Questions tagged [science-fiction]
For questions relating to worlds with a setting of common science-fiction.
1,203
questions
1
vote
2answers
89 views
Required RPM for a Hamster wheel style Habitation ring on a spaceship to generate roughly Earth-ish gravity [duplicate]
I'm looking at a ship that is pretty big. About 720 feet from nose to tail, with two stonking big rockets on the sides, these will flip for deceleration.
At roughly the same rotational pivot point, in ...
6
votes
1answer
177 views
Effectiveness of lasers of different wavelengths in space combat
I'm working on a game with combat between spaceships. It will not be hard sci-fi, but I'd like to base the mechanics on (simplifications of) real physics.
When it comes to laser-weapons, I would like ...
0
votes
0answers
53 views
Colonized planet… removing some citizens [closed]
Let's suppose that there's this new planet that has been mostly colonized with just the right number of people. Every now and again they chose to remove a few members from the colonized part of the ...
13
votes
6answers
4k views
How would someone destroy a black hole that’s at the centre of a planet? [duplicate]
For starters, the black hole is temporarily contained. But once it’s containment fails it will devour the planet. Obviously, that’s a bad thing. What’s a reasonable way to prevent that?
Also the ...
1
vote
1answer
90 views
Turning Fast Radio Bursts into signs of FTL
What would have to be true of the FRBs to make them the result of FTL like the Alcubierre drive?
I want a character in a story to discover the secrets to faster than light travel by unravelling Fast ...
18
votes
19answers
7k views
Why limit to revolvers?
I am thinking about a game where people will shoot out in space, with different features. However, an integral part of the game is no spraying/spamming bullets. I don't want to have it in a fantasy ...
5
votes
3answers
182 views
Realistic melange - Part 1: Formation
Melange, also known as "the spice", is a fictional drug in Frank Herbert's famous Dune series, which has many benefits (and some drawbacks). In this series of questions, I'll try to see how many of ...
1
vote
0answers
77 views
Which of the Armed Forces would an interstellar service be most like? [closed]
In my story, I have an Empire, established on Earth and ruling across the few dozen nearest star systeme to it. This needs to have a fleet of ships manned by an armed service for law enforcement, ...
4
votes
5answers
241 views
Minimum Required Superscience to Make Mecha Competitive vs. Tanks [closed]
Most discussions of mecha viability seem to give advice in the vein of handwaving laws of nature or making the audience (readers, players etc.) not look too closely at the justifications. I'd like to ...
-1
votes
1answer
109 views
What's the name for the genre focusing on 70s & 80s tech-based sci-fi fantasy? [closed]
tl;dr - What does one call the genre space occupied by the 70s-80s tech of the Dharma Initiative (Lost) / Massive Dynamic (Fringe) / Hawkins National Laboratory (Stranger Things)?
When looking for ...
0
votes
7answers
283 views
How would a character build an explosive from natural elements?
A character is on an alien planet that is very much like any one of our large deserts. Sort of a Tatooine like on Star Wars.
He needs to cause a diversion. There aren't any explosives on planet of ...
6
votes
8answers
2k views
How can combining souls together not increase its volume? [closed]
I am Josephine Mengalus, an alchemist on the path to immortality by becoming a lich. Alchemy is the study of combining magic with science, to create a higher form of study that surpasses both. Souls ...
4
votes
1answer
138 views
What construction and physics implications would there be for life in an underwater “high rise building?” [closed]
I'm working on a project in which part of the story takes place on a planet that is mostly ocean. There is a small continent with some manufacturing and refinery structures, but the rest of the planet'...
1
vote
0answers
134 views
Possible FTL travel methods for hard(ish) sci-fi? [closed]
I'm working on a story that requires travel at about convenient* speeds (see below). I want to keep this story as hard sci-fi as possible and I've heard about stuff like Alcubierre drives which sound ...
11
votes
4answers
987 views
Can immunity be reverse-engineered simply by using a blood or tissue sample?
I'm working on a novel, in which a character was given a cutting edge vaccination to a deadly disease. She is now valuable because she was the only one given the vaccine and the research to make more ...
5
votes
3answers
364 views
Are there semi plausible scenarios where Nuclear Winter could last a thousand years or trigger an ice age?
Trying to develop a fictional scenario with a 'believable' theory as to how a Nuclear War and resulting Nuclear Winter could turn into a millennial scale ice age. By 'believable', I mean that it ...
1
vote
1answer
76 views
Robotic Virus Pandemic [closed]
For a story I'm working on, there is an old and advanced civilization consisting of three races, 2 organic and 1 artificial. An ancient enemy has returned, bent on destroying this civilization, and ...
2
votes
1answer
156 views
Showing proof to humans they live in a simulated world [duplicate]
I'm writing a story and I found myself asking the question : what is the best way to prove to the humanity that they live in a simulation ?
I found a lot of questions about how societies would react ...
3
votes
6answers
781 views
How can my android “die” permanently?
For this sci-fi story/world hat I'm building, I'm introducing my androids which, while having intelligence closer to a human, are still just machines in nature. Theoretically one can destroy the body ...
-2
votes
1answer
201 views
What is the opposite of lightning? [closed]
I want to know what is the opposite of lightning. To give you some background, it has to be something that makes up a large aspect of the universe and cannot be anything in this list:
space, time, ...
3
votes
4answers
178 views
What plant life and resources could humans consume if colonies were established on the ocean floor?
I'm interested in creating some construct of a society in the Twilight and Midnight zones of the ocean. By what means could they mine, farm, and trade in what is suppose to be a more futuristic ...
41
votes
29answers
5k views
Justifying Affordable Bespoke Spaceships
Any story about an independent, self-owned tramp spaceship crew tends to implicitly or explicitly raise the question of how the crew got a spaceship, how it afforded it, and why it doesn't just sell ...
1
vote
3answers
133 views
How would you design Sci-Fi Firearms and ammunition? [closed]
Apologies in advance, this is going to be a bit of a long read.
I am working through the process of fleshing out a science fiction world and want to establish the limits of technology fairly early on,...
3
votes
8answers
361 views
How can I make the Solar System uninhabitable?
For the Universe I'm creating Humanity has devolved into groups of scattered tribes. This is due to the fact we ran afoul of a really nasty alien race, who decided to leave us homeless. A coalition of ...
16
votes
13answers
6k views
What plausible reason could I give for my FTL drive only working in space
I’ve created a fairly fleshed out, detailed FTL concept. Basically, you have a circular starship, with a ring of tungsten encircling that, held in place by an antigravity ring beneath it. The rim of ...
8
votes
5answers
682 views
How could a government be implemented in a virtual reality? [closed]
In the not so far future a lot of people live inside virtual realities. But there are not only humans living in these virtual worlds but also machines (programs/AI/bots/etc...) on different levels of ...
0
votes
1answer
176 views
What would the psychological effects be of being a clone? [closed]
Let's set up a scenario; You are rich and powerful. Important to the government for one reason or another, may be 20 or 100. Age doesn't matter because when you die you will be reborn, as a clone. ...
6
votes
7answers
462 views
Alternative Uses of Bottomless Heat Sinks [closed]
Many traditional space settings feature cloaking devices, which, given what is required for them to work indefinitely against detection in space, imply ability to 'dump' waste heat 'into nowhere' (...
6
votes
4answers
329 views
A world without fire - what will the military use as their main soldier level weapon?
Assume that modern day Earth discovers a way to create portals to another planet. Travel between the two planets is fast, safe, and easy.
The way this works is that there are fixed points on earth ...
27
votes
7answers
5k views
If a person had control of every single cell of their body, would they be able to transform into another creature?
If a person had control over each and every single cell in his body, I.e:
Cell growth
Cell multiplication
Shape and form of cells
How cells bond/bind with each other
Cell Function
Would they be able ...
4
votes
2answers
132 views
What would be the best way for a supernatural entity to fit into a physical body smaller in mass and volume?
Angels are advanced technological beings who are messengers of the gods. These extra-dimensional beings are large, upwards of 30ft tall, and resemble eldritch abominations in their true form, such as ...
10
votes
7answers
457 views
In an interstellar/interplanetary civilization, which would be most common/cheapest in the market: Plastic or metals?
Considering that oil is only really prevalent on earth (where dead biomatter can be compressed over millions of years into long hydrocarbons) I began to think that plastic might be just as rare as ...
1
vote
4answers
192 views
How would the terrain of a snow-covered mountain deter a mechanized army?
My story is set in a fortress town built below a mountain, and revolves around the struggle between the witch who protects the mountain and the tyrant who seeks to plunder it for resources (think ...
6
votes
5answers
365 views
How Are Humans Special? [closed]
Setting: Far future space based science fiction. Think Star Trek: Enterprise levels of tech with more consistency and more resources if that helps.
There are 4 sentient species in my setting:
Homo ...
18
votes
3answers
4k views
Does water in vacuum form a solid shell or freeze solid?
I'm working on a sci-fi setting which includes an aquatic space-faring species.
When a human space vessel is ruptured and depressurizes, the gas can escape rapidly and we immediately suffer from the ...
0
votes
4answers
273 views
Need help developing a weapon for destroying a dam [closed]
I am working on a story that happens in a dystopian world where the only source of energy is Coal.
I wanted to know whether it is possible to break a dam by pressurizing Dam walls with coal GAS
...
3
votes
3answers
275 views
Are there any issues with this FTL drive concept?
I asked a question earlier on here concerning Negative and Heavy Matter - hypothetical types of matter I created to have a working FTL drive. With some extra work, I’ve tweaked the concept and been ...
9
votes
3answers
685 views
Appropriate liquid/solvent for life in my underground environment on Venus
Partly inspired by this question
My Venusians are happy in their cloud top city when a small group somehow (with lots of handwaving) crashes to the surface, falls underground, and ends up in a hidden ...
-1
votes
1answer
151 views
Could a black hole be used to lessen surface gravity on a Super-Earth?
Due to the moon's gravitational pull, objects at Earth's surface directly under the moon are slightly lighter. This tiny lessening of gravity would also take effect if the moon were on the exact ...
6
votes
2answers
148 views
How feasible is this gravity-altering exotic matter I’ve conceived? Would it have any unforseen consequences?
Ok so I was thinking about a way to hypothetically have undiscovered elements with bizarre properties (for unobtainium purposes). And an idea hit me: replace nucleons with heavier but stable ...
1
vote
3answers
271 views
How can I describe a substance that allows for suspended animation while keeping the mind active?
I am a collector traveling from planet to planet, who believes that art is an expression of human emotion and feeling, and can come in all types of forms. Many greats, such as Picasso and Van Gogh, ...
1
vote
0answers
71 views
Could you disrupt the gravity of a black hole using quadrillions of supernova explosions? [duplicate]
For context, I’m planning a novel with as much ridiculous magic as ridiculous science so, yes I know, it’s impossible but that's the fun of mixing science and magic in worldbuilding.
So the situation ...
2
votes
5answers
350 views
Minimum speed required for a galaxy spanning empire
The dawn of the Galactic Empire!
Assume that FTL travel and communication is possible, for simplicity we say c is the speed of light.
Assume any speed of travel and communication < c*2^100 is ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
How can a demonic viral infection spread throughout the body without being noticed?
Demonic possession occurs when an evil spirit hijacks the biological system of an organism, corrupting it and taking control of its functions. Although powerful, the possession eventually breaks down ...
5
votes
4answers
253 views
Could a Stanford torus rotate on an additional axis to give it a diurnal cycle?
Suppose you have a regular old Stanford torus space station with a 'glass ceiling' rotating at 1.3 RPM. Put it in orbit around a star such that its axis of rotation intersects the star (in other words,...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Would the rotation of the starfield from a ring station be too disorienting?
The Coriolis effect on a ring-shaped space station gets the most attention, but disregarding that, would the rotation of the starfield be too disorienting?
A 1km radius station at 1G simulated ...
5
votes
7answers
270 views
How would a military counter the use of genetically modified insects used to defeat CBRN protective gear?
One military has developed insects with strong jaws capable of chewing through the weaker parts of CBRN (Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense) gear and then injecting neurotoxins ...
1
vote
1answer
162 views
What is the largest I can make my water planet, while remaining within Earth-like parameters?
What is the largest planet I can get, while still remaining within Earth-like parameters? My concern is with gravity, water pressure and atmospheric pressure. Escape velocity is less of a concern. ...
1
vote
2answers
97 views
How can existing methods of plumping, genetic modification, and gmo feeding be altered to accommodate the need for plumper, meatier human food stock?
I am an orc warboss called "The Beast" who has invaded earth and enslaved humanity. You humies are a worthless sprcies that have accomplished nothing of note in your civilizations throughout history. ...
2
votes
4answers
201 views
Would a person be able to punch a truck away, if his ability was to subvert “Newton's 3rd Law of Motion”?
I'm struggling with the physics here a bit since I'm a complete novice at this. I'm making a character who's main ability is to subvert/play around with the 3rd Law of motion (For every action, there'...
