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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Questions about Moon Phases in Fantasy World
I'm currently running a campaign set in a world where the calendar is based on two things.
The moon takes the entire year to cycle through its phases. So instead of full moon to full moon being a ...
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How to accelerate time?
Something in a spaceship, a box, an area in the space, whatever, that experiences a faster time than the rest of the universe.
The opposite of the well known twins paradox.
How could be that the twin ...
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Would this atmosphere require humans to wear gas masks but perhaps get acclimated over time?
I got some great feedback on this atmosphere already, so I decided to lower the oxygen levels as a result of the feedback.
I am creating an atmosphere for a planet in a science fiction book I am ...
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water producing creatures
I'm trying to create a desert planet, and I plan on having water be produced by slug-like beings that consume oxygen and hydrogen from the atmosphere and produce water as a by-product f their ...
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Is this a breathable atmosphere for human-like aliens that have more efficient oxygen-carrying blood? Normal humans would require a gas mask (oxygen)
I am creating an atmosphere for a planet in a science fiction book I am writing and want to make sure that this atmosphere is not too outlandish in regards to sustaining life. I know the oxygen ...
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Why does space warfare not lead to total anhiliation of both sides?
The title is intentionally provocative, but let me try to justify it.
Let's take a common science fiction setup of two interplanetary civilizations with a hand-waved FTL technology that are at war (...
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Theoretically, how well could endothermic chemical reactions work as a heat radiation system in space?
I was thinking about the problem of waste heat in a large military space craft. It seems beyond a certain technological point, the ability to dump waste heat becomes the largest problem in quickly ...
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What kind of construction material would an advanced intergalactic civilization use to build megastructures?
In my novel, an alien species whose name is temporarily “Alphas” is a Kardashev Type II Civilization and has an entire galaxy under their control. My novel focuses on the interaction between the ...
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What could be the justification for having isolated domes all over a planet with people living inside them and not knowing about the real world?
To elaborate a bit further: let's say there's a planet in which some higher power installed several giant "domes" where people live. Each of these domes, which are the size of a small city, ...
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What are potential avenues for firearms and weapons technologies for a biotech-centric species?
In my setting, there is an alien world known as Totaria and an alien race known as the Totarians, who possess a special cell that lets them develop whatever organs, limbs, and creatures they want, ...
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At what point do you release aircraft from an orbital lander
So I have a definitely-useful-definitely-not-way-too-big-mega-size-orbital-lander(tm) that is making planetfall. Some of the goods and passengers isnt that important and can be risked by unloading ...
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Physiological consequences of being a brain in a jar plugged into a robot body [duplicate]
In an alterante universe where Nazi Germany conquered the world, an unfortunate soul has ended up like Cliff Steele from Doom Patrol; his brain has been removed from its original body by a mad nazi ...
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How strong would a planetary magnetic field need to be in order to lighten the weight of ferromagnetic metals? [closed]
I am writing a fantasy/sci-fi where humans crash-land on a somewhat earthlike planet (continental distribution, great masses of water, similar element's abundance), however, I would like for one of ...
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How could a teleporter scientifically be stopped from using their ability? [closed]
Background:
Subject LN96TN04 is a teleporter. He was not born this way but made this way in a lab. He's kept in the laboratory and tests are run on him constantly to develop his abilities. Sometimes, ...
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Coilguns as spaceship thrusters second attempt
This is a second attempt for this question, the first time i put in too many different things that ended up derailing the question.
I'm in the early stages of designing a scifi game and want to use as ...
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Could a planet much larger than earth have the same gravity if it were hollow?
Now- this is probably a stupid question but hear me out.
If the planet I want to imagine were much larger than earth, would it have to have a massive difference in gravity?
It sounds extremely ...
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Quantitying religious concept [closed]
Once upon a time, there were people on a planet far away who believed that our galaxy was a brain. Each star would be a neuron. In the absence of wormholes and other ways to get around the speed of ...
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Feasibility living tissue product
Once upon a time, there was a gang that wanted young women to infiltrate the upper class. Unfortunately due to genetic modification and better nutrition the elite was much taller two feet on average ...
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Steering Alcubierre bubble?
So the question is - let's pretend we managed problems with exotic matter and/or energy (there are theoretical solutions without exotic matter, with only positive energy https://iopscience.iop.org/...
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Is it possible to Magnetize spaceship corridors to counter Aliens with iron weapons?
/-Transmission Received || Ansible-Sector-74 || To Prohibited Subject 248029:BA7-/
Trade Route Attacks
With the Triptite Federation being gently convinced to open their borders for trade, merchants ...
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Tactics and formations to defend a convoy of starships [closed]
Once upon a time, there were two kingdoms at war. One of them had more starships and access to magnetic monopoles. For the purpose of this question, they could have been another exotic particle. ...
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Logical/Scientific Explanation for Umbrakinesis?
I'm working on a story where the characters have elemental-based powers based on natural material/materials/phenomena found in nature. So far, each of the powers makes sense on a physical level, since ...
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How smart would my cyborg be? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, how smart could a neuron culture in a petri dish be?
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Surgical techniques for physical makeover
In the world the elite tends to be tall. The commoners tend be much shorter two or more feet shorter. https://www.hss.edu/conditions_limb-lengthening-overview.asp talks about several inches of ...
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Preserving medicines on a long-haul space flight?
So I have a really long space-flight section of my story with all necessary requirements for preserving the crew is in place (hypersleep etc.)
But one thing went into my mind with preserving other ...
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How many magnetic monopoles are needed to disable an aircraft carrier?
Once upon a time there was an interstellar kingdom with access to hundreds of planets through wormholes. Geniuses or luck gave them magnetic monopoles. They exist!!! The next bit is somewhat magical ...
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What would make an atmosphere green?
I am making a space sci-fi film. And the planet that it takes place on the sky is green (like how ours is blue). The air can be toxic but it need to be able to explode if oxygen is introduced in to it....
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Shapes of Space-Time
Ok let’s get the legwork done first.
A common way to visualize our current space-time is as a 3D grid. The lines of this grid are perfectly parallel until a significant amount of matter causes them to ...
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How could my cyborg live longer? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, the problem is most neuronal cultures only live for weeks, 60 days or up to 5 years, that's ...
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Could a powerful nearly omniscient magic AI God prevent humans from destroying themselves? [closed]
From an outsider's perspective this world looks like your typical fantasy realm with feudalism, mages and fantastic creatures. Only few entities know, that this world used to be a backwater colony of ...
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What characteristics would my Enslaver Aliens find attractive in each other? [closed]
Each photo I have here is that of an Enslaver Alien. Thank you midjourney for helping me create these creatures. They are an alien species that can grow to the size of a fifteen story building and are ...
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Saturnian Zeppelin Cities: can I use Aerographene coated with Titanium as the hull material to prevent getting crushed by atmospheric forces?
(After receiving countless suggestions from users like Sojourner, Wilik, and EngrStudent, I have come up with a solution to a cloud city on Saturn.)
So, I ran a few calculations on Air Density ...
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Explaining My Planet’s Weather
Alright so my planet is very similar to Earth, but slightly more unstable. Both geologically and atmospherically speaking. It orbits an orange star, slightly larger and more “angry” than the sun. It ...
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What would the launch and explosion of FTL-missiles look like?
In Effects of being hit by an object going at FTL speeds, the effects of a spear going at FTL speeds are debated in detail.
For my setting, humanity's last hope of stalling an alien invasion comes ...
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What kind of alien homeworld would result in the following kind of alien (i.e. my Enslavers) naturally evolving? [closed]
Pictures are provided below. But overall there are three sentient alien species, at the top of the universe food chain in my setting. One of them are the Enslaver Aliens (different individuals shown ...
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Day/Night on a Ringworld
In writing up an idea for living on a Ringworld, I've come to an odd question; Is there a moment of decreased exposure to the sun? I've seen this question asked previously, but people simply refuted ...
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Uh-oh, the galactic bank just got blown up - what now? [closed]
I'm running a sci-fi tabletop game, and the current big bad the party is hunting down is a group of freedom fighters with big ideas, and a MacGuffin relic capable of large-scale destruction. The big ...
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Can I make a Binary star system with a class G star and a black dwarf?
I am constructing my own cluster of solar systems for a story I'm working on and had the idea of adding a black dwarf somewhere to indicate the timeline of this story.
My question is. Does a black ...
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How could a two-legged chariot horse gallop?
I have a horse race design I think suits the world I created, but I don’t know how it could actually race. I need to resolve the actual propulsion.
In that other question the best answer seemed to be ...
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How to reignite a sun?
I just had an idea in a sci-fi setting for an alien race that has re-emerged, but I don't know how plausible it is or if there is anything to make it more plausible.
Consider a conventional universe, ...
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Could HIV-1 evolve to successfully infect rats?
In my world that is set in a far future, a mammalian species from the Euarchontoglires superorder descended from brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) evolved to become sapient.
One of the deadliest diseases ...
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A synthetical virus created by a racist [closed]
In my science-fiction story, there is a vile scientist that creates a synthetical virus, because he wants to kill all humans of British and Irish ancestry all over the world.
This virus ONLY affects ...
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How possible is it for someone to be born without a sex(physically)?
When I say "sexless", I mean that they are born without male or female phenotypic sex. Not identifying or being nonbinary, but Anatomically sexless. Note: This is not to offend anyone who ...
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Can my cyborg idea work? [closed]
I'm writing a book where the main character is a cyborg, it's going to be a hard-science book and my idea is like a brain in a jar with the intact brain within a structure that pumps artificial blood ...
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Is it plausible for only living animals to be valid candidates for cloning?
So in my seting an alternate universe that's 67 million years "behind" ours, T. rex is on the brink of extinction early, with only 1 member left due to extreme overhunting by universe ...
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Would would an undiscovered element show up as on a light spectrum analysis? [closed]
All elements, when hit by light, reflect it at varying frequencies and by looking at the frequency of the reflected light it is possible to find out the elemental composition of an object, even from ...
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How large would a chunk of ice have to be to do lasting harm if it were 'thrown' at Earth?
I'm working on a story involving life on Europa being upturned dramatically by contact from a probe sent from Earth. I know the chances of life, let alone intelligent life, are pretty slim on Europa, ...
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Could a large chunk of Europa's ice crust be 'thrown' at Earth?
I'm working on a story involving life on Europa being upturned dramatically by contact from a probe sent from Earth. Found this community while researching, and have found a lot of great ideas. I know ...
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What should my “dusty plasma” based life-form eat?
First time posting, so thanks in advance to everyone!
I am working on creating a life form that is made of complex or “dusty” plasma. My inspiration is a 2003 study showing plasma forming into cell-...
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Cooling body suit inside another insulated suit
So in my story the protagonist is a genetically enhanced vigilante that uses a full bulletproof jumpsuit in her activities.
But because of her accelerated metabolism, dealing with the heat of getting ...
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