Questions tagged [technology]
For questions about the creation, use, and application of all types of technology.
1,936
questions
11
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4answers
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How do spaceships compensate for the Doppler shift in their communication frequency?
Assume all radio communication bandwidth used in interstellar communication is standardized to a certain fixed range and all must be frequency modulated but know that no agency is keeping track ...
23
votes
21answers
4k views
What would make sailing difficult?
I'm looking to write a story where the world is a lot of islands separated by rather small water expanses (about the width of the Mediterranean or maybe that and a half) and I am struggling to find a ...
5
votes
2answers
146 views
When is the latest a population of merfolk could have inhabited Zealandia without humans getting conclusive proof of their existence?
Inspired by this answer to this question.
In my setting, there exist magical immortal mutants descended from humans who randomly became "magically active" and transformed into the first ...
5
votes
3answers
150 views
Plausibility of implants that hijack our emotions to improve human mental performance
Set in the near future (2030 A.D.): the Chinese government initiates a nationwide program aiming to create a new generation of people who are more objective and less prone to making stupid decisions ...
12
votes
9answers
4k views
Smart phones and claws?
In Zootopia, they have computer and smart phones, much like we do. The world I'm writing is similarly populated by anthropomorphic mammals and, like Zootopia, generally possesses technology similar to ...
0
votes
2answers
175 views
What would a laser gun realistically look like? [closed]
I'm writing a science fiction book where laser gun are a common weapon. The idea being that the combatative capabilities come more from the laser ionizing the air and reacting with whatever it 'hits' (...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
Why would NSWR's be used when Orion drives are around?
In the setting I'm making, Orion drives are one of the primary forms of propulsion used in spacecraft. I have been thinking of adding Nuclear Salt Water Rockets (the lithium variety) alongside Orion ...
26
votes
20answers
6k views
How can a technologically advanced species be conquered by a less advanced one?
When worldbuilding, what elements can be introduced that can justify the conquest or overtaking of a technologically superior species by one that is not as advanced, or much weaker.
7
votes
5answers
273 views
What is the minimum mass of the tech stack to build a microcontroller?
One day we will colonize another world, far far away. Importing anything will be vastly expensive and slow. The more self-sufficient you can be, the better.
It's implausible that you could bring ...
6
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10answers
1k views
What would prevent magitech created in one realm from working in another?
The world is broken up into seven realms: Australia, North America, South America, Antartica, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Each realm is populated by large numbers of people, and travel between realms is ...
30
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15answers
5k views
Minimum tech level required to outrun a terminator?
In the Terminator movies, a nigh-unstoppable cyborg travels back in time from the future to the present day to relentlessly hunt down and kill the human protagonists. They primarily manage to evade it ...
8
votes
7answers
232 views
What changes to planetary atmosphere, available materials or technology could make biplanes and triplanes remain dominant?
I like aircraft with multiple wings stacked atop each other; in an alternate world (undergoing a similar technological history to our planet but with a different aesthetic) I would like them to remain ...
3
votes
2answers
86 views
Would redox flow batteries be good for the development of all-electric armored vehicles?
I am in the process of creating a somewhat hard military sci fi setting and was enamored by the idea of all-electric armored vehicles for a future war.
For this I decided to used Redox Flow Batteries:
...
23
votes
6answers
4k views
Dungeons for Real: 1. The Bottomless Pit
The bottomless pit
A multi-billionaire has decided to build a dungeon for real as a commercial venture. This is not your reasonably-convincing or VR version. It is a full-blown, full-sized dungeon ...
5
votes
2answers
242 views
Could something approximating a Star Wars AT-AT be built with today’s technology?
It must be roughly the same size and height as an At-at and walk on legs, but it does not have to have all of the other At-at features. So no laser cannon or similar, but it can have missile launchers ...
10
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5answers
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Can any manmade vessels float on ocean of liquid nitrogen?
Humanity is finally reaching the interstellar space and had discovered a terrestrial planet covered in liquid nitrogen, the planet is orbiting a star thrice as massive as Sun but is too further away ...
6
votes
10answers
433 views
In a high magic setting, what's something that would be instantly assumed is divine intervention and not a spell?
Context: this is for a Pathfinder 2e campaign, the setting is my own but the available spells are those present in the rulebook.*
I would like a character in this setting to have an artifact which is ...
4
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5answers
2k views
How to monitor speed limits on roads in the medieval time? [duplicate]
A decree has been issued by King User VMDCCLX in the 12th century CE to control traffic within the kingdom, a significant portion will be pour into upsizing the military. Despite it's unpopularity the ...
2
votes
1answer
186 views
Would the internet be intact in 3021 without human maintenance?
I am new to Worldbuilding, so just give me a heads up if this is off-topic or too open-ended.
Let say that today the entire human species were wiped out this month (not relevant why). Humans were ...
-1
votes
1answer
62 views
If the sun stopped shining, could we survive? [duplicate]
As much as some people say that the sun is evil, it is a very important source of energy to us, so that if we concentrated 1% of the sun's power, we could power the whole world during 50 years.
If the ...
4
votes
2answers
297 views
Air vehicles for birds
I want to make a race of sapient birds,they are starting their own industrial revolution. Is it possible for them to develop air vehicles even though they can fly without them??
-1
votes
0answers
39 views
Can cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin be turned into a censored payment system under that would be financial regulation framework creating soft forks? [closed]
It s well known mining pools as well as hashing power is centralized in countries where electricity is cheap and using mining farms rather belonging to at least medium sized companies than single hand ...
20
votes
8answers
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Where in the world can film in a crashed photo recon plane survive for several decades?
For a pen-and-paper RPG scenario, I want the player characters to find and salvage undeveloped film from a crashed early-cold-war or late-WWII photo recon aircraft. Where in the world is it most ...
4
votes
3answers
115 views
Highest technological level one can reach without fire?
Oh hey, the cats from those old questions are back. So, since I doubt most of you have read those past questions, let me summarize the differences they have to normal cats:
They have mildly opposable ...
7
votes
9answers
239 views
How could the sword be a viable weapon against modern technology, with the advantage of science-based superpowers?
The atmosphere in the Judging Hall was stretched so thin that it seemed like it would snap at the slightest blink of an eye. On one side of the hall sat the Master Judge and his guards, his hand ...
7
votes
6answers
126 views
Why would an experimental portal system become connected with a portal system in a parallel universe?
Backstory
In around modern time in the United States there was a super secret science project, unknown to the general public. They invented an experimental portal system, allowing to teleport people ...
22
votes
11answers
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What would cause a culture to keep a distinct weapon for centuries?
Imagine you have the stereotypical mysterious nation across the ocean. Their mercenaries are sometimes contracted into your army. They dress weird, talk with an accent, and have really odd weapons. ...
1
vote
1answer
82 views
What kind of companies and fronts would a humanitarian conspiracy have?
A humanitarian AI known as URAED has set up a one-AI infrastructure for supporting a conspiracy. This conspiracy being the intrusion, resource extraction, and deployment of humanitarian resources and ...
12
votes
13answers
4k views
Why would a flourishing city need so many outdated robots?
Near future, Boston, United States of America.
This city brands itself as the leader in both medicine and quantum computing. The city looks awfully youthful and energetic; after all, they cured old ...
12
votes
11answers
3k views
How does 15th century beancurd delivery work?
The setting is the early 15th century C.E.
My grandmother knew how to make delicious beancurd and it has since become famous as word spread like wildfire across the land. Business is good, as many ...
4
votes
7answers
154 views
How do android regulates heat without triggering IR scanner?
Imagine that a robot disguised as a child walks into an airport to board a plane. Because of the pandemic there are many IR scanners stationed at every entrances/exits within the premises.
This ...
4
votes
6answers
915 views
Could medieval people make an electric motor?
It was suggested that a medieval people, with a readily available source of electricity, would develop electric motors and horseless carriages. I had thought these would be too complicated to make ...
5
votes
7answers
779 views
Is it possible for an isolated island nation to reach early-modern (early 1700s European) technology levels?
Background: I am currently writing my first fantasy novel and the nation/continent on which my story takes place is an island roughly the size of New Zealand. It consists of two nations who split off ...
0
votes
2answers
87 views
What could a medieval people do with electricity? [closed]
My world has magic batteries, created by an alien people. These theoretically have the power of a nuclear reactor, able to generate about a Gigawatt each, but you can lower the voltage and amperage to ...
3
votes
1answer
177 views
What is the possible way for internet to evolve into immaterium?
A few days ago I was choosing a gift for the New year. As I was standing in the gift shop and my sight was caught by the mug with memes.
I thought that it looks like the internet somehow crawled into ...
9
votes
4answers
4k views
How do you detect and defend against micro blackhole cannon?
Set a hundred years into the future, an alien mothership antimatter engine has malfunctioned and to prevent a disaster they decided to eject the byproduct, a micro blackhole as massive as an empire ...
1
vote
1answer
98 views
How would harpies get supplies up and down their mountain homes? [closed]
Clearly, harpies can fly up and down between their mountain homes and the ground. They may be able to do this while carrying a considerable weight. But that's still the hardest, most manual way of ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Could a dyson sphere survive a supernova?
So, a civilization built a massive Dyson Sphere around a supergiant star. As the star ages, it begins to fuse iron. At this point, the force of radiation pressure cannot prevent core collapse, and ...
10
votes
10answers
2k views
Could 1950s technology detect / communicate with satellites in the solar system?
I'm working on an alternate-history story in which peaceful alien satellites are surveying the solar system and passively observing human activity. Many of the deep-space satellites would have been in ...
5
votes
4answers
453 views
Are these bio-tech implants possible?
I'm creating a post climate disaster world set several hundred years in the future. During the breakdown of society as we know it the vast majority of tech companies turned to creating implants to ...
6
votes
1answer
144 views
How can my shapeshifting superhero best prepare to fight crime? [closed]
Dave lives in a world where superpowers are extremely common, lending to the creation of superpowered crime fighters to combat the superpowered crime doers. What makes Dave special is that he has a ...
2
votes
5answers
305 views
Realistic protection from rayguns?
Ok, this is kind of two questions in one
In a scifi setting where laser or plasma are the main weapons, what sort of system would be used to protect from the heat and radiation?
My idea was a heat ...
8
votes
6answers
322 views
How would mermaids collect oxygen for their underwater cities?
I was thinking there might be a guest room for humans down in Atlantis. But this raises a question: how would they get enough oxygen for their guests?
Mines have various techniques for oxygenating ...
4
votes
5answers
102 views
Alternative power that produces smoke
I have a post-apocalyptic world that is devoid of plant and animal life, although because of underground bunkers containing stored chemical materials and underground gardening,reservoirs,and mining, ...
4
votes
5answers
552 views
What creative use four armed aliens can put their arms to?
The related question about possible weapons for four-armed humans provoked me to ask one of my own.
I have a technologically advanced (to somewhere of the Mass Effect levels of technology) alien ...
3
votes
2answers
193 views
Piercing the brain stem as a painless way to go, a reliable method?
In my world, a doctor needs a reliable way to kill a human quickly and painlessly. The original concept on how to do this involved the use a long spike extending into each side of the head and ...
4
votes
2answers
272 views
Making a plasma weapon (somewhat) realistic
I want to write a sci fi story where the main weapons in the setting are rayguns that shoot beams of plasma. The gun works by having a magazine filled with gas, a gas chamber, a chamber that energizes ...
4
votes
6answers
722 views
Why would combat robots with DNA-based biocomputers tend to go berserk?
In my universe, there exist these canine robots called the Kynigóskylo-Types created to hunt and kill specific species of mutated animals. Kynigóskylos get controlled by DNA-powered bio-computers (...
3
votes
4answers
105 views
Propulsion or Space Elevator
In a sci fi setting I'm writing, gravity can be easily controlled and gravity propulsion is used to push starships through space. I had the idea of space elevators being used to get on/off Earth but ...
3
votes
1answer
90 views
Can combustion light gas guns use metallic hydrogen or something else to retain the compactness of a bullet
Can combustion light gas guns use metallic hydrogen or something else to retain the compactness of a bullet and its casing and would this mess with my world (it has a decently high tech level and the ...
