Questions tagged [humans]
For questions about humans as we know them or slightly changed, their physiology, psychology, politics, society and goals.
0
votes
0answers
14 views
How do tongues affect speech? [duplicate]
If you had your tongue removed, would you still be able to form coherent words? What sounds would you lose the ability to make and why?
23
votes
7answers
3k views
What city and town structures are important in a low fantasy medieval world?
I've been working on a procedural map generator that draws cities and towns on continents and islands and I've gotten to the point where I'd like to add lists of structures to the settlements.
I know ...
5
votes
2answers
139 views
What non-primate animals have similar blood to humans?
I am writing about a blood magic cult, and they drink/paint with collected blood to preform rituals and bursts of magic. Most of their supply is garnered through the use of human cattle, but in a ...
29
votes
11answers
4k views
Half of living beings in the universe die: Does society survive? [closed]
Some purple person, somewhere, collected the Eternity Baubles, clicked their heels and suddenly, half of all living beings in the universe just go poof.1
The effect isn't restricted to sentient ...
8
votes
6answers
383 views
How long would it take for a group of humans to travel across a continent by foot?
Think a Lord of the Rings-esque quest to save their kingdom. This quest would also involve detours, but I can just factor those in later. The continent is around the size of Australia, with a lot of ...
4
votes
2answers
151 views
What cultural nuances and customs might a medieval, largely agrarian society with a strict caste system have?
I apologize in advance, because this will be pretty long. I already have a vague idea of some customs, so I need to include both the sociopolitical aspects of this as well as those customs.
The ...
2
votes
0answers
158 views
If a boy was tattooed on his back, would the tattoo more-or-less sruvive into adulthood intact? [closed]
If a child, say, a white, ten year old boy, got a big tattoo on his upper back (read: shoulder to shoulder), would it change a lot as the child grew into adulthood?
Since the early-ish industrial ...
4
votes
2answers
276 views
Which sounds could a tongueless person produce?
In my world, officials dealing with sensitive information have their tongues amputated.
Naturally writing and a special, government-only sign-language are the main forms of communication, but ...
1
vote
1answer
129 views
What accommodations would a giant need?
I'm making a human female who's size was multiplied by 10. I need to know what sort of accommodations she'd need to make up for any disadvantages. This is in the modern day, so 21st-century medicine ...
5
votes
2answers
317 views
How long would it take to eliminate the lovecraft mythos from the human consciousness?
Hundreds of years ago during the black plague, an individual named Howard Phillips Lovecraft started what would lead to the doom of humanity. Although a mediocre writer himself, his works of ...
3
votes
1answer
64 views
How long to recover from muscle atrophy?
For context, I'm currently working on a short story series centered on a young man living in a dystopian America. This U.S. government keeps its 'undesirables' in medically-induced comas (long story ...
3
votes
3answers
324 views
Could a person replace half of their body with gold and still live? What technology would be needed in order to be successful?
My character is male and eighteen years of age. He has no health issues.
'Gold' can be replaced with any type of metal - silver, bronze, steel, iron, it doesn't really matter to me. The ideal type ...
1
vote
2answers
91 views
How can existing methods of plumping, genetic modification, and gmo feeding be altered to accommodate the need for plumper, meatier human food stock?
I am an orc warboss called "The Beast" who has invaded earth and enslaved humanity. You humies are a worthless sprcies that have accomplished nothing of note in your civilizations throughout history. ...
7
votes
1answer
229 views
What is the maximum size of a tribe living off of one whale per year?
A small village of ice miners has popped up in the Northern Territory. They are a mix of southern workers who integrated with the native tribes. The group subsists on the meat of a single humpback ...
9
votes
4answers
472 views
Can humans save crash-landed aliens?
An alien ship that has been observing earth, and humans in particular, for the past year has sustained catastrophic damage and crash lands on earth. While the alien ship has a crew of about 20 ...
2
votes
12answers
467 views
How could a same sex couple have children?
In my current work, I want same sex couples to be fully integrated in society. As it is set in a medieval fantasy world, survival of the human species relies on having children, so same sex couples ...
3
votes
4answers
157 views
What would a bioengineered human-predator look like? [closed]
Read (and watched) 'After Earth', where humanity has fled a dying Earth to colonise a new world. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, some intelligent aliens decide to periodically send waves of ...
-5
votes
4answers
175 views
What would happen if everybody received $1B? [closed]
My wife is an accountant and she refused to listen to my stupid idea. Before I go and ask economists, I would like to ask Worldbuilding :)
CONTEXT:
As we hopefully are aware, increasing automation ...
30
votes
6answers
7k views
Physiological effects of huge anime eyes
Anime, Disney, and many, many other works feature human characters with ridiculously oversized eyes. This is usually just a stylistic choice, and had little to no effect on anything in-story or in-...
2
votes
2answers
117 views
Calculating the weight of different sized humanoids
In my world, I have relatively robust humanoids as the focal human sub-species, and a number of other human subspecies that are more gracile in build. I wanted to work out roughly how much they would ...
15
votes
7answers
3k views
What kind of footwear is suitable for walking in micro gravity environment?
Set in the near future, the interior of the spaceship is coated with thin layers of Teflon approximately 10mm average thickness on top of titanium alloy which in case you are wondering it is weakly ...
52
votes
11answers
7k views
How can an organ that provides biological immortality be unable to regenerate?
After Cain killed his brother Abel, he was cursed by God to wander the earth forever. On his travels, he met a sympathetic woman named Lilith. They discovered that they had a mutual beef with their ...
0
votes
3answers
314 views
How long can a human stand to be underground?
How long can a man survive underground without going insane?
A traveler is buried under stones in a cave system. His only sources of food are mushrooms and creatures that live in the caves. Some of ...
2
votes
3answers
179 views
Men only world downsides [closed]
It's year 2156 and humanity as we know it is drastically changed by alien radiation. Six years ago an alien ship teleported above Earth and emitted what we later found out to be radiation that causes ...
3
votes
3answers
304 views
Is there any advantage to have A.I. being able to experience loneliness?
Let get this straight being lonely is different from solitude, human is arguably one of the most successful animals ever to walk on two. The secret lies in social interaction, the early humans hunt in ...
6
votes
3answers
578 views
Humans have energy, but not water. What happens? [closed]
Suppose that through a "hand-wavium" genetic engineering coupled with nanotechnology the humanity was able to develop a body battery.
How does this work? It provides enough energy for the human body....
18
votes
9answers
3k views
Gravity alteration as extermination tool viable?
An alien race was rubbed the wrong way by humans being humans and decided that humankind has to go. However, unlike many other science fiction stories, they do not intend to give the humans even a ...
0
votes
1answer
149 views
Could another species overtake us technologically? [closed]
Is it possible for another of Earth's species to catch up and overtake us technologically over the next million years or so? Assuming we survive that long as a species and our technology stagnates ...
4
votes
3answers
177 views
How would one communicate with the hive mind of the human race? [closed]
Imagine each human is like a neuron in a brain. Then the totality of all humans communicating together would create some kind of hive mind.
But a single neuron isn't "aware" of the mind of the brain ...
3
votes
1answer
139 views
Could a human grow up larger by manipulating their endocrine system?
In my world there are a group of female warriors with an unusual ability: the resources of their bodies are fungible. For instance, they can make the muscles in one part of their bodies stronger at ...
2
votes
4answers
231 views
What use is growing body hair in space?
It is important to tie up loose ends especially when in micro-gravity environment, we sure do not want to accidentally damage the delicate pieces of equipment crucial for keeping the spacers alive and ...
2
votes
3answers
256 views
How long could humans survive only on other humans?
A tragic event strikes the Earth, killing all living plants and animals except humans. With no other food source, humans turn to cannibalism. Assuming fresh water and oxygen is still available, how ...
4
votes
3answers
167 views
Performance enhancing drugs (mostly realistic)
I have a character in my story who is immortal and heals very quickly (think Wolverine). Ignoring physical side effects (but keeping in mind psychological ones) what sorts of drugs could he take to ...
3
votes
2answers
179 views
Why would artificial general intelligence fear death? [closed]
Set in the immediate future, artificial general intelligence (AGI) has attained sapient equivalent of a 15 years old teenager, these humanoid robots are hardwired to obey the robot penal code which ...
-5
votes
1answer
101 views
Can more exercise alter human genes? [closed]
I want to know if exercise can change genes or not, if yes then what is process behind it and is it permanent or temporarily.
55
votes
14answers
35k views
Why zero tolerance on nudity in space?
Set in the immediate future, mankind visits Titan, moon of Saturn for the first time. A manned space station goes into orbit around the moon once every 4-5 hours. Actually there have been many people ...
0
votes
5answers
130 views
Is that possible to make a world in which no one needs to speak? [closed]
In my ideal world, everyone will be very very Intelligent. By that I mean everyone can think and feel what other people around them think and feel, so no one needs to talk with each other. Everyone ...
23
votes
17answers
8k views
Would life expectancy increase if we replaced healthy organs with artificial ones?
Can we increase life expectancy by replacing important organs for life such as the heart, kidneys, young blood, etc. (but not the brain)? Most organs can fail and, for the ones which we already have ...
8
votes
6answers
5k views
Would humanity go extinct if pleasure ceases?
In the near future, the human population is overcrowded and food and water becomes scarce. Every preventative measure failed to address this issue and the world falls into a turmoil and panic is ...
4
votes
5answers
153 views
How can AI distinguish conscious and subconscious instructions? [closed]
In the near future everything is connected and can think. Robots walk the street but only to control traffic and pick up rubbish, etc. Nowadays, robots don't simply execute an instruction given ...
5
votes
1answer
161 views
How do humans with electric organs prevent self-electrocution?
In my world, a small population on an isolated island were bitten by radioactive electric eels while fishing. I read that the eels can send out carefully timed signals through their nervous systems ...
9
votes
8answers
7k views
Why bother programming facial expressions for artificial intelligence if humans are bad at recognising them?
Set in the near future, robots and mankind coexist amicably due to the great technological advancement in robotics and artificial intelligence. They are everywhere and some took a human form. All of ...
7
votes
3answers
298 views
Effects of Explosive Decompression on the Human Body?
Many science fiction stories, movies, and shows involve characters undergoing explosive decompression, the technical term for a rapid drop in pressure, usually all the way to a vacuum. Frequently, ...
13
votes
13answers
5k views
What would be the difference in the reaction between trained and untrained people during an emergency situation?
For those who've read my previous questions, you might begin to see a "subtle" recurring theme.
Context
You can skip this part if you're just interested in the problem.
Question
Let's set the ...
6
votes
4answers
762 views
Literal light infantry, are these advantages and disadvantages feasible? [closed]
I'm trying to determine the feasibility of some advantages and disadvantages of literal light infantry. This type of infantry is basically the same as the rest but weighs much less.
To truly ...
7
votes
3answers
594 views
Aliens selectively breed humans to be bigger. How big could they get and still look human?
Can we go from this:
to this:
Suppose over millennia (or as long as it takes) humans on Earth are artificially selected by aliens to be big and healthy.
Is there any theoretical reason that they ...
2
votes
4answers
183 views
Optimal placement of a pocket dimension? [closed]
The main character of one of my stories just met a person specialized in magical tattoos, my character has chosen a tattoo which is linked to a pocket dimension.
But where should the protagonist ...
19
votes
1answer
2k views
What is the minimum number of staff members of each role to keep a Medieval estate running?
Before we begin, I know full-well that the answer changes based on the time-period, size of the estate, number of people being taken care of, amount of money available, and so forth. A correct answer ...
44
votes
8answers
10k views
Is it harder for an intelligent octopus to live on land, or a human to live in space?
I have a race of octopodes with the same intelligence distribution as humans. I want them to “colonise” land to a similar extent as we have “colonised” space; have regular transport between the ocean ...
1
vote
4answers
510 views
A society wrapped in cotton wool [closed]
In the future, rich people live in gated communities with armed guards. They are so concerned that anything bad will happen to their children that they literally wrap them up in cotton wool.
As ...
