Questions tagged [science-fiction]
For questions relating to worlds with a setting of common science-fiction.
2,000
questions
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2answers
80 views
How could people handle arachnophobia in a world where spiders have the size of pets? [closed]
I am thinking about an alien planet where most species of spiders are the size of cats and dogs and the biggest of the most rare species are the size of a car. In this world there is the same ...
5
votes
4answers
526 views
Could nanites be used to increase muscle mass and density
Edit: I'm working on a plot where nanites are used to increase muscle size and/or density directly and was wondering what scientific processes would be involved for nanites to do this.
From what I ...
2
votes
3answers
97 views
Ways to Neutralize Firearms [closed]
I am trying to write a sci-fi story in the near future where armies use mechas but I also want them to engage in close combat using swords.
Here is what I came up with so far:
An army could use an EMP ...
1
vote
3answers
143 views
Organic replacement for AI
I’d like to go into a bit of backstory for my setting before I ask my question.
I want to create a space opera setting that is set nearly 60,000 years in the future. Humanity has developed space ...
12
votes
13answers
2k views
How easy would it be for an android to get away with homicide compared with a human being? [closed]
I know that in many sci-fi stuff Asimov's three laws of robotics are taken into account, but I personally do not like them. One of these laws says that a robot should be programmed to never hurt a ...
6
votes
9answers
442 views
Do humans really need arms and legs?
Most humans have both arms and legs. This arrangement is quite useful out in nature, but it seems like as technology advances, this anatomy is becoming less and less necessary
Furthermore, space ...
-1
votes
1answer
175 views
Would android women be a better companionship and better sex partners for men than "real" women? [closed]
If robotics become advanced enough for the creation of humanlike androids( mentally and physically indistinguishable from flesh and blood humans) become possible in an affordable way for the average ...
0
votes
1answer
65 views
Protection for pilots in instantaneous high G/ high jerk racing
Normally people give consideration to surviving a high amount of Gs for a long time for things such as space travel or turn and burn dogfights. But what about when we scale the impulse/duration of ...
0
votes
3answers
93 views
Superconductive Fluid to substitute blood for a biomachine?
So my biomachine person, who will go by bob for the question, his very unique. He has machinery replacing half his organs and skeleton. Bioengineered cells work alongside and support the mechanical ...
-2
votes
1answer
126 views
How common are men with feminine features and gynecomastia in a future where gender roles has become obsolete? [closed]
There is already a trend that gender roles are not as "serious" as they used to be and the criminalization of homophobia (here in Brazil at least) has helped many men to express femininity ...
-1
votes
1answer
129 views
Harmonizing Lamarckism with Genetics [closed]
Many Science-Fiction worlds, whether or not by design, have their aliens arise by what seems to be a form of Lamarckism. While this is all well and good, these same worlds also make use of a lot of ...
4
votes
3answers
199 views
If AI had been developing for 5000+ years and the singularity happened, what would be the last human jobs left on earth?
In the future, say in 5,000+ years, if AI had been developing that whole time and the singularity happened, what would be the last human jobs left on earth?
I'm interested to hear from the community ...
2
votes
3answers
88 views
What is the strongest skin that a biomachine could possibly produce?
My man, let’s call him Bob, is an engineered organism with a mix of both machinery and biology working in harmony. His skeleton and half of his major organs are machine. However, cells engineered ...
3
votes
4answers
125 views
What's the point of building a Dyson sphere if you're going to mine everything in a stellar system?
This is a follow-up question to Building a Dyson sphere while preserving moons/other objects?. User @Goodies answered my question with opting to harvest nearby stars. The problem here is that ...
0
votes
3answers
152 views
What could be ethical reasons for deep sea mining? [closed]
Unfortunately in real-life on our planet (Earth) deep sea mining for rare earth minerals is devastating to biological ecosystems and has very little motivations beyond the capitalistic/industrial ones,...
11
votes
7answers
2k views
Building a Dyson sphere while preserving moons/other objects?
Humans want to build a Dyson sphere around the Sun. They have noticed that Ganymede's icy composition would be perfect for mining to get the icy resources needed to build the sphere, or Mercury could ...
4
votes
2answers
104 views
Ways to initiate a supernova explosion
Assume we have a star that is sufficiently massive to end its life in a supernova. Also, said star is currently fusing heavy enough elements that, under normal progression, it is within less than 200 ...
3
votes
3answers
132 views
How would the general public be kept unaware of a zombie outbreak? [closed]
Consider a zombie outbreak beginning in March 2020 rather than the Covid-19 pandemic we have today.
This pandemic has started intentionally by a secret world organization to lower down the human ...
1
vote
2answers
86 views
Advice for creating scientifically plausable human-animal hybrids? [closed]
What would have to be taken into consideration? What is the limit of human DNA modification? What sort of changes can the human organs tolerate?
-5
votes
1answer
105 views
Could you freeze a nuclear explosion [closed]
The character who I'm talking about is faced with certain death and has to freeze a nuclear exposition that's coming right at him, would this work, and how would it. This character has ice-based ...
4
votes
6answers
260 views
What is a plausible reason for everyone to disappear/die except for one person?
Let's say that everyone on Earth disappears or dies spontaneously - except for one person. What would a plausible reason for this be?
Note that this isn't something gradual, like a disease wiping out ...
3
votes
4answers
564 views
Aliens exist on the other side of the nearby wormhole, but we don't know wormhole exists yet. How might they be detected and communicated with?
Scenario: Humans have setup an observation/research station close enough to study the super blackhole Sagittarius A*, which in this world is a wormhole. Aliens exist on the other side. (I am flexible ...
5
votes
3answers
102 views
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, ...
4
votes
4answers
195 views
Time Dilation and Melee Combat
Recently, I have been pondering the implications of a civilization being able to control gravity in shape they see fit. One of the more amusing uses of such a technology I've heard was that they ...
1
vote
1answer
68 views
Detect a "dark" portal in space from the planets surface
Scenario:
Earth like planet with a moon similar to ours.
A portal, with approx. 15ft radius, appears between the planet and its moon.
The portal does not reflect light, nor emmit any light so nothing ...
3
votes
4answers
126 views
What are reasonable units of energy measurement for my sci-fi RPG?
I am currently creating my own custom sci-fi tabletop RPG system. While I'm willing to make concessions where necessary, my goal is to use plausible physics whenever possible, at least when it comes ...
3
votes
2answers
74 views
How could an object float/levitate in a spherical shell
Would it be theoretically possible for an object to float or levitate in a spherical shell, and retain its position in relation to the ground whilst the shell moves around it, and if so, how would ...
3
votes
7answers
365 views
How would a futuristic style army use androids that mimic humans in any way? [closed]
In a army(or any military) humans can have qualities that act as flaws in a military. Disregarding emotions, lets say that you had an android, similar to any other droid soldier in popular sci fiction,...
4
votes
1answer
85 views
Would These Three Actions Allow the Ecoregions to Regrow?
This scenario begins with multitudes of vanishings from around the world, at the same time. All of the domesticated animals (dog, goat, pig, sheep, European cattle, zebu, cat, chicken, Guinea pig, ...
6
votes
6answers
3k views
How fast would the Moon (Luna) need to rotate so that anyone living in Lunar underground habitats would experience Earth-like gravity?
So I'm creating a sci-fi book, and I'd like to know a way to calculate how fast would the moon need to spin to create a certain amount of gravity, and how much energy would be required to get it to ...
4
votes
4answers
173 views
On the durability of fully clockwork/mechanic vs electronic robot
Sorry if it sounds stupid but let's just say in a fictional world where the same rule apply like our earth.
One is able to build a fully functional mechanic humanoid robot made out of only cogs and ...
0
votes
0answers
75 views
Simple curiosity about working of very unique mace in fiction
There is a character in fiction I read in past, which I don't remember its name since it been too long.
She is an artificial human made by mixture of magic and science. She uses some kind of energy ...
2
votes
3answers
143 views
What are the combat advantages of very large customizable robot body
a small thought about size advantage in fictions especially sci-fi. It always happens.
Small slender robot or cyborg beats an opponent that two or even five times bigger than him. It explained in ...
14
votes
13answers
2k views
Can an entire planet remain isolated and stagnant?
For context, there is a planet that is kept isolated from the larger civilization of star systems it should be connected with—in terms of communication. A base population is already present on the ...
10
votes
15answers
2k views
If a civilization has biotechnology, why do they still prefer mechanical augmentations?
Background
This is a sci-fi setting. People there have advanced biotechnologies, being able to edit the genetic code of embryos (governmentally enforced to be strictly regulated and only for medical ...
2
votes
0answers
26 views
what kind of star would a planet need to sustain blue and pink flora and what effect would it have on ocean color? [duplicate]
The ecosystem on this planet, which I call Crilorix is thriving and I was hoping I can make the flora on the surface blue and pink? such as having blue leaves and pink bark on most trees and such, so ...
5
votes
5answers
224 views
Is an Underwater œcumenopolis viable?
An important planet in my setting is an ocean planet with a few atolls as its landmass. I intend the planet to be an underwater oecumenopolis (imagine a planet-spanning Rapture from Bioshock). Most ...
-4
votes
2answers
113 views
Reasons why a sentient universe would create life? [closed]
The basic idea I had was that the universe basically thought itself into being and from there decided to create life. It sent out the seeds for life to begin, then created a race to watch over things. ...
1
vote
1answer
63 views
Relative masses of Binary Systems
I'm writing a sci-fi novel and I have an some astrophysics questions. First, is it possible for a binary system to be made up of a large gaseous planet and a dwarf star?
I know it's possible to have ...
12
votes
20answers
6k views
How to avoid evolution for a language made to be spoken across an entire galaxy?
In the SF book I am trying to write, the galaxy has been seeded with human life by (not so much) benevolent AIs. Despite isolation between the worlds, everyone speak a single universal language made ...
5
votes
1answer
107 views
Designing A Ring World For A Science-Fantasy Setting
Why Am I Doing This To Myself?
Because I'm designing a surreal pulp science-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, and I want to take the coolest elements of hard sci-fi and mix it with the punchiness of ...
1
vote
0answers
43 views
What would the climate of a Pangaea-Ultima-inspired world be like?
In a sci-fi scenario, human explorers have discovered a binary of G0 stars, each one 105% as wide, 110% as massive and 126% as bright as our sun. Orbiting this binary within its habitable zone is an ...
3
votes
1answer
59 views
Where should I place my Earth-like planet within my binary system?
I am working on a RPG setting which requires my planet having a nearby flare star. I understand from reading through other, similar questions and from doing some research, that flare stars are ...
5
votes
12answers
447 views
Warfare in a universe with FTL on rather fragile platforms? [closed]
How do you imagine the large picture of space warfare would shape into in a universe with the following characteristics:
There is FTL, but it's just available in very large and expensive platforms, ...
7
votes
2answers
209 views
What would be the largest animal that could exist within a grassland ecosystem dominated by machines?
For the story that I am writing currently, it is set on a colonized planet thousands of years after machines wiped out most of the human colony that were established there, and would go on to form an ...
6
votes
1answer
121 views
metal/alloy based lifeforms? how would they function?
I've been working on an alien race for a while, and the look of them have changed a lot In the design process, but right now, I've stuck with metallic lifeforms..
essentially living machines, made ...
0
votes
2answers
160 views
What would Silicon-Based Aliens look like?
Would silicon-based aliens' biochemistry cause them to look any different than the carbon-based humans that we have in the real world? If so, what could they possibly look like?
For further ...
11
votes
7answers
2k views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
212 views
Tungsten carbide sword: Will it work? [duplicate]
Ever since steel was created, it has been the go to material for swords since antiquity and into the modern era (for actual replicas and not wall hangers). Of course while being effective it is also, ...
3
votes
3answers
357 views
How to explain the warp gate looking like a giant funnel in space but its working principle is a spherical wormhole?
In many sci-fi tropes, a warp gate or artificial traversable wormhole almost always resemble a funnel however in reality its working principle is a wormhole. I would like to know how does it appears ...
