Questions tagged [far-future]
For questions of Earth\humans that extrapolate beyond available data: hundreds of years at least, thousands commonly, millions preferably.
114
questions
1
vote
1answer
80 views
Alien preservation plan for Earth and human evolution [closed]
I've got an idea and would ask for you evolution enthusiasts: what if humanity could be forced to not travel around the earth and be forced to stay by some alien culture in their home habitats (...
6
votes
3answers
949 views
Cauterizing a wound with metal?
I am wondering if scientifically it is possible to cauterize a wound using molten metal.
I was thinking of a character whose wounds and scars were healed with metal, leaving her with spots and ...
8
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3answers
275 views
If an Alcubierre Drive is possible, can you communicate FTL without a vessel?
Assume that an Alcubierre drive is feasible. In fact, assume that one has been built. A superluminal starship can propel itself through space by distorting space in front of it and behind it. However, ...
3
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1answer
134 views
Dystopian Future | Moon Destroyed What Would Our World Look Like in 500 years? [duplicate]
This question came to me after reading this question on the Astronomy Page, and having a length discussion with colleagues about the 2002 movie "The Time Machine". As a result I am looking for hard-...
10
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2answers
191 views
Realistic Interstellar Energy Transfer
I've been reading some of the excellent answers on this question about galactic empires and it led me to imagine a reasonably realistic multi-system 'empire' might keep most or all of its population ...
11
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9answers
2k views
Historical experience as a guide to warship design?
I've been working on designs for some model starships, in particular warships. My working assumption has been that the designs and materials for these ships will reflect the way that the civilisation ...
25
votes
14answers
8k views
How can a dictatorship government be beneficial to a dictator in a post-scarcity society?
In my scenario of a post-scarcity society in the far future, everyone has abundance in their basic needs from food and energy and the technology is very advanced that humans are more intelligent, ...
1
vote
5answers
178 views
In a future post-scarcity civilization, how would evolution change humans when survival is longer a challenge? [closed]
Let's imagine a post-scarcity society where everyone has unlimited access to food, energy and the aging problem has been solved so people are practically immortal.
Now my understanding is that, our ...
2
votes
2answers
176 views
How would a Type I civilization habitable planet be any different to a Type II civilization habitable planet?
This question is a different version of other questions that I have found here discussing a similar but different problem.
The problem I'm facing here is about the excess or waste heat that an ...
7
votes
2answers
161 views
How small can a perpetual energy source be to run a far-future civilization indefinitely?
You are the leader of a far-future civilization - human or otherwise - that has endured for trillions of years doing whatever far-future civilizations do. You've surrounded stars with Matrioshka ...
1
vote
3answers
146 views
If aliens would be like us, how can we survive [closed]
We Humans are the most intelligent species of this planet, we have total control over all other species of this planet, we can use them however we want like (Food,clothes,experiments). We are the most ...
4
votes
3answers
289 views
Could a more convenient form of energy transfer/storage than electricity be possible?
I was thinking about the progress that has been made in terms of energy usage for e.g. transport purposes and noticed how the prominent source of energy had changed over time: first muscle power, then ...
4
votes
1answer
392 views
Interstellar Propulsion for Hard Sci-fi Novel
Hypothetical: Hundreds of years into the future. Humanity needs to travel to exoplanets quickly. I'm aiming for hard sci-fi. What kind of propulsion can travel people at 0.1 - 0.9 lightspeed?
Is it ...
8
votes
7answers
3k views
Earth under one roof: Feasible?
Okay, so how feasible is it- if even possible- to put the Earth under 'one roof'?
So here is the premise. The world is heavily heavily over populated, so overpopulated in fact that almost all of the ...
0
votes
1answer
118 views
In 1000 years, could a magnetic bottle-like plasma dome system protect a small city? [closed]
I've looked at the magnetic bottle (hydrogen plasma/fusion) idea as a potential basis for extrapolating what technology might be capable of doing with plasma fields 1000 years into the future...which ...
8
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8answers
473 views
How advanced can a stagnant civilization on a dying planet be?
Background
The concept of an old and dying red planet is common in pulp novels, comics, and gaming. What I am interested in is a world dying under a sun that has turned red and is expanding. The ...
0
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2answers
179 views
What is the most pratical/feasible method to replace the human digestion apparatus?
Objective: Replace the human digestion apparatus (stomach, guts etc)
From my basic understanding the human body needs food, because it needs ATP (energy unit, some kind of sugar(?)) or you could say ...
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votes
2answers
174 views
How much could familiar species of animal evolve in 10,000 years? [closed]
In 10,000 yrs, barring human interference, what kinds of evolution might we expect in familiar animals? Leaving aside the causes of the adaptation, for example, is it possible that the grey squirrel ...
0
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4answers
384 views
How well would a society 35,000 years in the future remember today? [closed]
The story is set 35,000 years after the year 2024. In 2024, Donald Trump makes fun of Kim Jong Un's stupid hair, and long story short, the Earth gets nuked to the point where everything is covered in ...
0
votes
2answers
196 views
Reproduction is limited by mutation [closed]
In the year 2020, a cosmic event caused large-scale mutation in humans. Every woman could reproduce only once in her lifetime.
Two hundred years later, what would be the population and composition ...
3
votes
2answers
284 views
How to leave a message for the future?
I want my novel's protagonist to leave a diary on the dying planet Earth for some far-in-the-future being to read.
He wants to leave some kind of marker/clue (or perhaps timepiece) for this future ...
6
votes
7answers
2k views
Is a Utopia worth it? [closed]
In a far away future, when/where technology has erased scarcity, competition and poverty, what purpose does civilisation still have?
Suppose a civilisation reaches a level at which it can harvest ...
8
votes
13answers
3k views
Possibility of using large asteroid as planetary attack weapon
I am writing a story where the human race is divided into two groups one called Martians (they left to live on Mars) and the other Earthlings (who stayed on Earth). The Martians want to destroy Earth ...
8
votes
4answers
231 views
How to cause a surge in large carnivore diversity, roughly 5-7 million years hence?
I have had an idea for a possible story, where the protagonists are some kind of future, sapient hominid descendants (Not descended from humans; bonobos or gorillas or something).
The main premise of ...
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vote
2answers
80 views
How would we overcome the sinking problem as sediment builds up around urban areas? [closed]
As sediment builds up over the earth, it is compacted into layers of rock, which can be seen in the geological record. However, urban areas typically have good maintenance which washes away any ...
4
votes
5answers
296 views
How could the government not prevent a medical company from helping terrorists? [closed]
Recently, the government has found out that the biggest medical corporation (responsible for plenty of technological progress) has been financing and providing material aid to an organization ...
5
votes
2answers
543 views
How to evolve fully terrestrial sharks, 100 million years in the future?
This is part of the same world I am making that this question I once asked is set in: How to evolve a reptile into a wyvern, 100 million years in the future?
I might call these questions related to ...
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votes
3answers
177 views
Is it possible to have a civilization after the year 15000? [closed]
In my context, the year 15000 is important but I was wondering if there is a chance to have existing civilizations around this year (or after) ?
Based on the Numberphile video, if we keep growing at ...
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votes
3answers
240 views
How Long Can a Burnt Postapocalyptic Forest Be Barren?
Lately, I have been reading word that our latest epidemic of firestorms is so severe that "trees won't plant themselves naturally", according to the Arbor Day Foundation. Indeed, the picture of a ...
3
votes
5answers
217 views
Can our civilisation create an artifact / time capsule to transfer knowledge to the next intelligent species?
The government of a rich country decides that it's time to create a time capsule to store our scientific knowledge so that in the case of a global disaster (meteor impact, nuclear apocalypse, etc.) ...
66
votes
22answers
26k views
Humans are gone - what can I harvest from their cities 30M years later?
A new species with technological potential is starting to multiply and subjugate the Earth. What resources can it harvest from human (our) cities which were destroyed 30M years ago (humans are gone ...
4
votes
2answers
798 views
Post-apocalypse: large mammals erased, can homo sapiens 2.0 build civilisation?
Humans managed to erase themselves from existence, taking a large part of Earth's higher mammals (apes, cats, dogs etc) with them. Millions of years later, the biosphere has recovered and biodiversity ...
13
votes
2answers
486 views
How plausible would a fully aquatic bat be?
So, it turns out that bats are actually pretty good swimmers; several species of bats have been reported swimming, and they're far more capable and agile in the water than they are on land:
https://...
38
votes
18answers
11k views
In a cemetery, what evidence could be found that humans were intelligent and had technology?
So, a group of archeologists from the year 4978 have uncovered something strange. They’ve been searching for the missing link between them and their primordial ancestors, and they seem to have found ...
6
votes
4answers
509 views
Regenerative ability caused by radiation
I know it looks like a lot of topics but hear me out here. I am not talking about some nonsense explanation for this ability but more of an evolutionary process.
Imagine that for numerous ...
12
votes
3answers
273 views
Where would a dense population of human beings live underground?
By that, I don’t mean what type of structures, I mean under which part of the Earth? It's an extremely densely populated nation. As densely populated as many major cities - think Hong Kong and more ...
0
votes
1answer
119 views
Can an Earth like planet support life by building a Dyson Sphere across a White Dwarf or a Red Dwarf star? [closed]
Is it possible to depend on a white dwarf as our power source, provided that we harness 99% of energy?
Can life be sustained?
How it will change the climate and the seasons of earth if it is our ...
6
votes
3answers
611 views
What could the side effects be for long-term Cryosleep?
I’m writing a story about someone who is going to be frozen in cryo for about 450 years. He’s frozen in 2120, so the technology is certainly well-developed in his time. I’m thinking maybe the cryo pod ...
1
vote
1answer
327 views
Which parts of our civilization would survive 1000 years? [closed]
If some catastrophic event happened that wiped out humanity tomorrow, not destroying any objects or places, which parts of our civilization would survive for 1000 years? What would the world look like?...
4
votes
2answers
237 views
How would a big cat evolve to climb on and jump between ruined modern buildings?
So, in a post-apocalyptic setting, when humans have gone extinct and their cities fell into ruin, I was wondering what animals might evolve to conquer the ruins of our cities.
Notice: I know that all ...
27
votes
5answers
6k views
What would Earth's Land look like in the year 3000? would there be any significant changes at all in 1000 years?
I've tried researching this question myself, but the only data I can find is over huge timescales, like situations where the continents have reformed back into a Neo-Pangea.
I'm not looking for any ...
6
votes
5answers
350 views
“Great Firewall of China” in an era of ubiquitous wireless internet
TL;DR:
in a world with hyper available internet, could a despotic state impose national censorship?
BACKGROUND/FLAVOR:
"Back in the before times during the long long ago, there was a network of ...
2
votes
1answer
108 views
Could a gravitational lens in the far future be used to detect 20th century radio or television broadcasts?
Wondering if a naturally occurring gravitational lens (such as one created by a star or black hole) could be used in the future by someone searching for "ancient" (ie, our recent) radio and TV ...
1
vote
4answers
517 views
Feasible guns and ammo in a distant future post-apocalyptic setting [closed]
I'm working on a setting for an rpg and I definitely want to go for a distant future, post-apocalyptic world, not unlike Numenera. In Numenera guns of all different kinds would be considered Cyphers ...
4
votes
2answers
168 views
Long lifespans and risk aversion [closed]
Suppose in all types of medicine will be sufficiently advanced to enable very long life spans (many thousands of years +). I imagine that a cure for pretty much all diseases, disorders and morbidities ...
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13answers
3k views
Which is initially more favorable; large or small settlements in a new planetary colony?
I have a question that concerns a story I am writing and I hope it is a valid one to ask. But in my story, several groups of colonists, each arriving on different ships at relatively the same time, ...
6
votes
6answers
335 views
What hardships would humans face colonizing a nearby habitable world
My story involves a groups of colonists from a near post-apocalyptic Earth settling on a nearby, newly discovered habitable world, each colony separated and unknown to the others initially. Throughout ...
15
votes
7answers
2k views
How can I tell I've travelled 20 million years into the future?
Story starts out about 100 years from now.
While in orbit around Earth preparing for an interstellar mission, our spacecraft encounters some hand-wavey spacetime anomaly such that we're still in ...
8
votes
9answers
539 views
What mechanisms can I use to instantly materialize an object?
In a far-distant future Pascal enters the bridge of his intelligent space ship.
He's a lazy bloke who can't be bothered to sit or stand, so he flicks his fingers and in a moment of Clarkian magic ...
2
votes
7answers
638 views
Lava behind a forcefield; How to solidify the lava in contact? [closed]
I have a volcano spewing a lavaflow over the countryside.
I have a small valley area protected by an advanced forcefield. It is an extended version of a space going ship's forcefields.
When lava ...
