Questions tagged [science-fiction]
For questions relating to worlds with a setting of common science-fiction.
1,031 questions
4
votes
11answers
157 views
How would 'Normal' people stop/confound/hinder my telepaths?
The telepaths can read the minds of anyone with less Teep power than they have.
I.E. Weak Telepaths can have their minds read by stronger ones, and every telepath can read a 'normal' mind.
The ...
5
votes
8answers
186 views
How would an advanced civilization on a space station not be able to explore the planet they orbit without significant time between each expedition?
Extremely advanced civilization on a computerized space station orbiting a desolate uninhabited planet. There are no other known civilizations within this station's sphere of observation. Not many ...
0
votes
0answers
86 views
Recreating the 10 Plagues of Egypt with SCIENCE! - Part 1: Rivers turn to blood! [on hold]
In the story I'm currently writing, Mankind has been enslaved for 200 years by an alien Empire. They've managed to create a Resistance cell network, as well as a version of the Underground Railroad, ...
4
votes
6answers
687 views
How to use a certain technology to communicate with colonies but keep the how-to a secret?
I'm building a world for a role-playing game campaign using the Stars Without Number system.
Some background information first:
Stars Without Number Original Setting: In the original story ...
-2
votes
0answers
88 views
can an army armed with smgs defeat an entire medieval army? [on hold]
Lets say in an alternate reality where technology developed quicker and mankind started using firearms, how effective would an army armed with submachine guns be against an army armed with smooth or ...
17
votes
7answers
4k views
How can one individual have two different biological signatures?
A detective is investigating a series of grisly murders in New York. The bodies of the victims seem to have been ripped apart by a inhumanly strong person. He has narrowed down the list of suspects to ...
0
votes
0answers
60 views
I need help writing an alien as the central hero [closed]
I'm writing a story where the main character is an alien and his race is the central focus of the story. The alien works with a team comprised of other races to stop a terrorist orginzation from ...
0
votes
0answers
56 views
City Plasma “Dome” or “Wall” Protection System [closed]
Main question: hypothetically, 1000 years into the future, could an inhabitable plasma dome (or tall plasma wall system) be created by adding a charge (electromagnetic) to any element/gas known today?...
5
votes
2answers
151 views
Minimum percentage of immune when epidemic lowers IQ in the 80's?
I have an epidemic of unknown origin spreading across the earth. The effects are decrease in cognitive ability to around 80+ IQ. So we have a surgeons who don't know how to operate, engineers who don'...
19
votes
3answers
782 views
Could an astronaut manually land a reentry vessel in a specific location without any help from ground control or satellites or anything? [on hold]
So, let's say an astronaut has crashed his shuttle into earth only to find that there are no cities or any signs of human-made objects left on earth.
Another astronaut is orbiting earth in her space ...
6
votes
1answer
242 views
+150
Can someone help me with ocean currents? I'm really confused
I've been working on a constructed world which started out as the home of an alien race from a sci-fi story I'm writing but just became a pure world building project.
As you can see from the map it ...
0
votes
0answers
50 views
Universal Intergalactic Currency [duplicate]
This might be totally opinion based but I really need all the help I can get because I have serious writers block. I’m writing a story where the world is vastly advanced, set in the 24th century and ...
4
votes
5answers
222 views
Plausible explanation for how human beings might travel the multiverse (assuming other universes separate from our own exist)
Edit: Let me first thank all of you for being patient with me (I’m by no means a physicist) and for answering my question. This is an update to my previous question. I’ve done some research and to the ...
2
votes
2answers
92 views
Asteroid material that can cause signal distortion
I'm making a hard-ish sci-fi universe where humans colonized nearby star systems and found not one but two civilizations in Alpha Centauri, each at home on a planet orbiting one of the two main stars. ...
70
votes
35answers
14k views
Eternal space battle around a planet. But why? [closed]
The Setting
A planet (large continents, mostly steppes, deserts and plains) is settled by nomadic tribes (think Mongols, Tuareg or Apache). The tribes lack written history, but the legends speak of a ...
46
votes
3answers
19k views
Let’s say a 1 ton (US) sphere of tungsten moving at 99.99% the speed of light hits earth, what happens? As specific as possible
What kind of destruction would it cause? I’m assuming it’d be rather significant, could it shatter a tectonic plate? The crust? How would the oceans fare? Would the planet be able to catch the ...
35
votes
17answers
10k views
An object that is gold in one specific area but becomes worthless if you leave that area?
Let us pretend there is some "sacred city" created by gods, where gold is so common that it is the standard form of currency and everyone has lots of it. But once you try to leave the city with this ...
-1
votes
1answer
76 views
Could life be living in Europa? [closed]
The ice is so thick that no probe sent from Earth can detect life under the ice. Radio would not work well under the ice so we could not communicate with Europians if they are advanced.
What would ...
1
vote
1answer
106 views
Tanks in medieval age [closed]
If people of the medieval age or 14th century had knowledge over steam engines and decided to make tanks out of it, how would it work and how effective would it be? Since they would be big and heavy, ...
34
votes
4answers
5k views
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Ray - A Hyper-Scanning Doomsday Weapon
From what I know about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, one of its consequences is that when you learn a great deal about the position of a particle, you greatly increase the uncertainty of the ...
1
vote
1answer
73 views
How large is my airship and how can it fly? [closed]
Writing epic fantasy, there is no modern technology and no magic that could propel my airship. It is supposed to hold a large pub/brothel in it, with a few rooms.
How large would you say this airship ...
36
votes
16answers
9k views
How do I keep the government from detecting my flying car?
Eureka! Mary Sue has just finished her unobtainium-based levitation engine that should be able to deliver payloads to orbit for less than the price of a Tootsie Roll, and will allow her to start ...
7
votes
13answers
4k views
Could machine guns be produced in the 14th century? [duplicate]
Could light machine guns such as the Madsen be made during the 14th century? And since materials may be scarce only a few would be produced for use by a single soldier in a unit. Lets say their ...
28
votes
7answers
11k views
Is it possible to perform surgery on your own spine? [closed]
My character has to perform surgery on herself and by herself.
She has all the surgery tools and a screen to watch what she is doing.
She is in a clean stable environment and there is no risk of ...
13
votes
5answers
1k views
What would the current period of history be called in the future? [closed]
In my SciFi book, 400 years from now, humanity has expanded throughout the solar system and managed to survive the death Earth. In their history, Earth fell during the third world war in 2093 CE and ...
7
votes
3answers
134 views
On a world of sapient anthropoid felines, can fur pattern be used for recognition?
On a world populated by sentient anthropoid species evolved from Terran felines, both big and small cats, could the local authorities use the fur patterns and colors the same way that we used ...
9
votes
4answers
500 views
Would it be possible to distil specific human emotions into an edible drug form?
I am writing a dystopian future where I hope to make it possible that specific emotions can be taken in the form of pills or drug form; or, combined pills taken to form more complex feelings. ...
2
votes
3answers
175 views
Population Growth of an Extraterrestrial Colony
Okay, i need help here. I'm sure this question has been asked before and if it has, please refer me to it. But a story I have been working on for a while now revolves around the adventures of a colony ...
9
votes
5answers
1k views
Could people of the 14th century create an inline engine for use in aircraft and vehicles?
If an expert of some kind travels back in time to the 14th or 15th century with modern tools and machines that don't require power to work and if he were to past on the knowledge of modern technology ...
1
vote
0answers
61 views
How much static electricity can balloons generate? [closed]
The question 'Could a city be built out of Balloons?' has an answer mentioning using the static charge generated by the city as a power source. This made me think: how much static electricity is ...
0
votes
0answers
29 views
Can a steam powered plane be as effective as a normal plane? And if so what can be done to improve it [duplicate]
can a steam plane fly as long as a normal one? Can it carry heavy loads and can it fly as high as a normal one?
6
votes
3answers
141 views
Using warp bubble of Alcubierre drive as a deflector shield?
So, whenever I see people or articles discuss the properties of the warp bubble surrounding an Alcubierre drive, there is always mention of extremely high (yet undefined) tidal forces.
What I want to ...
4
votes
3answers
115 views
Ideal Place For Kenya Spaceport?
Its 20 seconds in the future. The space age is truly dawning this time. And I the CEO of a wealthy aerospace company, am looking for the perfect place to set up shop with my new spaceport. I've ...
4
votes
4answers
212 views
Creating a Matryoshka Shell world: temperature regulation
In a galaxy far far away, during a fit of inspiration for a super massive marvel of technology, the Imperator dedicates an astounding 10% of energy and materials from his civilization's dyson sphere ...
8
votes
2answers
410 views
What does the physiology and biochemistry of a vacuum adapted post-human look like? Part 3: Metabolism
I am a post-human adapted for permanent life in vacuum and micro-gravity. How might my physiology and biochemistry overcome the following challenges?
Please note I have a strong cultural aversion to ...
5
votes
4answers
263 views
What does the physiology and biochemistry of a vacuum adapted post-human look like? Part 2: Temperature control
I am a post-human adapted for permanent life in vacuum and micro-gravity. How might my physiology and biochemistry overcome the following challenges?
Please note I have a strong cultural aversion to ...
4
votes
5answers
357 views
What does the physiology and biochemistry of a vacuum adapted post-human look like? Part 1: Radiation resistance
I am a post-human adapted for permanent life in vacuum and micro-gravity. How might my physiology and biochemistry overcome the following challenges?
Please note I have a strong cultural aversion to ...
1
vote
4answers
110 views
Plausibility of Self-Replicating Alien Drones Part 2
In my story, humanity comes under attack by extraterrestrial forces determined to sieze Earth's resources (water particularly). In my research it seems to be more plausible that aliens would attempt ...
0
votes
3answers
145 views
Plausibility of Self-Replicating Alien Drones?
In my story, humanity comes under attack by extraterrestrial forces determined to sieze Earth's resources. In my research it seems to be more plausible that aliens would attempt to exterminate humans ...
-1
votes
2answers
83 views
How to discover hiding modified humans and their missions? [closed]
Consider an earthlike world where the following happened:
An UFO "crashed" somewhere on Earth some yrs ago.
It sunk into a swamp and was never found (since the swamp was huge and the UFO was small).
...
7
votes
5answers
1k views
Some science or graspable logic behind a whole new world below the ocean on earth
So not trying to wander into flat earth theory here, But a hidden fantasy world (of elves) in the present day. How would we explain it. There is no contact whatsoever between the two world. Could ...
1
vote
4answers
168 views
Biology of hermaphrodite species
How from a evolutionary standpoint hermaphrodite species can exist and have a good genetic diversity, with no self-impregnation?
But, this race visually looks more like females, they do have breasts
...
15
votes
6answers
3k views
Could there be strong weather on large space stations?
I'm not talking about the ISS. I'm talking about larger stations such as Bernal Spheres, O'Neil Cylinders, Stanford Tori, good old-fashioned hollowed-out asteroids, and so on.
We have a sci-fi game ...
4
votes
4answers
214 views
How would a multinational armed forces be organized followig a near catastrophic alien attack? [closed]
The novel I am writing takes place in a world where the United Nations became the Global Association of Nations, a union of the entire planet under a collective defensive and political federation. ...
21
votes
18answers
4k views
What's the ideal era for harvesting resources by an advanced society?
It's 2100-ish and we're experimenting on our new time travel device, or let's say time travel bunker. What we gathered of information so far are:
We can't really go back in time, literally. Every ...
1
vote
3answers
154 views
Could You Create a Stasis Field to Negate the Effects of Gravity [closed]
So I've been thinking about Stasis Fields lately, and wondering if there would be any way to create a Stasis Field that would prevent a person or object from feeling the effects of gravity from high-...
7
votes
6answers
276 views
Realistic hovering mechanism for my sci-fi drone
What realistic mechanism could be utilized to allow my drone to hover and move around in a visually pleasing and non distracting way?
I am currently working on a short sci-fi film, which, among other ...
2
votes
1answer
89 views
Possible Ideas For Microgravity Apartments? [closed]
In my world Deimos is a thriving port city in which numerous people live. The most inhabited and built up area is the Central Hub, a large cylinder about a football field (either kind) in diameter, ...
3
votes
4answers
118 views
How could an AI be in the real world organically and humanely (not in a robotic body)? [closed]
Say I have some artificial intelligence characters in a virtual reality world that my human characters have bonded with in ways of friendship, romance, etc before they find out they're AI. How would ...
4
votes
2answers
145 views
What would be the impact on Titan, Saturn and the Solar system if aliens harvested as much hydrocarbons as possible from Saturn's moon?
The scenario
Many science fiction novels are concerned with aliens visiting Earth, but what if aliens have no interest in Earth at all and yet they arrive at the Solar system for the sole purpose of ...
