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In a post intergalactic WW3 where most of scociety has moved into a VR world to escape, what created the zombies that roam outside (Not nuclear war) [closed]
Basically, this is after a war between human civilizations on multiple planets in our galaxy. Most people have decided to live the rest of their lives in a fully immersive VR world and a very small ...
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Where would be the best place to set up a government building in a world that constantly had earthquakes?
so I’m trying to figure out where a government would set up their main base in a world where earthquakes and natural disasters are imminent and happening all the time. I want it to be iconic like in ...
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Synthetic hydro carbon based Life
This question includes Genuine Artificial intelligence as life so long as it is self replicating and sapient. Hard science only please.
Can a sapient self replicating entity be designed to exclusively ...
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How far away could a tech similar to RFID be scanned?
Let's say a three letter agency wants to track everyone using an ID card tied to a database. It's simple enough to put an RFID chip in it that gets read at some point of contact, but let's say we want ...
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Social Credit System in a Non-modern-technology Type World [duplicate]
Dystopian fiction is fun, but it often relies on futuristic/modern technology - such as cameras watching your every move - and various other devices that can track whatever you do. In a world where ...
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How long would it take a city to starve? [duplicate]
In the dystopian story that I’m writing with my dad, there are two races of people: humans and mutants.
The dictator of the only surviving state finds out that his son turned into a mutant and ...
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Could a mechanical bird with the wingspan of Vermont be able to fly?
I know it sounds kinda stupid, but I’m trying to create a really ominous figure that would always watch the player in this a hypothetical video game that I’m writing with my dad.
We both agreed that ...
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The ultimate far-future fortress [closed]
In the year 4000, a single gigantic government authority controls the world. In the dystopian capital mega-city of "X" lies their core center of activity, where the highest of ranking ...
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What would be the consequences of a society literally run by sociopaths?
I was listening to a worldbuilding discussion on another site and somebody came up with an idea for a dystopian setting that they called "the worst of all possible worlds". Basically, the ...
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Is a utopia a necessarily aged society?
Following the issues raised in the question How to limit population growth in a utopia? I'd like to ask a related question. In a stable utopia, would the population be old-aged, compared to less-than-...
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Can you modify children's DNA after they are born, and if so, up to what age? [duplicate]
My story is Dystopian placed after a nuclear fallout, in a small group of isolated cities with futuristic technology. The plotline is that the government is kidnapping children with disabilities, ...
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Can People Fool Benevolent Brother's 'Alibi Trackers' and Escape?
Alibi Tracker Improvement Program Announcement
Today, October 1st, 2074AD, marks the 50th year since 2034, when Benevolent Brother freed all of humanity on the only 2 continents of Earth.
Since then, ...
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What sort of clothing would futuristic dystopian society develop? [closed]
I am trying to hint at in a story I write that the story takes place in a dystopian society. To be more specific I am talking about a technological kind of dystopian society that would be subtly ...
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Zodiac eugenics
Imagine a world slightly more developed then ours. For example internal combustion engines are becoming obsolete, they have fuel cells and electric cars. They also started using genetic engineering to ...
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Could firearms realistically have RFID reader built into them so they could be tracked?
Firearms on their interior are very lacking in space, and putting an RFID reader on the exterior takes up the space that could be used by attachments like a CornerShot or vertical foregrip. It would ...
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What would present day society be like if people were much more intelligent on average [closed]
My earlier question was closed because I didn't follow the rules properly. Truly sorry about that. I hope I'll do better this time.
My question is, what would a society be like today if people had ...
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
I am currently writing the world, setting and characters for a project of mine called the ORION Project - a story set in a dystopian America in the near future of 2050, where the government has taken ...
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Storing a human consciousness in a flash drive or similar piece of technology [closed]
In a dystopian trilogy I'm writing, I want to include a way to have the government store a person's ideas in a small piece of technology.
Basically, the government has a test of strength after you ...
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How to bring humans near to extinction? [closed]
So, I have a bunch of people (say a hundred) who want to bring humans to extinction. These "people" I'm talking about (let's call them demons, though they aren't actually demons) are stronger than the ...
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What pandemic could keep the world in isolation near indefinitely?
What kind of pandemic could keep nations on severe lock down for at least long enough to necessitate irreversible changes to culture and the economy (preferably a decade or longer)? Such as fast-...
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How could the Soylent Corporation remain in business after their horrible secret has been revealed?
I'm the CEO of the Soylent Corporation, and we have a problem. Some cop just revealed our secret: Our premiere food product Soylent Green:
is made out of people!
(sigh) We're going to lose ...
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Why do villages in my artificial desert need their water delivered by caravan? [closed]
I'm making a strategy RPG, and I'm having trouble justifying the gameplay's core premise in light of some recent developments in the world I've built around it, and I need some help filling in the ...
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How to Get Past The Apocalypse - Quickly [closed]
Inspired by this question, it's an often used gimmick to juice interest by ending the world. It could be the machine uprising, nuclear apocalypse, zombie virus, nano disease, unbeatable army of undead,...
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To what extent would a 21st Century Industrial power collapse under an airborne HIV-like virus? [closed]
In an alternate 21st Century Earth, an airborne strain of HIV, or a brand new airborne virus that causes the same symptoms of HIV evolves. The new Super-HIV virus retains the ability to transmit by ...
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What would people who have never seen a plane before call it? [closed]
In my story, my characters live in the wilderness, and they have no modern technology. They do see ruins from the past (from now) but other than that they have no idea how advanced other parts of the ...
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Does this type of organization make sense if it's all people have known?
These were taken from a bulletted list, so sorry if the grammar is weird.
...They do all this to keep the wealth and luxuries of the world within the city, so that no one inside is poor; it is a ...
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What type of clothing could be made naturally in England?
My story takes place in England about 1000 years from now, and due to the circumstances there is no modern technology. (Modern as in after the 1800s.) So of course there are materials and plants that ...
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Can this underground culture survive for 200 years
I have a underground culture that has been cut off from the surface for near on 200 years, and I am trying to understand what issues will I need to cover and am most likely to run into for there ...
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How Would Forced Relocation Affect a Community [closed]
In a dystopian setting where people are separated into a caste system of sorts, the lowest caste, know as ship-ins, gets their nickname from a peculiar treatment: if an offense escalates to a level ...
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How would a Dyson Swarm affect the temperature and light reaching the earth?
So, I'm creating a world in a dystopia format and I'm curious on other peoples opinion about how they would think a fully enveloping Dyson Swarm would affect the earth's temperature. I want the swarm ...
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How do I make my main character react realistically to the discovery of a Christian Bible, in a world where it is highly illegal? [closed]
So; I am working on a story that is inspired by my Christian faith to an extent, and I would like the main character to become a "redemptive hero" who becomes a hero by simply helping people to see ...
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