Questions tagged [near-future]
For questions concerning the immediate future, where technology is assumed to have advanced slightly while still recognizable to modern humans. Questions utilizing this tag should focus on a particular technology and may be about a technology itself (how would this work) or the impact of a given technology on a particular topic (Society, Warfare, Economics, etc)
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A country where citizens are supposed to have a name with three to ten parts [closed]
In my world that is set in a near future, there was an EXTREMELY big country fusion.
Since the country has more than 500 million inhabitants, people are required to have a name with at least three ...
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22
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Why would a highly advanced society still engage in extensive agriculture?
What are some plausible reasons why an advanced, futuristic society would still have a sizable agricultural/rural component, and a significant rural population? This hypothetical civilization is ...
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What would a city look like that adapted to sporadic tsunami-like flash floods?
In a near future where super-cell storms drop massive amounts of water (300 l/m²) in the blink of an eye, cities - built upon the cities of old - have adapted to these tsunami-like flash floods. But ...
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8
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Landmine detonation by air explosions?
In the story I am creating, there's a near-future Earth, where humanity is recovering from global conflict; only parts of the world have retained the science and technologies that have been widespread ...
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Why would a republic still have the word Principality or Kingdom or Empire in their official long name? [closed]
I am writing a prospective that is set in a near future.
The United-Kingdom of Great-Britain and Northern-Ireland is now a republic, which means the British royal family has been abolished by a ...
- 5,042
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4
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668
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Feasibility of the distributed prison [closed]
Sometimes an idea comes to you and resonates for what it represents and how it shapes the story rather than how logical or technologically inevitable it might seem. That's the current status of the ...
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Portable Alternatives to Traditional Keyboard/Mouse Input
In a near-future alternate reality where smartphones were never invented, people rely heavily on augmented reality and highly mobile computing. High-tech clothing and accessories are everywhere. Heads-...
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How will corporations ensure return on investment for funding slower than light colonization efforts?
Let's say a future world where faster than light communication exists, but not faster than light travel. There is a desire to colonize other worlds outside the solar system, but it's massively ...
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What will the 2050's earth atmosphere will look like? [closed]
I'm currently developing a project where i have to design a pair of shoes that will resist all or most of the weather conditions in 2050. Due to climate change, shoes or materials used will change, i'...
3
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1
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Is a monarchic confederation possible?
In my world that is set in a future Earth, there is a transcontinental country corresponding to the respective areas of the Fifth French Republic, the United-Kingdom of Great-Britain and Northern ...
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Under what conditions would a society be able to remain undetected in our current world?
So hypothetically, what would be the best "hiding" locations for societies/organizations that seek to avoid contact with the rest of humanity? In other words, where would be the best place (...
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How can a secret organisation enforce their plans without blowing their cover?
In my story there's a global organisation called Wormwood Foundation of which its very existence is classified. This organisation is tasked with protecting human civilization (and earth's biosphere) ...
3
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1
answer
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What is the timeframe for this abandoned space colony revert to a medieval society?
An outpost on a 2G (gravity) water planet (95% of the world's surface covered by oceans) becomes stranded / abandoned by the Galaxy Government, probably forever. The warp gate in orbit broke, nobody ...
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Impacts of matricentric reproductive laws [closed]
My world is a matricentric America that holds men legally responsible for unplanned pregnancies. Roughly, the idea is that if an unplanned pregnancy occurs and the woman does not get an abortion, the ...
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4
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Ubiquitous perception filters in 2030s
For my story plot to start it needs to exist a widespread technology that through a software update or patch can be (ab)used to filter out copyrighted material from perception. My idea was a neural ...
3
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1
answer
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Is my proposed neural implant feasible?
In my story a computer-brain interface called T-ANGI is as widespread as smartphones are today.
They allow users to "outsource" computation intensive tasks and memory retrieval to data ...
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3
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Implications Of Peak Humans in Sports [closed]
In a world where genetic mods can substancially alter people's physiology even after they've reached maturity, do you think that sports that are physical conditioning based will die out in favor of ...
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4
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A.I. can make Video, Photographs, and Audio perfectly out of text prompt. How screwed is our legal system? [closed]
In the near-future (circa 2030), publicly available open-source A.I. can create any Picture, moving picture, or audio track imaginable from a text prompt. It takes a lot of computing resources (but ...
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How can AI know that all humans are dead?
This question is indeed inspired by I Am Mother movie and Horizon series, but scenario I envisioned is different.
Below is the in-world intro, feel free to skip it.
Hello, I'm Refa. Full name: ...
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17
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Non-lethal firearm that could throw an assailant backwards a couple feet
How would a non-lethal, hand-held ‘firearm’ (as in not a melee weapon) produce enough ‘force’ (I’m using this word lightly, not as a physicist) to throw an attacker back a minimum of ten feet, work?
...
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communication system
What COMMUNICATION SYSTEM would be most effective for emergency messages underwater and deep inside mountain habitats? How would the sound energy be effected by moving through air, water or solid rock....
user94998
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How many years until cities become either a flatland or forests? [closed]
To be clear, I'm talking about apocalyptic events that cause devastating long-term effects, such as:
An asteroid impact (lets say about 4.5km wide)
A hyper-eruption from a super volcano (lets say it ...
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6
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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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3
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How would a futuristic robot soldier look like? [closed]
I feel that whenever I search for something like “futuristic robot soldier”, the results are always similar and they look like designs and concepts made by ARTISTS, not ENGINEERS. As far as I know, ...
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How to heal a defective superhuman?
By modifying the human genome an organization in the future created a class of superhumans. Factors that would cause most hereditary diseases have been erased, and the ones in muscle mass, strength, ...
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How big would a city of crops need to be to minimise all agricultural land use?
I made these sketches to envision a world where food is grown in buildings and people can live in forests covered lands instead of the land being used for agriculture. But how big would such a city ...
4
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4
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What could make a good equivalent to late 1700s/early 1800s rifles/rifleman for a near future setting?
What could make a good equivalent to late 1700s/early 1800s riflemen in a near future setting? The The important qualities are that they're elite, use long range man portable weapons, & have it ...
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What would body armour designed for women look like?
Currently pretty much all body armour is designed for men, then sometimes adapted for women (although very often it isn't). So what would body armour designed for the use of women look like? (...
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Barring asteroid impacts, disease, natural disaster, war — Why would the S&P 500 crash to 700 before 2023, and remain under 700 until 2030?
Many famous wealthy investors are predicting a stock market crash.
On 25 March 2021, Ray Dalio: Current bubble 'halfway' to 2000 and 1929
"By our measures, the bubble is not what it was in 2000 ...
user91827
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7
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Weighted Clothes In A Low Gravity Environment
Would weighted clothes be enough to simulate Earth-like gravity in a low-gravity environment?
If even by using centrifugal force on a space station would feasibly only produce a gravity that is a ...
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How to get bomb-laden drones long distances without gathering suspicion?
(note: this takes place in the same universe as my previous question)
Hello, fellow comrades.
As you know, we have been gaining in strength lately, exploiting instability in Russia (quick author's ...
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3
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How much damage to the US would a Yellowstone eruption cause?
I posted this question: How would the United States survive and adapt in the decades following a Yellowstone eruption? What things would need to change as the world recovers? and it was closed due to ...
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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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Why would a suit of armour need power to provide protection to its wearer? [closed]
Why would electricity be needed to provide protection to the user of a suit of power armour? I'm not referring to the movement or any other systems in the armour. I mean, if the user gets shot, ...
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2
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Why would a military use hybrid jet-propeller planes?
Hybrid jet-propeller planes in real lift where a weird thing that existed in the 40s & 50s, no type of them ever saw combat use or even limited production. In modern day not even much research is ...
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Why would very large trucks regularly be used for logistics?
The very large trucks are mining truck size. They can haul 300 to 100 tonnes of Thing™. They can be outfitted to carry containers.
They have a roughly equivalent curb weight to their payload. They can ...
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Arrest global warming trend via any means (E without S or G)
ESG stands for Environmental, social and corporate governance. Simply trying to evaluate what kind of radical "E" solutions are possible if "S" and "G" were removed from ...
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6
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What could a 4th crew member do in a tank with an autoloader?
The tanks are normal tanks. Big gun, lot of armour, very fast, tracks, etc. It can't just be a dedicated drone operator. (It can be part of the role but not the whole thing) You can add whatever you ...
- 3,804
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7
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Conditions for Modern Trench Warfare
What battlefield/tech conditions would necessitate the use of trench warfare in a modern or semi near future setting? One thing I was considering was the significant advancement of railguns/AT guns ...
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What would warfare look like on bodies the size of Ganymede to Europa?
As for more specific numbers these bodies are in the range of between the size of 2634.1±0.3km & 1560.8±0.5km in radius. The environmental conditions of them are that of the bodies of that size ...
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How will the future of work look like? [closed]
A few observations.
Actual job - which fill directly and efficiently real human basic needs - are getting scarce, there is a surge of bullshit jobs, an accrual of complex and rhetorical organizations ...
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4
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Suburban areas for megacities?
Lately I have been looking into the concept of megalopolises across several works of fiction and futurology, and I have also been wondering wether or not it would make sense for such urban sprawls to ...
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What would make good weapons for literal birds?
These birds are Australian magpies, but with human level intelligence. No other differences. They have a near future level of technology available. There are 2 limitations:
It can't be suicidal, the ...
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3
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What kind of propulsion system would work in the air and underwater?
I have a futuristic aircraft that's supposed to be submerged under the sea and to lift off again without an issue. The problem is, I don't know of a propulsion system that could work both under water ...
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What could make armoured trains viable in a near future setting?
The armoured trains need to be made viable without just removing other aspects of warfare. Tactical pure fusion nukes with a yield of under 75kt are common. The environment of the planet is earth like....
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Will the management class disappear soon? [closed]
Do you see the management class, in companies, public organizations, politics, all kind of institutions be eradicated and disappear soon ?
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Regulation of body hopping / mind copying / mind manipulation
Scenario: in the not-so-distant future, someone(s) crack the code to the human mind. Essentially, humanity now has the power to treat the human mind as computer files - copy, delete, modify - all in ...
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6
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How would tough, high flying & heavy "skyships" affect warfare?
When I say this I don't mean airships, with their large & vulnerable gas bags. These Skyships have their lift providing method safely within their armour. Regarding their armour, it isn't light. ...
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Could a near future version of assault sappers work? [closed]
These units would be a version of the soviet assault sappers from WW2, updated with near future technology. The equivalent to their steel breastplates would be light power armour. The flamethrowers ...
- 3,804
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6
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What could allow large scale paradrops to be viable against opponents with good air defences in the near future?
What could allow large scale paradrops to be viable against opponents with good air defences in the near future? Currently large scale paradrops just don't. For most western paratrooper forces lack ...
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