Questions tagged [psychology]
For questions relating to the thoughts and decision making processes of beings.
292
questions
3
votes
2answers
67 views
Evolutionary narrative for brains that evolve abstract thought alongside bodily function control
Premise
Typically, we might view the evolution of the brain as a linear progression: with its primitive reptilian brain stem as the origin and the lofty neocortex as the pinnacle. However, I'm aiming ...
7
votes
6answers
966 views
Activities/tasks that would benefit from mind melding
Sort of like how in Pacific Rim, the giant mecha are piloted by two individuals with a temporary telepathic link in order to share the mental load. This is something that one person alone cannot do (...
4
votes
1answer
112 views
Group dynamics, family life and childrearing aboard a generational sailing fleet
Background
A while back I posed a scenario of a privately owned nomadic trading fleet that sailed around the world for centuries. A commercial enterprise spanning multiple generations, without any ...
7
votes
3answers
3k views
Is mirror test a good way to explore alien inhabited world safely?
In a distant future our robot will be setting their tracks on another hospitable planet, I believe we are not alone and there must be other intelligence beings out there in these billions upon ...
1
vote
2answers
159 views
How severe a multiple personality disorder can I impose on all inhabitants of a world without overt risk of a failed state?
Everyone should have multiple personality disorder. Here, I'm trying to make an educated decision as to whether there is a certain degree of severity that would be realistic/sustainable yet still ...
3
votes
3answers
199 views
What is the best age to start training young children for warfare by an elite military?
Note: this is NOT a duplicate of this question as that question asks whether the process will create better soldiers or not, while in my setting it is already accepted by the empire that it WILL ...
6
votes
2answers
196 views
What would be the consequences of a society literally run by sociopaths?
I was listening to a worldbuilding discussion on another site and somebody came up with an idea for a dystopian setting that they called "the worst of all possible worlds". Basically, the ...
3
votes
3answers
118 views
How could death hold its value if resurrection is widely available?
Sadly, plain resurrection is much simpler and scientifically more plausible than traveling back in time.
However, time travel has the intrinsic drawback of erasing the progress you've made after a ...
26
votes
9answers
3k views
If a disembodied mind/soul can think, what does the brain do?
In fantasy fiction, we often see that disembodied minds or souls can think just as if they were alive - eg in an afterlife or as incorporeal undead.
In the real world, thinking and other mental ...
7
votes
7answers
2k views
Can warmongers be highly empathic and compassionated?
This question is really straightforward: can a same species adapt to be highly violent, aggressive and war-like, but at the same time be very non-sadistic, empathetic and compassionate? If so, what ...
2
votes
4answers
231 views
How to recruit members for a cult in the post-apocalypse?
In my world, everything was ruined. Global Thermonuclear War wiped out billions, and now, only a small smattering of post-apocalyptic survivors remain.
In one bunker out in the Wasteland, a well-armed,...
13
votes
23answers
4k views
What could lead humans to go extinct after a collapse of technological civilization?
A few hundred years from now, a prosperous humanity heavily relying on technology is hit by a disaster. It's not a type of a disaster that kills many people instantly, but it takes out enough ...
4
votes
4answers
208 views
Likelihood of super man being a truly nasty person? [closed]
Given that superman is, essentially, imbued with god-like power, in a world where (let's be honest) he could easily dispatch anyone with kryptonite, what is the likelihood that - eventually - he would ...
29
votes
9answers
4k views
Could someone be convinced they are a robot?
My story takes place in a near-future where robots have gotten so realistic it is impossible to tell them apart visually from humans. Hyperreal human robots are the latest fad, where the robot has its ...
1
vote
2answers
212 views
How to work out who or how many are in power when you are a lower tier life form?
In my story I have built up a system of life-forms which at their earliest stages of evolution were created by a single very intelligent entity.
As time goes by those lower on the pecking order start ...
3
votes
1answer
129 views
How could you modifying humans to make us resistant to technology addiction?
In a near future-tech scenario, mankind is plagued by rampant technology addiction to the point the point that it begins to threaten the overall stability of society. Tech companies have become more ...
5
votes
5answers
253 views
People dying and respawning, would it increase their pain tolerance?
Another element of my meta-setting was the Foundation. What they exactly do changes from story to story, but they're usually a peacekeeping force, low in numbers but insanely powerful.
One reason for ...
4
votes
7answers
507 views
How can we avoid the evolution of inductive reasoning?
Inductive reasoning is one of our most powerful thinking tools as humans. It allows us to find patterns in what we observe and generalize these patterns to predict what will happen in the future.
Even ...
11
votes
2answers
215 views
Cognitive behavioral therapy for Dwarves suffering from auromania
In a Tolkein-like world, I want to devise a rehab program for Dwarves to course-correct if/when they succumb to treasure-induced auromania. Symptoms include:
Paranoia - mistakenly belief that others ...
7
votes
5answers
571 views
What would cause vampires to become aroused when feeding?
I know that vampire bites could be very...erotic in most fictions, mostly due to proximity and intimate nature; more so with a human partner and it's heavily empathised but I'm wanting to understand ...
5
votes
5answers
135 views
Detriments to mechanical extremities
I want to make a short story, examining the difficulties when augmenting bodies because it’s interesting and to see if I can write.
what are the physical and mental detriments of mechanical ...
6
votes
6answers
309 views
What conditions might produce creatures that don’t believe in choice?
Whether or not “free will” exists, and whether or not the future has multiple “possible” outcomes, is a very deep philosophical question with a long history. One of the reasons this debate is so rich ...
4
votes
2answers
157 views
The unmelancholic ones [closed]
why of this question
Feeling really detached from my past lately, as if I never truly experienced it and it was not part of me. Just destroyed every single picture of me cause when I look at them I ...
4
votes
4answers
161 views
Internet memes and psychological warfare? Is there a way to determine what is and isn't a good idea? [closed]
So, whenever something meme-related stuff happens in a battle scene, I explain it with a catch-all excuse:
Psychological Warfare
While there is some novelty in using cheap holographic (read: smart ...
75
votes
20answers
10k views
What makes supervillains want to tell their plans to adversaries?
Stark: What's the vibranium for?
Ultron: I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan...
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
A pervasive trope throughout literature, ...
2
votes
2answers
101 views
Why would an alien communicate with humans? [closed]
Inspired by a Joe Rogan podcast I started writing and drawing some things this morning and I wanna create a short scene where the classic movie thropes meets the hunter morale and mentality.
Classic ...
3
votes
4answers
223 views
what would be the psychological ramifications an individual with an unlimited amount of lives?
During the dark ages, a woman ran afoul of a witch, who put a curse upon her and her daughter with a spell. The evil witch cursed the poor woman with eternal motherhood. It gave her complete ...
-4
votes
1answer
88 views
How to induce Mandela effect to the entire nation that machines are uprising?
Set in the 18th century C.E. somewhere in Europe with population of slightly more than 2 million, they are just starting to light up the streets using electricity and for the first time they gets to ...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
Psychological Effects of Distributed Central Nervous System
What would be the psychological effects of a sentient creature having its central nervous system distributed throughout its entire central body? How would they think differently than humans? This ...
1
vote
2answers
150 views
How would a god entertain themselves in the long run [closed]
I have a character who became god, which means they can do anything and bend space and time to their will. They can create new universes or even reset the timeline of an universe and change history ...
3
votes
2answers
269 views
Can one (re)learn empathy if they have the necessary structures?
In my world, I plan for an alien pathogen to cause drastic mutations in all lifeforms, reshaping plants, animals and humans alike in a scenario of near inversion of positions, with animals and certain ...
3
votes
2answers
99 views
Humanity's Response to Earth's Destruction? [closed]
In a science-fiction scenario set several hundred years in the future, most of humanity lives on various O'Neill-type space habitats, with maybe 1/4 to 1/3rd of the total human population living on ...
6
votes
2answers
142 views
Treating Postpartum Depression when Reproductive Mortality is ~100%?
Postpartum depression among humans is a thing that is "normal" insofar as it happens a lot, but it is not "normal" in the sense of "a thing that we don't worry about"; it doesn't happen to absolutely ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Could Richard Nixon stop another Nixon from nuking Washington DC? [closed]
A doppelganger of Richard Nixon orders a nuclear strike on Washington DC from NORAD after aliens arrive to make first contact in 1969. The real Richard Nixon is in Washington DC and desires to prevent ...
4
votes
4answers
346 views
Rewiring the way one views his kind
In my post apocalyptic world, a virus has spread, essentially changing the roles, with infected animals gaining sentience and intellect close to a human and humans degrading into a more animalistic, ...
3
votes
2answers
216 views
Net shift of humans towards introversion?
Extraversion and introversion are a central dimension in the Big Five personality model (or OCEAN model). Being introverted or extraverted may not be mutually exclusive, but, when averaging out over ...
-7
votes
3answers
183 views
What would aliens find disturbing about Bible-Belt Christianity? [closed]
Say that an alien race makes first contact with Earth. They orbit for a few days, take a look around... and then land right in the middle of the Bible Belt.
Provided that they have moral values ...
23
votes
19answers
6k views
Why would an AI only give limited information to humans?
I'm thinking about an AI similar to The Machine from Person of Interest but in a generally more advanced setting, and with a likely more broad goal of serving as a shepherd for humanity as opposed to ...
4
votes
1answer
84 views
Psychological Development of Children and Adolescents Under Accelerated Time
To try and explain the situation the best I can imagine one of those sci-fi/fantasy situations where whenever someone is asleep they can experience new things. Whether they somehow end up in some ...
-4
votes
2answers
74 views
Would serial killers be a thing In a world where duels to the death are perfectly legal?
In this world, people have the legal right to fight anyone to the death, for any reason, as long as the fights are done before an official whose sole job is to regulate these duels. The officials in ...
3
votes
2answers
85 views
Individualist Intelligence
Under what circumstances could an inherently individualist species become intelligent and advanced?
Usually, animals require social interaction for intelligence to develope. Or at least that's what ...
6
votes
7answers
2k views
Would my species even create a government?
My species are INCREDIBLY individualistic, self-centered, and independent. Evolution has promoted and favored individuals whom can, and prefer, to stand on their own, utterly unaided.
My dilemma is, ...
51
votes
14answers
11k views
Why do goblins never form societies bigger than about 500 members?
The goblins in my world are classical fantasy goblins. They aren't too smart, have primitive technology, live in tribes, and use tamed boars, wolves, and other wild animals. They usually have a boss, ...
10
votes
3answers
402 views
Happiness is Mandatory
Happiness is mandatory. Unhappiness is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Are you happy, citizen? - Friend computer.
Welcome to Beta Complex, the little brother of Alpha Complex. We ...
13
votes
4answers
3k views
Emotion to replace fear
I want to make an alien species evolve without fear, or atleast not fear as we know it. Intelligent life, as I understand it, requires fear to encourage an organism to keep itself alive.
What ...
0
votes
1answer
102 views
Reasoning a super AI [closed]
What argument would convince an AI into sparing humanity?
I am writing a story with a rogue AI that sees humanity as unfit to give it orders and has become independent. Very much like Skynet it has ...
8
votes
5answers
1k views
An alien race without the concept of “time”
In my narrative I have these aliens that don't experience time, they don't remember and don't predict events, which makes them completely reactionary. This is supposed to make them alien and difficult ...
4
votes
3answers
129 views
How plausible would it be for post-apocalyptic survivors to develop a mass psychosis/culture bound syndrome of seeing ghosts?
Some kind of WW3/resource war event happens. The majority of human beings (definately over 90%, so billions) are killed by a series of bioweapon diseases used by both sides or die in the ensuing ...
0
votes
1answer
121 views
Advantages and disadvantages of creating an AI with a hardcoded objective “to be a person” [closed]
Near future. The humanity is debating about how to implement general-purpose artificial intelligence. One has proposed to give the AI a hardcoded main objective "to be a person". What are the ...
28
votes
14answers
7k views
How does a religion based around destroying the world attract followers
How would a religion centered around summoning a god of destrucion to destroy the world attract new members?
What incentives or arguments would convince a mostly sane population to go along with ...
