Questions tagged [science-fiction]
Allows for fanciful, creative or imaginative solutions based on or rationalized by Real World science, but not necessary limited by Real World science. Entirely magical solutions must use the magic tag instead. This tag should not be used with the science-based, hard-science, or internal-consistency tags. This tag should never be the only tag on a question, because this tag frames how a question should be answered, not the topic.
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What is the composition of my alien atmosphere?
I am trying to create a fictional planet with a stable atmosphere, toxic to humans. The current contenders are Sulfur, Chlorine, Ammonia, Methane planets, but I couldn't decide what is the best fit.
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How to build a gas giant?
In this universe, gravity wells are needed to enter and exit FTL, many cheap spacecraft are not armored enough to go near a star so gas giants are the next best option.
One particular solar system has ...
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How large of a magma chamber do I need to geothermally power a small city?
I have a fictional civilization that lives on a continent (or world) with a perpetually cold, wintry climate. The continent does have a large number of volcanoes of varying sizes and levels of ...
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Pros and Cons of multiverse travel; why would we do it? [closed]
Disclaimer: This is not a question of how, it’s a question of why. The multiverse is a science-fiction plot device. To clarify, please do not answer this question with the reasons why multiverse ...
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What kind of weapons an AI would build for a low tech tribe?
I am writing a Sci-fi story, 1000 years in the future, a time when humans have return to tribal ways of living. An AI inhabiting the moon needs resources to keep the human moon colony alive and ...
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If someone was suddenly subjected to a vacuum would they sh*t themselves?
If someone has the magical ability to make a vacuum(no or minimal matter/atmospheric pressure) on earth around someone would that person in the vacuum then sh*t their pants? If so would it have to be ...
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Parallel universe [closed]
Suppose there is a parallel universe that is identical to our own in every way, except that the physical constants and laws of nature are slightly different. This parallel universe has its own version ...
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How to make my hyperfast-immersion language-learners still be fooled by code-words & cyphers
In a story I'm writing, I have a group of beings who can learn any language by just listening to voice-recordings* of someone speaking that language over-and-over again** (almost like a highly ...
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How can technologically-advanced civilisation achieve healthy tanning?
I am looking for the ways to allow humans with technology that allowed them to colonise the entire galaxy (150 thousand light years wide) to avoid the negative side-effects of tanning (premature ...
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How does having super strength/speed but similar mass to a regular person change close combat fighting?
How does having super strength/speed but similar mass to a regular person change close combat fighting?
This world is a cultivation world. That's a world where people can cultivate abilities by using ...
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Could life exist on a planet orbiting a T class brown dwarf?
Note: Please try not to overcomplicate it for me. I might sound mature, but I'm actually a minor and as much as I like complex wording, I want it to be understandable.
Hey! Basically, I'm drafting up ...
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What is good Armament and Protection for a Quadruped Mecha? [closed]
I have been looking for real robot models for a long time to create a realistic mecha for my story.
I decided to model Peace Walker from Metal Gear and a quadruped robot with wheels that I found on ...
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A laser-propelled starship loses its decelerating beam; what options do they have to slow down?
New to the site, and like many others here, I've been bouncing around a few ideas for a hard sci-fi short story with some friends, centered around an interstellar voyage to colonize a habitable world. ...
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Could a biological organism have organs that perceive entropy?
A biology textbook I once read described humans and other organisms as "moving zones of low entropy", referring to the fact that our bodies display a high level of organization and ...
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White-hot tungsten moon emitting heat and light to make my world habitable
Never mind how the tungsten sphere formed. That's part of my pet projects, and I will deal with the question of how a nearly pure sphere of tungsten the diameter of the moon formed in space later.
So, ...
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How to scan the entire cerebral cortex of a human and upload memories as digital media
In this sci-fi world Im building,
Humanity has developed a process to download a person's personality and memories by converting electrical signals produced by Neural firings into binary code and ...
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Help with artificial gravity (yet again) in sci-fi world
I am creating a sci-fi world for tabletop RPG and I have trouble with one thing and that is artificial gravity. What I need is to come up with some ideas for in-world reasonable explanation for the ...
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How to design a geckskin grappling hook to attatch to surfaces like a rocks and builidngs?
For a while now, I've been very into grappling guns and the ability to swing around buildings, etc. Specifically been very interested in the odm gear present in the show "Attack on Titan". ...
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Artificial Light Sources in a Dyson Sphere/Shell
I'm working on a story universe that takes place mostly/entirely within a multi-layered Dyson sphere. The story is not hard sci-fi, but I am trying to ensure the physics or sci-fi elements "feel&...
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Helium-Neon impossible compound
What would need to happen in order to make a compound with neon and helium? We know it's impossible, but super hypothetically if we could do magic and fuse them together, how would that look like? ...
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Need counters for a near perfect Anti Thermal and Kinetic armor system in a near future setting
So I have an armor that is virtually impervious to small arms fire, and am looking for inspiration and suggestions on an unconventional way to defeat said armor.
The armor is called Anti Thermal And ...
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How could my solar-powered fairies exist in outer space?
There have been instances of flashes in space that were attributed to sprites and fairies. Now, I know these phenomena can be explained by natural means such as blue/purple lightning. But the concept ...
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Exploring a Black hole sci fi possible/not possible
I'm currently creating a universe and in that universe is the human race which has been around for about 37000 years. I am currently trying to figure out what tech they would have access to what would ...
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What configuration should the worlds of a long lasting galactic empire take in the galaxy?
I have come across many galaxy maps showing the dominion/borders of one empire or another in different works of fiction. The first that comes to mind is WH40k for which the galaxy map of the different ...
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What sort of evolutionary possibilities are plausible for a human-like species orbiting a red dwarf star?
I'm working on a story which is sci-fi so soft you could spread it on a cracker, but I'd like something semi plausible. I'm very likely overthinking things to an extreme, but I'd like someone with ...
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How plausible is the idea of aquatic humans/humanoids having respiration like a frog instead of things like gills?
I was reading about frogs, which led me to think: what if, instead of gills, aquatic humanoids had a respiration system like frogs (absorbing the oxygen from the water through their skin)?
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How could a 1 TW power plant be built?
As of 2021, global electrical production was about 7 TW. And the largest single power plant is the Three Gorges Dam at a capacity of 22.5 GW. My hero needs a single power plant with 50 times more ...
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Why is my organic computer the only thing capable of manipulating my special particles?
I have a few fictional particles in my setting that can do many things, however getting them do something specific is the challenging part. There are a class of particles that only work while in the ...
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Why does my artificial dust storm affect pure autonomous combat vehicles, but not crewed weapon's systems with computers?
In my setting there exists some AI based weaponry. Though it's not sentient/AGI level. Rather it's a fanciful extension of what we have currently in terms of practical and theoretical. One of the ...
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Could a passing comet's gravitational pull rotate a close-by smaller tidally locked planet 20 degrees?
In my story, I need a tidally locked planet to rotate about 20 degrees. I would like to write that the gravitational pull of a large Comet passing by (not hitting) the planet is strong enough to ...
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Why might melee weapons be used in a sci if setting? [duplicate]
Ok, I am very aware that this question sounds like a near duplicate, but before voting to close it, hear me out.
Why would the military use melee weapons such as swords, spears, axes, and all those ...
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How would humans contend with low gravity when they colonize Titan?
So, in this setting, by the year 2139, humans have landed a fleet of settler ships on Titan to create the Asteria colony. They will repurpose the ships into anchored buildings, and stay there until ...
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Sci fi setting: Are smaller and faster bullets automatically better?
I’m building a world where two civilizations are meeting, and both have fairly different design philosophies with weapons and armor, and the easiest way to sum it up is think Mass Effect without the ...
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Would my particle cloud shield be effective in limiting the use of combined arms/maneuver warfare operations? [closed]
Since I have particle shields in my setting for my armored vehicles, my military forces have also decided to try and extend that technology to the larger battlefield. One of the issues plaguing my ...
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What would happen if your body had more capillaries?
I'm working on a character who can emit fire from her arms and forearms. I read in a previous question that an increased amount of capillaries can increase the body's ability to carry heat away. If ...
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How could my characters be tricked into thinking they are on Mars? [closed]
In the not-so-distant future, a corporation announces their plan to turn a colony on Mars into a competition-reality show. This is a believable claim, because others have already colonized Mars, but ...
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What should my green goo target to disable electrical infrastructure but allow smaller scale electronics?
I have floating islands with varying levels of technology that can be allowed on them, usually based on height. One of these islands has tiny microbe/bacterium that allows for food crops to be grown ...
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How do I stop people from creating artificial islands using the magic particles that suspend my floating islands?
I have a setting that involves floating islands that coast slowly across a planet. There are multiple tiers separated by cloud layers, however the surface is inaccessible to my floating islanders.
In ...
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Hot Jupiter L2 Station! Reasons to build, and challenges
I'm working on a somewhat* hard scifi story set in a solar system that contains a hot jupiter. Frankly building a large station in the shade (?) of the L2 point of the hot jupiter sounds metal, and I'...
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How might a higher-dimensional observer "see" a nuclear fission reaction in our universe? [closed]
In the Bulk-brane cosmological model, what might an observer in the Bulk "see" of a nuclear fission reaction in our brane?
Or indeed what might the observable effect be of any major energy &...
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How to significantly slow/stop computer development from advancing past the early 1990s?
I have a world where both computers and biological technology have matured to serve the needs of my people. Both have numerous people researching and making use of their equipment. For example, ...
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Where would an interstellar society mine phosphorous and rare earth metals?
I know that rare earth metals aren't too rare and the name is mainly due to their low density. I also know that phosphorous is comparatively rare but is hyper concentrated on Earth due to its ...
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How could a human develop magenta irises?
I'm writing a character and they have bright magenta Irises.
How could I explain the reason why they have that feature?
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What is the most amount of energy a super-futuristic humanoid could carry? [closed]
Imagine a humanoid character with limitless technology. What would they use as an energy source? Let's assume they can contain anything imaginable. Would them having a black hole core be the most ...
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What is the most plausible way for a neuralchip to be invented in a post-apocalyptic society?
I'm creating a RPG game set in 2058, after a parallel history scenario where the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis turned hot, and civilization underwent full scale nuclear war.
The game is set in the People'...
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Speaker-Powered Directed Blast Weapon
So, in order to defeat a bulletproof enemy that has genetically engineered osteodermic plates like a rhino all over his body that can stop very powerful rounds, the protagonist put her brains to work ...
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Fire Planet as a light/heat source for my planets
So, basically, I was looking for a alternate light/heat source for my science-fiction novel which I am planning to write. I didn't rely on stars due to some reasons that I omitted from the original ...
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Why might advanced digital computers be unusable on my planets?
A large ring gate appears on Earth that leads to other planetary bodies that vary between being able to sustain human life and just barely allowing humans to exist on the planet for a while.
Another ...
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Excuse for plasma, projectile, laser, and particle-beam weaponry to coexist?
My (science-based but certainly not hard sci-fi) world is basically a large island run by a couple of mad billionares. They have each built an army of aircraft armed with cliche "futuristic" ...
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Mobile sentient plant-like species [closed]
I know similar questions are asked a lot and it's okay if you'll just send me to where my question is already answered, but i couldn't find clear answer if exactly what i need is possible.
So. I need ...
