Questions tagged [modern-age]
For questions based in contemporary Earth, current technology and social norms.
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Dealing ethically with future human monsters
My world is similar to modern-day Earth, though with additional magical realms not readily accessible from the Rational Realms that are familiar to us. In this world, as many as ten people in every ...
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Is it reasonable that magic would become a subject and magi would become students in military academies in a world with rediscovered magic?
Until twenty years before the time at which my story is set, the world was pretty much as our modern-age world is now. Magic was thought to be nothing more than myth and superstition. Alien worlds ...
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When universes collide, how much of an emergency is it?
The world of Pandemonium is a world in another universe where humans may exist, that is gravitationally connected to Earth in our universe. Over the course of history since the big bang, these ...
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Detectability of a Type III Civilization with a specific set of conditions
Conditions:
The civilization is in a galaxy which is not the Milky Way. For the purposes of this question, assume the target galaxy is 0.5 Mpc away.
The civilization has elected, for whatever reason ...
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When did creating a new assumed identity for yourself become hard? [closed]
I have a concept for a story (see below) and a rough idea of what some of the characters will do to create the central plot point in it (again, see below), the issue is, I'm not sure what point in ...
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Near-instantaneous inter-star communication utilising wormholes
This is my first question on the worldbuilding stack exchange, I discovered this place last night when double-checking that my world's river-carving-through-a-mountain-range is possible (it was, which ...
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How many people are needed to staff a "school" like Hogwarts?
What I mean by "a school like Hogwart" is that:
students range from age 11 to about 18, with about a thousand students in total
most students live here during most of the year
it works in ...
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How would a society be structured so everyone can die in combat?
Many ancient religions place value on dying in combat. For example, in Norse mythology, only those slain in battle are able to enter Valhalla.
In this alternate universe, a the population of a small ...
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Scooped up for military research: How realistic is it in this day and age?
Being 'scooped up' for military research - or being a creation of military research - has been a common trope of movies and TV for many years. However, in most western nations, if not most nations ...
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Could a humantaur in the US be accepted to West Point and/or have a career in the US Military?
For the last seventeen years, Kerner Syndrome children, known colloquially as humantaurs (as in the image below, having a fully functional second abdomen and second pair of legs, plus a horse-like ...
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Would an active-duty modern US special forces soldier be able to have retained foreign bodies from previous injuries?
I'm working on a character for my story. He is an active-duty US Army Ranger performing combat missions. I would like him to have had a previous injury suffered in the line of duty in which foreign ...
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How would California Child Protective Services deal with a feral humantaur child?
For the last thirteen years, Kerner Syndrome children, known colloquially as humantaurs (as in the image below, having a fully functional second abdomen and second pair of legs, plus a horse-like tail ...
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If the USA disbanded, who would California rely on?
Background: The American Commonwealth
The USA is no longer a legal entity. A popular "statism" movement saw the election of a single-issue president, who legally and peacefully oversaw ...
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Reason for a good parent to have to give their child to another to be raised for two years with minimal interaction [closed]
I want a protagonist to have to take over raising a friend's baby for ~ 2 years, fully knowing they will have the child for a long time. I want the friend to have chosen the protagonist to care for ...
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How can I make combination weapons widespread in my world?
I'm writing a low fantasy fiction in a XVIII century-tech kind of world.
The reason of the setting is that I love early modern muzzleloading weapons, and I think guns can make fantasy more interesting....
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When dealing with a drought or a bushfire, is a million tons of water overkill?
The people of the Vorfall Panzer Werkstat gesellschaft build the largest aircraft in the galaxy. The pride of their fleet is currently the Gyre Explorer, which is an aircraft weighing in at 140,000 ...
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What would be the best area of medicine for a doctor that moonlights in fighting evil to specialize their career in to deal with unexplained absences?
I have a character who is involved in the typical, secretive supernatural shenanigans of my setting (think something like a superhero, a monster hunter, or the vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade) but ...
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The "Exciting" Drilling company dug an underground canal connecting Death Valley to the Pacific. How much electricity can it generate on tidal forces?
Badwater Basin, part of Death Valley, is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level at its lowest point.
The "Exciting" drilling company, based in Nevada (they are exciting and not at all like their b**...
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The "Exciting" Drilling company dug an underground canal connecting Death Valley to the Pacific. How does it change the Mojave climate?
Badwater Basin, part of Death Valley, is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level at its lowest point.
The "Exciting" drilling company, based in Nevada (they are exciting and not at all like their b**...
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What is a reasonable timeframe to build a funeral pyre with a hundred corpses, with five apocalypse survivors
Survivors reaching a post-apocalyptic urban area in the north-western quadrant (North America or Europe) need to remove and dispose of all corpses in the building they intend to live in. They have ...
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What are some animals a fifteen year old boy should be able to hunt, easily, in an Early Modern Setting?
Overall I am trying to show the romance between a fifteen year old boy and girl as they both grow and age over the next few years. One of the major points of attraction is his incredible hunting ...
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What would be the ideal date and time for a magical zombie apocalypse to occur to cause the most death and destruction?
An invisible eldritch entity has enveloped the entirety of modern planet Earth. As a result of this, any human who dies becomes a zombie. This is not spread by bites or anything like that, death of ...
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What would a modern fortified castle look like?
Assume that paramilitary siege weapons were proliferated to the general public after America fell. Details below, but basically short of multi-billion dollar tactical weapons such as advanced fighter ...
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Government assisted suicide process, can it work and what should be the steps? [closed]
Imagine a country similar to the USA but one that is not completely opposed to suicide. This country believes there can occasionally be situations where death can be preferable to living in pain (be ...
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How does the Law handle temporary curing of sociopathy?
I know that sociopathy isn't technically in the DSM any more, but what I mean by the term is an individual devoid of a conscience. They don't feel guilt no matter what they do and as such so long as ...
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How can demigods living among us in the 21st century prevent losing powers?
Generations of demigod and semi-demigod have been hiding and living among us to this present day, they made a pact with the god to never reveal the existence of God or themselves in public unless they ...
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The Secretary General of the UN is dead. Who acts in his place?
António Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, and many other UN employees were killed when Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom steamrolled New York city in January 2017.
Now, in early February 2017,...
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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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Post-democratical political system
Question: how will this idea fail?
Preferably in a way that is fundamental, and can't be easily fixed with small changes. And politically based, being unable to respond to problems because of the ...
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How badly has the snakebot doomed the world?
First, on January 20th, 2017, the capitol cities of the Nuclear Club were destroyed by (very clean) 80 megaton nuclear blasts: Washington DC, Moscow, London, Paris, Beijing, New Delhi, Islamabad, ...
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The Jumbled Jaunts of Jormungandr: How predictable is the Snakebot of Doom being? [closed]
Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom has left New York. The world's armies and air forces have been decimated and cannot stop it. It has moved on from New York, and has flattened the following North ...
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How many people can be evacuated from Boston before it is flattened by the Snakebot of Doom?
Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom, has left the rubble of New York from where it has just finished destroying all the world's petroleum refineries and metal smelters, and has just made a right-hand ...
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Could ectotherms keep warm in winter?
While ectotherms are generally able to operate at a wide array of temperatures, there are still limits
This would present a problem to any ectotherms wishing to visit (or even live in) colder regions. ...
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An anthropomorphic personification of the new year [closed]
We humans have a long tradition of inventing personifications for otherwise impersonal events... such as Santa Claus, Krampus, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, the Tooth Fairy, Time, Death, Pestilence, ...
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I want to simulate Purchase Power Parity in my own universe, how can I do that?
I am currently working on a modern fantasy world, in which I am working on gdp and statistics for, I'm having a issue simulating PPP for each of the nations, and I can't find any good articles on it. ...
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Possible Reason, why magic can't be recorded by modern technology
I am imagining a Harry-Potter-like magical scenario: A secret parallel society of magic wielders in our modern-day era, only known to those, who grew up in it or those, who got initiated.
I find it ...
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How would an infantry army deal with infantry with shields? [closed]
Scenario: In a future conflict, one of the BRICS nation's infantry have effectively fielded personal shields, with medium long-term mobility. The logistics of the shield is such a way that every ...
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Will autocannon armed "soldiers" be useful in combat?
I'm creating a magic system where extremely rare humans with psychic talents could be trained to channel their powers into something similar to firing a 20 mm autocannon.
Would such large calibers ...
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Minimum staff size for a modern day small town school
The world for my current work in progress is a fiction American small town with about 500 residents and 100 kids, located in geographically isolated location which makes busing to larger nearby towns ...
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How could a vampire acquire specifically human blood without killing anyone?
I've seen a similar question posted here, but my vampires require specifically human blood. Anything other than human blood or water is disgusting and indigestible to them. Some more notes:
Drinking ...
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How to avoid children when they are magically attracted to you? [closed]
What steps could people take to avoid children who are attracted to them magically? The nature of the attraction is that it induces in the nearby (around a km^2) children an ability to sense the ...
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Earth mages in modern war? [closed]
Is there a place for earth mages in modern war?
Mages' range: 50 meters
Cost: physical strain similar to what you would experience doing mild to heavy exercise.
Abilities:
Beginner level
Launching ...
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What kinds of (effective) melee weapon could only be made with modern technology? [closed]
What kinds of (effective) melee weapon could only be made with modern technology? While we could make melee weapons with more modern technology, all we have are advancements in metallurgy applied to ...
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What is the maximum power level for a car mounted RF jammer that can keep the robots at a distance, without cooking yourself?
Assuming present day earth.
Imagine someone with access to an exa-scale super computer creates an AI. That AI then becomes sentient and tries to take over the earth.
An exa-scale supercomputer ...
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How can an armed group travel to and attack a rival group in another country?
I have a world where the different countries feature various types of organized groups, some are criminal groups (mafia type organizations) and others are non-criminal but they are both armed and ...
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How could very large (but not that large vehicles) be used in combat?
There are many questions & answers on Worldbuilding Stack Exchange about extremely large vehicles weighing 1000+ tonnes. But not any I can find about still very large but not that big vehicles ...
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Government and news media response to a seemingly impossible notification
Modern day Earth... the offices of state and national leaders, and mainstream news media outlets in an unspecified western democratic nation each receive an ornate, very official-looking and ...
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Environmental effects of destroying all petroleum refineries
Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom, has unleashed its 6.8 metric ton railgun rounds upon the world's 700 or so petroleum refineries over the space of forty-five minutes. Its goal is to put the ...
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Minimum force needed for an air strike against a wind farm?
Mission Overview
A long-simmering conflict is about to break into open war in more-or-less modern-day Earth. You are part of the staff of an air force general, who is in charge of planning a wave of ...
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How can I plausibly justify why a secret society of superhumans didn't get openly involved in the political events of the 2020s? [closed]
I have a setting that is intended to be set in the "present day" (i.e., whenever the reader is reading it) set in the United States which involves a secret society of supernatural people ...
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