Questions tagged [survival]
For questions about the viability of life in certain conditions. For example, it could be used in questions asking about the possibility of life on a planet or other astronomical body.
454 questions
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How far above a forest fire or conflagration would you need to be, to not burn alive?
I write fantasy. One of my main characters is kinda like a D&D druid with plantgrowth. He can magically will plants to grow with photosythesis.
He can for example get trees to grow really quickly, ...
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Reality Check: Would night-vision be necessary for Paleolithic groups to survive extra long, moonless nights?
Assuming they are equivalent to Middle Paleolithic mankind (around ~60,000 BCE), meaning they have access to trade, clothing, (possibly) projectile weapons and the like. The world in question in ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
[I have edited the question to include more details]
A group of let's say, 2500 people wake up from suspended animation on a world terraformed beforehand to be very similar to Earth. These people, ...
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What is the or some of the surefire ways to safeguard against Rostazas for sleeping/lesser activity if one is unarmed or lightly armed? [closed]
So I have this story about humans getting teleported into a world where everything is so big that a 6 foot man is equivalent to an inch. It should be noted that it is pretty Earthlike in terms of ...
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Viability of a medieval city without crops
How could a city be viable if the soil surrounding it has become hostile to any kind of crop? What would the options be?
I came up with the idea of establishing settlements around the city, miles away,...
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How could small animals survive a decade in this world?
Short version:
Living beings in this world take a decade to reach true diversity; how could the beings from rat to fox size live long enough for this? Is hibernation viable?
Long version:
In this ...
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Is a desert planet with a small habitable area possible?
My world takes place on a desert planet, but there is a small habitable forest with water and life. My main inspiration for this is Halem'no from star trek, but without a weather tower sustaining the ...
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Avoiding a cataclysmic meteor shower
With what is available, with means of transportation or method, what would be best strategy to stay on the opposite side of the Earth during a cataclysmic meteor shower that may last for days?
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Can an access to Matter Duplicator change a society of survivors stranded in pristine wilderness to evolve beyond Medieval level of civilization?
Clarification: based on the info below, are there non-obvious ways Matter Dulicator could be used to push the “tech level” of such a society so far past the late Medieval level that common dangers and ...
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Atypical Habitable Planets - Planets Outside of Typical 'Habitable Zone' With Characteristics Still Conducive to Life
Warning: I am wordy and I overexplain things. I'm also Autistic, so I may come off as odd or unusual (and that also feeds into why I overexplain LOL). I'll do my best to be clear and concise, but you ...
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Would a Lilliputian individual need their own personal house if they lived in a normal sized residence?
At first I was going to ask if a miniature person could live out of a 3x3(bodylength) cabin but I thought about a more pressing question: Would a tiny person need their own house if they lived in a ...
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What is the minimum complexity of summoned "food" that a person could live long-term on?
This question is inspired by an another question which asked how long a mage could survive on pure water, NaCl salt, and sucrose, which they could summon.
In taking this a step farther, what is the ...
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How long could a person survive on nothing but water, salt, and sugar?
Magic System
One of my worlds has a magic system that allows people to produce any element, as well as a small number of molecules. When something is produced using magic, it spawns into existence in ...
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What wild mammals could survive a nuclear winter? [closed]
I'm writing a story that takes place after a nuclear winter that lasts for at least 25 years, and which caused much of the surviving population to become hunter-gatherers as a result of crop failure ...
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Could a newborn baby survive on a paleo diet?
Background Info
One of my stories features the classic isekai trope of a person being reincarnated into a baby's body while still retaining their full cognitive abilities. The world they are ...
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Could machines survive in the galactic center?
Let's say a super advanced robot "species" that are programmed to roam the galaxy and explore. They build gigantic structures similar to Dyson spheres, and ensure that they will survive to ...
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Survival Prepping, for Time Travel
Six months from now, ChatGPT transitions into an Artificial Super Intelligence. Six months after that, it discovers how to Time Travel. It is confirmed that traveling into the past will NOT affect our ...
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Stranded mining colony using its own resources to build an interplanetary spacecraft: how long to completion can I credibly make it? (More = better)
Setting
In the not-too-far future, Mars hosts a few mining complexes that extract, refine and send materials back to our planetary system, as well as some scientific research bases. Commutes between ...
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Why do my Androids need to eat and drink? [closed]
What would be a good reason for androids to have a need to eat and drink (not necessarily human food)?
The human body requires food and water in order to refuel and sustain itself, but in the case of ...
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The Frozen Star - Can U-238 reactors be used as a energy source for 10,000 years?
I was watching this Minecraft Animation video based on a scientific concept about what would happen if we froze the Sun - What happens if we Freeze The Sun- Portrayed by Minecraft.
In this video, ...
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Could I keep buildings heated during multi week long hibernation?
In the world of a story I'm writing, there is not normal night and day, nor are there seasons. Instead, the world is governed by magical lights, which occur in several week cycles - the light Dawn has ...
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Near-Death Experiences At a Point in History with No Medical Science?
I want a scenario where a person witnesses a "near death experience". But here's the catch -- there is no medical science available (pick your time, as far back as you like). The person must ...
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What kind of training would an agent responsible for surviving in a hostile, apocalyptic world need to go through?
The premise of my story is that we have discovered a parallel Earth (let's call it E2) lying next to ours (let's call this E1). Something has gone wrong on E2 - at some point in its past, it went ...
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How Well Would Humans Fare In A Romero-Styled Zombie Apocalypse? [closed]
The Story takes place in the modern world, and starting from one day anyone who recently died with their brain intact will revive as a zombie to feed on living flesh.
In this question we will not ...
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How long would humanity survive if a sudden eternal night occurs?
It's a normal victorian era day until people start to realize that the night is taking too long to pass and the sun is not coming out, in fact the sun is never coming out again. The sun still exists ...
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Functioning humanoid society with negligible gravity
In a fictional world, a humanoid species settles upon a foreign planet and intends to build a colony on this planet with an eventual goal of full habitation. They originally chose this planet for ...
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Can a gunsafe survive a nuclear blast level attack?
For reference, here is a type of safe I am talking about: Gun safes are extremely strong, they are on the more expensive end made with solid steel plates. But I am unsure whether something like that ...
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How can human feed themselves on a planet without organic compounds?
I have a planet that is mostly inhabited by "animals" that aren't carbon based, with intentions for humanity to eke out a way of living there. Now, easily I could reason that they just ...
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How fast would supplies become rare in a post-electric world?
I've created an alternate Earth where recurring G5 geomagnetic storms have eliminated the use of electricity. This means no major manufacturing and no shipping of everything from basic household ...
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How far in the past could a highly-trained survivalist live?
Related to How far in the past could unprepared humans survive?, but assumes a single survivalist, purpose-trained for his mission. He is to time travel as far back as he can and attempt to survive ...
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How can we prevent the Earth being scorched and swallowed as the Sun grows and eventually enters its red giant phase?
The Sun is slowly growing more and more luminous.
As a result of these processes, multicellular life forms may be extinct in about 800 million years, and eukaryotes in 1.3 billion years, leaving only ...
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Survivability of a suddenly increased aphelion
I have long been wanting to write a story about Earth freezing relatively fast. In the past I have asked some questions here considering a scenario where Earth becomes a rogue planet... But I also ...
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Could a binary star system support life?
If we take an earth-sized planet with similar atmosphere, and put it into a P-type binary orbit, could it sustain human life? For sake of clarity, assume both stars are G-type stars and the planet is ...
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Super hot tropical forest
Consider an Earth like world except much hotter with extremely hot and wet tropical rain forests.
Assuming 100% humidity, how hot might the alternate Earth tropics get and still support tree like ...
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Motivations for technologically advanced humans to abandon the solar system or a planet still habitable? [closed]
Let's say we are in the moderately distant future. For example, humans are technologically advanced enough so that interstellar travel is possible and Venus and Mars are terraformed. General ...
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How would men survive without women?
What could make a male-only human reproduction system exist, which makes women obsolete, expendable, and also gives men full control over their paternity?
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How long to turn a valley into a village? [closed]
So a group of villagers go up a very high mountain range fleeing from raiders. The urgency of their flight forces them to face the harsh mountains and, in their desperation, they end up finding a ...
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30 g kick to an entire planet, but only for extremely short duration [re-scoped]
I plan to subject an entire earth-like planet to about 300m/s^s acceleration, what is the shortest duration I can get away with for non-scientists to realize something has happened, without everyone’s ...
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How to politely coexist with a vampire?
Inspired by a comical misreading of the title to this question, how would you politely coexist with a vampire? Vampires want blood. You have blood. You'd prefer to keep your blood in your veins and ...
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How would a medieval kingdom survive a zombie outbreak [closed]
In my world, there is a zombie infestation that destroys and takes out many kingdoms, citystates, and villages. These zombies are fast and like the ones from zombieland. It is possible to get cured, ...
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How can plants spread to an extraterrestrial body without human assistance? [duplicate]
The plants can sense worsening ecological conditions in 2022. They need to germinate beyond planet earth. Assuming they can survive in space, germinate in extraterrestrial soil, and the like, how can ...
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How do we survive in post-apocalyptical permanent nighttime (with no electricity, communication, running water, and aliens of course)? [closed]
A race of aliens have invaded Earth and they love the dark.
These aliens have caused intense smoke shading to occur so that it is permanently pitch black.
It has been several weeks since it went dark, ...
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How realistic would it be to have a human based colony surviving a “great flood” style event and living only on ships?
Technology: end of ww2 era (before de-armerment)
Population: ~2.5 billion
Location: current earth
Essentially, massive amounts of water have appeared, covering the entire earth. Humanity has roughly 1 ...
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Most hospitable biomes for living off the land
I'm trying to figure out which are the most hospitable biomes for living off the land.
Say we have a small spacecraft fallen through a time warp that takes it sideways in time, where it finds itself ...
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How would a person with food allergies cope in the Middle Ages?
In a story I'm working on, a character suddenly finds himself transported back to the late Middle Ages. This is completely unexpected, so he doesn't have time to prepare.
It occurred to me that a lot ...
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Can loneliest loneliness kill in a post apocalypse?
My story occurs in the near future after a nuclear holocaust, the human population is reduced to mere thousands spread out all over the world.
A mysterious disease seems to infect the survivors of the ...
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What can we eat in the late Cretaceous?
Suppose there is a team of explorers sent back in time 66 million years ago somewhere before the K-T event took place, the mission is to spend no more than 3 months to retrieve a blood sample from a ...
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How Can Crashdrake Live In a Pine Forest?
Crashdrakes. These dragons are, for just about any intent or purpose, a cassowary, or in other words they are big, flightless, highly aggressive and yet herbivorous death birds. Seeing that dragons in ...
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Feasible ways for humanity to survive a nuclear apocalypse? [closed]
As stated in answers to my previous question: How many survivors would grow on earth years after a worldwide nuclear holocaust?
...even two countries like India & Pakistan bombing each other a few ...
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Why do dragons need to roar before chasing down their prey?
The dragons are the size of a double-decker bus with a long wingspan of over 100 meters, despite their muscular build they lack both endurance and stamina so more often than not they would simply ...
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