Questions tagged [future]
For questions involving the future or taking place in the future. The "near-future" and "far-future" tags are preferred. Users of this tag are encouraged to provide detailed information about the nature of the future in which their question takes place.
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At what technological level can a mixed-gender military not be at a disadvantage to an all-male one?
In various fantasy settings, female combatants are quite common. There is a history of women in the military in real life but such women were generally rare and often hid their identity. Warfare was ...
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Justification for foreign intervention in an anarchist Middle East? [closed]
What would be a rational reason for Western countries to unethically intervene in the Middle East following a total economic collapse?
I'm writing a story where Middle Eastern countries descend into ...
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Why would people want a benevolent AI-controlled society? [closed]
Inspired by the Orion’s Arm worldbuilding project, I am imagining a science-fiction scenario where humans are ruled over by entities known as GODS, or Geocomputing Directories. These are computer ...
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Disasters to prompt the bettering of civilisation [closed]
so, being a cynic as well as a speculative biologist and all-round sci-if fan, I believe that the scenario I want to reach in my project, where humanity has restored the Earth’s biosphere and climate, ...
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If in the future there are flying vehicles with the same aesthetics and function of car, would it be still called a car / flying car or somthing new?
In a future where technology has evolved and cars don't need wheels and can hover and fly, but retain the same: aesthetics, functions, affordability, and cost as the cars we have today just without ...
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How could the lottery and gambling work with accurate fortune tellers?
In my world, fortune tellers and psychics aren't con men but actually possess supernatural abilities. People born into the Romani lifestyle can make repeated and accurate predictions via tarot cards, ...
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Field Promotion to Captain [closed]
In a future space navy universe that is heavily based on modern wet navies, would it be acceptable for a vessel XO (rank of Commander) to be field promoted to Captain from a single Fleet Admiral?
To ...
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Will Cobalt still be available on Earth in the year 2100?
I would like to know the state of cobalt on the earth in the year 2100, but I hear that it might run out in 2025 or 2030. Cobalt is used to make electronic components. In a world where most of the ...
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In a cyberpunk world where corporate upper class citizens can work virtually through implants, why would they build corporate mega-skyscrapers?
In my story, the upper class have augmented reality chips in their brains. What would be the point of physically going to work? Why would a corporation have incredible cyberpunk-style mega-skyscrapers ...
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Why would money or any other means of exchange need to exist if AI, robots, automation and nanotechnology produce all goods and services?
Let's say almost everyone is now jobless but almost all goods and services are made by machines including nanobot swarms and 3D printing. Even the government and the justice system in this futuristic ...
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Robot Creation and Copyrights
Let's say that in the year 2200 you can design and create your own android much like those ones of the game Detroit Become Human but instead of going to a store you customize and buy them using ...
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What benefits would make humans want to use organic technology? [closed]
I’ve been developing an idea for a human civilization that exists thousands of years in the future, and uses purely organic technology.
My question is this. Is there any real benefits or advantages ...
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The advantages and the drawbacks of being an android in comparison to being a human [closed]
Judging from many science fiction stuff I played and watched I think that being a robot has many advantages like being ageless and immortal (I mean not aging visually and having an unlimited lifespan ...
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Making stillsuits less fantasy - how to dump the heat?
As we all know1, stillsuit as described in the books would cook the user. Water would carry heat away from the body, but then it would be caught again, and again with the heat.
Assuming energy is not ...
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How quickly would the earth recover from climate change if humans were to disappear [closed]
To give an example, how long would all humans have to leave the earth for a large part of the biodiversity and the original atmosphere to be restored, the oceans to recover, the fish population to ...
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Peaceful Revolution [closed]
In a prospective story I am writing that takes place between December 2027 and June 2028 of the Gregorian calendar, a future President of the Fifth French Republic named Édouard Wang, and his Prime ...
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Could sci-fi tech be created to track you by your microbiome cloud?
I have a sci-fi story set in the future and was thinking about search dogs and how they track you and then thought about having my character use technology that can see your unique microbiome cloud ...
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How large would space warships be? [closed]
How large would space warships be? Resources are limited to that of the inner Hills cloud & inward. The main concern is fighting within the solar system. Earth is still the only habitable planet ...
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How would military branches for other planets be organized when earth is still the most relevant battlefield? [closed]
How would military branches for other planets be organized when earth is still the most relevant battlefield? While it easy to find examples of fiction where humanity hasn't left the solar & ...
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In the future, when most of the old jobs have been automated by new technology, what new jobs for humanity will emerge? [closed]
At a time when technology was just advanced enough to be able to automate the work of a traditional teacher. Which career field will replace those lost to fit the new technology landscape? With the ...
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gender studies for the genderless [closed]
Let's say in the distant future humans and aliens are going to school together, at least at a college level. If some of these aliens didn't have gender as we understand it, what questions might they ...
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How will resurrection affect inheritance law? [closed]
In our world, but in the future, humans have just discovered a technology that will resurrect any person for which a sample of DNA can be obtained. Now, for the first time, some people have been ...
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What will the roads of the future be made of? [closed]
Assuming humanity continues to build road-like structures for transport of people, freight, etc., are there likely materials candidates to replace the asphalt roads of today over the next several ...
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Delivery of minerals to Earth from the asteroids by artificial meteorite or solid metal glider
Scenario
Mining of asteroids is a successful venture in the future. However much of the resulting mineral yield is required on Earth and the problem is delivery. Carrying thousands or millions of tons ...
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Would the internet be intact in 3021 without human maintenance?
I am new to Worldbuilding, so just give me a heads up if this is off-topic or too open-ended.
Let say that today the entire human species were wiped out this month (not relevant why). Humans were ...
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Future evolution of an English Language and writing system
In a future where a large company is launching a series of interstellar colony fleets to nearby star systems, would it be feasible if they modified the English writing system and Earth kept to the ...
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What modern tactical knives do you think will become future classics? [closed]
I’m developing a costume for some military characters in a story set in 2156. What knives of today do you think could still be popular and in use by armed forces in 136 years? What are the Fairbairn-...
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How big should I make my space fleets?
I've had this story sitting for a while, but decided to come back to it. I plan on skipping ahead a few decades, where I have a giant space fleets. Assume that the ships are made for humans. Any ...
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How would travel classes be delimited in a world where teleportation is omnipresent?
The year is [Random number between 2100 and 3000], and Earth is now covered in a tight network of teleporters that have replaced all other modes of planetary travel. Only those wishing to travel to ...
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What constitutes the lifespan of a firearm? If modern guns were still used a century from now would that be unrealistic?
My setting takes place in the late 2100's, so the technology should inherently be much more advanced than the technology we currently possess. However, I still want to feature firearms that are ...
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What jobs would be necessary on a colony world with no access to any other civilized planet? (Too far away/no FTL travel)
I need to know what jobs/roles a completely self sufficient colony world would need to get started and continue to function.
The colony would be made up of 200k-300k colonists. They would be organized ...
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What can happen in a non-deterministic world? [closed]
I was reading about a theoretical charged Black Hole known as the Reissner Nördstrom Black Hole, where should someone enter its Cauchy Horizon, will end up in a world not bound by determinism. What ...
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What would happen to transgender culture/identity if sex were trivially chanageable? [closed]
This is a specific followup to the question 'How would society be different in a world where sex/gender is trivially changable?': in a future (Human, earth) society where (like in the Culture novels), ...
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Disney buys all the rights on sex bots [closed]
Year 2030, and sex bots have now been around since the early 2018 and existed as a concept for more than half a century.
But during the last years they became more and more common, they are not in ...
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What technologies will make the wheel obsolete in the future? [closed]
It will be a major revolution to see an invention that existed for many thousands of years disappear in the far future.
I think that levitating and hovering technologies will make the wheel obsolete ...
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I was brought back to life after being frozen in time, how do I know if I'm a copy of my original consciousness or if I'm actually the real me? [closed]
Year 2038, I died and was frozen for almost two centuries.
They managed to bring my flesh and bone back to life but is my consciousness the same?
What if my real self died forever? What if my ...
user72862
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Will be electronics production in zero or low gravity possible and how soon?
On the Earth's surface, we look back to an ultimately high tech evolution of computer hardware and according integrated circuit manufacturing appliances.
The knowledge required to build robust modern ...
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Creating a new form of societal hierarchy
Societies have hierarchies: today they are loosely divided into an upperclass, middle-class, lower-class.
Our world used to be more focused on a caste system with royals at the top, religious ...
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Is it possible to maintain a gun functioning after thousands of years?
The gun in question is a normal, reliable and non-specialized .45 revolver. The idealized character is the last descendant of a lineage of carriers of this gun, considered by them legendary.
Is it ...
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How can I help to verify somebody is from future?
I want to help people to verify they're from future (if they are, of course). For this I publish some facts/numbers on my website, dayly or weekly or whatever, so that a time traveller can remember ...
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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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Could there be complete equality at some point in the future?
So in my story there is only one major advanced city left in the world, and it is incredibly diverse. I would imagine that over time (it has existed for around 800 years) there would be considerable ...
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If it wasn't maintained for hundreds of years, would the Channel Tunnel collapse?
The title says it all. If it wasn't maintained for hundreds of years, would the Channel Tunnel collapse?
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What would Earth look like at the beginning of 22nd century if temperatures rose by 30 degrees Celsius?
The beginning of 22nd century. Temperatures on the globe rose by 30 degrees Celsius over decades, because humanity was unwilling to stop greenhouse gas emissions. How would the surface of Earth look ...
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How deep underground could we truly go
At a point of overpopulation in the future say 2045 and given what resources the world has at it's disposal and all manpower possible, what extreme depths could we dig down into the earth to create ...
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What would explain why modern civilation hasn't evolved much after 200 years? [closed]
For example the year 2019.
Why would the world be relatively the same technologically after 200 years?
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How would a disabled person earn their living in a medieval-type town?
We are in a far future. Humanity has widely abandoned technology, and effectively reached medieval level (so things need not be true to an actual medieval setting).
We are in a larger town. In that ...
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In the far future, humans wage war through spaceships that are mentally controlled solely by women. How would this affect the military and society? [closed]
A bit more explanation on the premise.
Humans now have extended their territory to the edges of the Milky Way galaxy and have hundreds of colonial planets. However, humans still fight among one ...
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In 2110, are flying cars a thing? [closed]
Flying cars are a standard sci-fi trope, but will they actually be a reality in 90 years? And even if they are, will they completely replace road cars? Or will the prevalence of road cars be dependent ...
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How quickly could we reach 1 Trillion people? [closed]
Ok, first let me explain who I mean by "we". The human race is currently at 7 billion people, but we are plagued by war, disease and many other things that hold us back and disrupt our population ...
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