Questions tagged [modern-age]
For questions based in contemporary Earth, current technology and social norms.
274
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How might modern humans leave a message for 50,000 years?
I recently played my way through the Mass Effect game series, and one of the ideas I found most intriguing was the emphasis placed on "time capsules" sent from one cycle to the next: not only did ...
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28
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How fast can I flood the Netherlands entirely and permanently?
I want the Netherlands to be flooded entirely, and I want the event to be of such a scale that it goes faster than hydroengineering can keep up with. This will mean that I need a sea level rise of ...
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18
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Great Old Ones Limited, or Why does Cthulhu need a Company?
A world much like our own. A city like the one in which you live. A corporation whose doors you pass every day. Maybe you notice the subtle sans-serif fonted words adorning the entrance, maybe you ...
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11
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Can a human colony survive on a 'hot' world?
A colony ship headed for its new home countless light-years from Earth suffers an unfortunate malfunction on the final part of its descent phase and crashes onto the planet. Thankfully, the ship ...
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12
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Would gorillas with human-level intelligence make effective soldiers?
Suppose I take a troop of gorillas and modify them to have human-level intelligence. How effective would they be in a war when compared to modern human soldiers, when comparably equipped?
Aside from ...
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What skills would an early-1500s era ship captain need to learn to become a modern-day sailor (and eventually a captain again)?
Let us take a reasonably skilled (i.e. someone who knew their way around the boat as well as how to navigate) ship's captain from around the beginning of the Age of Sail (late 1400s to early 1500s), ...
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Reasons why healthy people would intentionally want to get infected?
What would be a situation in modern times where normal, healthy people would want to get infected by a non-curable, but non-lethal, virus?
A virus that would have pretty nasty symptoms.
There is ...
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What would an immortal-run American bank have to do to secretly maintain bank accounts for immortal customers?
A common concern with immortal fictional characters like vampires and the like is the frequency with which they'd have to change their identities and move around in order to avoid people noticing how ...
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18
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What US states are most likely to rebel?
A Little Explanation
I have come across many books and trilogies based on the premise of a war torn United States. The latest of these is Burning Nation (link to Amazon page) in the Divided We Fall ...
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15
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Where on Earth is it easiest to survive in the wilderness?
In which wilderness area on modern-day Earth would it be easiest for a lone human to survive year-round? What resources are available there and what tools and skills would be necessary? What is the ...
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Fallout from aliens destabilizing economy by counterfeiting all global currencies?
Let's say a species of naive, yet well-intentioned aliens came across the Earth.
They generally like humans and decide to try to increase their happiness by supplying the thing which they have ...
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7
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Dragons and aviation bureaucracy
Once you do the handwaving needed to explain a modern-day world with flight-capable dragons in it, how would said dragons interact with the bureaucracy surrounding flying in the modern world? What ...
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46
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18
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How would modern naval warfare have to have developed differently for battleships to still be relevant in the 21st century?
So basically, battleships are awesome. I am interested in creating a setting where they were never superseded in their role of long-range command vessels and fire support by aircraft carriers, ...
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Famous conjecture or unsolved problem that could be plausibly proven/solved by freshman mathematician?
Is there any conjecture or famous unsolved problem, that doesn't require much prerequisite knowledge and could be plausibly proven / solved by freshman?
My hero is average freshman in mathematics, ...
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45
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16
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Modern soldiers carry axes instead of combat knives. Why?
In my alternative history story, taking place at the end of the 20th century, one country has an army with platoons of airborne scouts. But unlike modern special forces they don't use combat knives as ...
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What are the enabling factors for melee combat in modern or future settings?
Swords are neat. Unfortunately, they aren't very practical with guns around. What sorts of technologies, social circumstances, environmental factors or magics would allow for people who train to fight ...
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Could humanity survive if all except a few males died in a plague?
Tomorrow, a sudden airborne plague comes around that kills nearly all human males - women are unaffected. The UN and different nations try their hardest but fail to find a cure. There are riots and ...
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A person from medieval times comes into our time. What would he notice first?
A medieval person (say from around 1000 AD, and from a rural village) walks through the forest, and through some unspecified mechanism suddenly turns out to be in our time. He is still far away from ...
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43
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18
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What would an Earth with no timezones be like?
If we abolished the system of time zones, and everywhere followed UTC (or another arbitrary timezone), what would the possible advantages or disadvantages of this system be? If you can think of any ...
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42
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32
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Most effective long-term zombie killing weapon
So I asked this question a few days ago, with excellent and certainly useful feedback. I've decided I'd like to build upon that question with some ways to combat our 'new and improved super zombies'.
...
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10
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In modern day combat, what would warrant singing during battle?
Cicad the singer is having a downtime in his career.
Over the millennia, Cicad sang anywhere from royal courts to farmers' cottages and have been rewarded with many, many hand-claps.
But to keep ...
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Where could a person from the 14th century appear such that they would not notice modern technology for a week?
In this case, a person from a world similar to ours, at a time and technology roughly equivalent to our 14th century, but with magic. Through some odd spell, this person was teleported far away from ...
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How to realistically create a bow that's also two one-handed swords?
In the anime RWBY most characters have crazy weapons with multiple forms, like a scythe, that’s also a gun, or a gauntlet, that’s also a gun or a sword, that’s also a scythe AND a gun!
But the ...
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39
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7
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How long can an abandoned, semi-sheltered computer remain bootable?
Simply put, what's the expiration date of a computer? The reason I ask is for the sake of a society recovering from some sort of cataclysm and trying to reclaim lost technology. However, I could also ...
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18
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What do fairies wear and how can they evade detection by our cameras?
Set in the modern day; fairies are tennis ball sized humanoids with wings residing within the dense rainforest throughout the world. Local human populations consider them to be guardians protecting ...
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36
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20
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Are there any mathematics that could only be learned by very few people?
I'm worldbuilding a situation where new drug increases IQ when given to preschool children. Unfortunately only 1% of the recipients get the benefits, the rest risk their development being stunted. As ...
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19
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Why is super hero technology never used by civilians?
In comic books all kinds of super hero technology comes up. Villains will use shrink rays, heroes will have super suits and an AI in their bat computer, and the government has flying helicarriers and ...
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20
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How can my town be public knowledge while still keeping outsiders out?
My story is set in the early 1990s, and it's about various races of immortal humanoid mythical creatures living amongst humanity in secret. The main setting is a town in America that's been around for ...
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32
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7
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How do the zombies win when they're so weak?
I'm writing an autobiography of my life in the post-Zed world. Now, I think the effects of the Zeds have been obvious – total obliteration of any worldwide infrastructure, severe depopulation, turning ...
anon
32
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10
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Which jobs could western geniuses, who lived between 1643-1900, have in the modern age related to their talents?
I'm trying to write a comedy where as a plot device I have:
Some of the greatest western minds of human history, who lived between 1643 and 1900, are transported into the modern age. I still haven't ...
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17
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Could we still plunge modern civilization into another black death?
Many thought it was the poor hygiene and inadequate medicines that laid waste to the entire world -- particularly Europe -- as millions of lives were lost, although the death toll only subsided but it ...
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How much smarter would bred humans become?
I'm building a setting in a fictional Latin American country which is under military rule. The junta starts a breeding program in the late 40's with help from unscrupulous escaped Nazi scientists.
...
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8
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What is a city like after a hundred years or so of neglect?
I have a post-apocalyptic setting where the vast majority of humanity died off a few generations ago and the remnants were rounded up and placed on the island of Oahu, which has been made into a ...
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How far away could Earth detect a projectile travelling at relativistic speeds?
Suppose our alien neighbors woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided humans would be less annoying if their home planet was hit with a giant artillery shell travelling at half the speed of ...
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8
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In modern world, what is the largest building that could be built overnight?
I've worked a couple of Habitat for Humanity mass builds where entire houses go from a poured foundation to complete in the course of a few days, and whole neighborhoods are built in a week. There's a ...
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18
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Why would people let a super tree grow?
In my city, a very high skyscraper stands at the center. Somehow, a tree, in a span of [x] years integrates itself into the building. Its branches reach out from the top of the building and its shadow ...
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27
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13
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Is it possible to have a wealthy country without a middle class?
I'm trying to create well-off country, which judging solely by GDP per capita would be considered wealthy with something like 60,000 USD per capita. However the country middle class is very small.
Is ...
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How would the constant presence of an affable, undemanding immortal affect a society?
There are lots of books that explore immortality outside the context of society. Either they live alone or in a heaven/palace of one sort or another, or they drift from place to place to avoid ...
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6
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Ergonomically correct eagle riders in the modern age
Since Tolkien put people riding on giant eagles in his books (or maybe even before that), the imaginarium of riding the winds on the back of magnificent birds has generated a plethora of images and ...
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27
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Regulating the usage of magic in the modern era
If magic were to manifest in the modern (present) age, how would first world governments attempt to classify and regulate its usage? To be more specific (and an example), if the USA created a ...
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My characters have been killing the same demons over and over again. How come the demons never adapt to them?
There are three "worlds" in this setting: Heaven, Hell and Midgard, Midgard being Earth and the entire Milkyway galaxy.
When a demon or an angel enters Midgard, they can't just walk there, as they ...
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24
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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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Could a natural disaster completely isolate a large city in the modern world without destroying it?
I'm trying to construct a society which has had a narrow miss with a natural disaster that has isolated them, scared them considerably, changed the culture, made many of them preppers, but didn't kill ...
- 1,300
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12
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Would we notice ridiculously healthy birds?
Consider the following situation:
Over the last 2 to 3 years, all the world's birds and bats outside of those in human captivity or domestication have stopped getting sick; sick - even terminally sick ...
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25
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27
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Is it possible to have battery technology that can't be duplicated?
I'm creating a near future world where one faction is using high energy density batteries that enable their vehicles to outperform gasoline based technology. Like cold and silent aircraft and ...
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10
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What would it take for Jane Doe to craft a book from scratch?
Background
Say hi to Jane Doe. Jane is a writer and, after years of writing and rewriting, has finally achieved what she believes is her greatest, most personal piece of writing ever.
And she has a ...
user20952
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22
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How can medieval knights protect themselves against modern guns?
How do a you make a knight with armour and a sword formidable against a modern-day soldier with gear and a gun?
And how can you make a medieval army formidable enough to face a modern day army?
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8
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Seal off a modern town
Say I have a modern Era USA town. This town has a population of about 30,000 and an area of about 30 square miles (79.4 square km). It is a predominantly rural area, lots of farmland around the town.
...
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22
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14
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What could dragons do in modern-day combat?
As I mentioned before, dragons are really hard to adapt to modern-day settings, when warfare is concerned. For every other race, even centaurs, it's fairly easy to find some kind of strength and the ...
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22
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9
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Fighting a dragon with modern military units (or Smaug vs. a MEU)
First off -- this differs from our history questions on this topic in that we are dealing with modern assets here, not historical ones, and from this question in that our military units are out to ...
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