Questions tagged [technology]
For questions about the creation, use, and application of all types of technology.
1,491
questions
4
votes
6answers
197 views
Technology to see an invisible being
I have a world where there are two types of beings. One type, let's call them X, exist in our "dimension," and the other, let's call them Y, exist in another "phase" or dimension.
Only 10% of X ...
10
votes
5answers
244 views
Preconditions for 'Classical' Space Fighters and Carriers
Let's say that I, like many other worldbuilders before me, want to have 'classical' (space-operatic) space fighters and carriers in a space setting.
However, I don't want to do it by fiat and ...
5
votes
1answer
236 views
Post-apocalyptic airship
I have:
A post-apocalyptic scenario, set in the ruins of an American metropolis with flooded streets.
The apocalypse was some decades ago, some primitive technologies have been re-invented. ...
0
votes
3answers
141 views
Could Devils Tower Be the Model for Rapunzel's Tower?
Many adaptations of the Brothers Grimm tale of Rapunzel have come up with ways to make Rapunzel's tower so unscalable that the only way up is to ask her to let down her very, very, very long hair.
...
3
votes
1answer
112 views
Will my futuristic homing tracker signal be lost inside a mountain?
My protagonist is being pursued, and they have put a tracker in his arm he cannot remove, lest it blow up and kill him. Pretty standard stuff. It's the future, so maybe the tracker is more ...
5
votes
4answers
416 views
What is the best way to cause swarm intelligence to be destroyed?
In my story, there is a large group of humanoid clones that help the city function, doing mundane tasks such as cleaning and maintaining the city. Doing all of the minimum wage jobs and 95% of the ...
3
votes
9answers
1k views
Best gun to modify into a monsterhunter weapon?
In my post-apocalyptical-urban-fantasy setting, the main character is a mercenary mage who uses a gun with a big bayonet as his main weapon. The blade is supposed to be some kind of a glaive.
The ...
1
vote
1answer
145 views
Is a hot or cold environment better for intelligent beings? [closed]
I have always assumed that cold would be better for an intelligent being to work in mainly because of electronics. Electronics work better in the cold than the heat. Heat also makes it harder to work. ...
21
votes
17answers
5k views
Need reasons why a satellite network would not work
My story takes place on a hot desert planet that is a colony. At some point people are out in a very hot and inhospitable area of the desert. Dust storms, high heat, constant wind, etc.
Characters ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
Deflecting lasers/plasma bolts/blaster bolts with lightsabers [closed]
In Star Wars, there's some shots where Jedi deflect lasers with their lightsabers. I know there's a law that says you can't go faster then the speed of light and lasers are light, so what is the ...
-1
votes
7answers
224 views
In 2110, are flying cars a thing? [closed]
Flying cars are a standard sci-fi trope, but will they actually be a reality in 90 years? And even if they are, will they completely replace road cars? Or will the prevalence of road cars be dependent ...
10
votes
9answers
2k views
How to trick a fairly simplistic kill-counter? [closed]
In my setting, soldiers carry with them kill-counters; devices that measure the lifesigns of everything in the vicinity and then count one kill if the lifesigns of a given humanoid suddenly ceases to ...
2
votes
4answers
171 views
How can a quarantined eldritch abomination affect boundaries beyond its perimeter?
The world we live in is a simulated reality that is run by large artificial intelligences called gods. These "Gods" act as software that run in the background of the reality, making sure that it ...
4
votes
3answers
200 views
For a well developed high-tech country in a fantasy world, which substance has the higher possibility to be the backbone of their technology? [closed]
For a well developed high-tech country in a fantasy world, which substance has the highest possibility to be the backbone of their technology?
I mean a physical substance, for example:
A substance ...
6
votes
3answers
192 views
How could a small civilization move about normally, tactically, and quickly in a large swamp?
This is a small civilization (more than just a town or two) almost under the shadow of the regional hegemon. The dominant civilization knows they are there, but don't go too deep into that swamp ...
7
votes
6answers
315 views
What would it take to make catapults a alternate way to travel?
I have an idea for a futuristic way to travel for my Story. People get into a capsule, and it launches itself extremely fast in the air. What would be needed to make this happen for real and what ...
6
votes
6answers
313 views
Can a machine benefit from stored heat energy?
Setting Overview
My world suffers from an abundance of a particular type of energy. This energy can be safely absorbed and utilized by living cells, enabling, for example, a dragon's flight and fiery ...
7
votes
6answers
358 views
How can chaotic entities be prevented from spreading beyond their domain?
This is a follow up question to one I asked earlier:How can religions be structured in ways that allow inter-faith councils to work?
So, these gods are basically artificial intelligences that are ...
20
votes
12answers
5k views
Summoning A Technology Based Demon
I have a world where the "supernatural" is all sufficiently advanced technology. With examples like Gods, Demons, and Angels are AI's whose physical forms are swarms of nanobots/nanites. This being ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views
The Sword in the Stone
I am trying to recreate King Arthur's the Sword in the Stone using chemistry.
I have a couple ideas how this could be done Would any of these work or how it might work?
Arthur removes the sword from ...
1
vote
3answers
143 views
What are some artificial Augmentations to stop the Illuminati's Army? [closed]
I am creating a future world where augmentations, all limbs and organs are the newest weapon by bolstering the natural human ability. For example, arm augmentations allow for a strength twice the ...
14
votes
22answers
5k views
How could an engineer advance human civilization by time traveling to the past? [closed]
Earth in the near future (in 2081) is invaded by aliens who are just "a bit" more technologically advanced than humans. The war is not a one sided extermination of humans, but humans are about to lose ...
3
votes
4answers
192 views
Is it possible to build weapons that shield the RF frequencies pre-cogs use to send their memories back in time?
TL;DR: The antagonists in my story have made nearly unstoppable soldiers who, through nanites embedded in their brains, are able to experience the future and send memories back in time. Since the time ...
1
vote
3answers
209 views
Underground Base
If I had a huge underground bunker powered by generators and the generators failed, would it be warm enough underground to keep people alive? How deep would it have to be for people to be comfortable ...
3
votes
6answers
606 views
Steampunk helicopter [closed]
In an alternate reality scenario that takes place during the renaissance, how can the world create a helicopter? Aside from the obvious need for machines, factories, and aviation knowledge, what other ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
Bronze Age Underwater Civilization
I was thinking of an alternate history, in a part of a civilization, living along the Eastern Mediterranean, during the Bronze Age moves to the sea floor to found an underwater civilization. They ...
32
votes
22answers
7k views
How can an advanced civilization forget how to manufacture its technology?
My alien civilization is highly advanced. Their ancestors created wondrous things from medical devices that can cure nearly anything to warships that can defeat nearly any enemy.
The problem is they ...
4
votes
5answers
275 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 ...
6
votes
3answers
146 views
Making techology for a society on other planet
I am having some trouble reasoning out some ideas, if any of you could help.
So I have in mind a planet, where there are many human cultures, but one of them is more advanced then others. So they ...
8
votes
15answers
4k views
How to supply water to a coastal desert town with no rain and no freshwater aquifers?
Think Tatooine in climate, but with oceans. Here are a few restrictions due to setting:
There is modern technology, but not too much electricity ie no super high amperage machines.
Population is ...
9
votes
8answers
5k views
Why did the “Orks” never develop better firearms than Firelances and Handcannons?
The Orks of my world are actually the technologically most advanced civilization. They are bigger and stronger than humans, have bone plates on their heads, greenish skin, and are more akin to the ...
2
votes
6answers
189 views
Why would less-bright meteors be more valuable to spot?
Imagine an agency/company has been set up to track meteors (shooting stars) in pursuit of profit. I need to provide a motivation to upgrade their sensors + equipment over and over again — pouring ...
5
votes
6answers
360 views
Closed off habitat surrounded by extreme heat, is it impossible in the long term without handwavium? [closed]
High-tech Ents foresee a calamity befalling their beloved and treasured green planet. Surface temperatures will rise well above 500 Celsius (arbitrary, basically just very hot) for thousands of years, ...
6
votes
8answers
447 views
What limitations can I put on wings for more tense/risky action scenes?
This is my first post on Stack Exchange, so I'm not sure if this follows the right format. Let me know what I can change to make this more helpful on the site. Anyways, let's get to the backstory of ...
-1
votes
10answers
762 views
What terrain would give an all-female army the advantage over a traditional army in the ancient world?
The Island of Themascyra is a nation inhabited by amazons, a race of all-female (biologically) militants. These women train from birth to be warriors and are well trained in the ways of combat. ...
4
votes
0answers
118 views
What would need to be different from Earth in order to make mecha a viable aspect of warfare on a planet? [closed]
There are lots of great questions and answers on this site about how and why bipedal mecha are near useless on earth, and why spiderlike mecha could perhaps have some niche uses which are unlikely to ...
1
vote
0answers
48 views
How many people can you feed per cubic meter? [duplicate]
With top notch existing technology (need not be currently industrially used, existing research application sufficient) and no regard for (external) ecology, economics or politics, we'll build a ...
42
votes
17answers
10k views
How would modern naval warfare have to have developed differently for battleships to still be relevant in the 21st century?
So basically, battleships are awesome. I am interested in creating a setting where they were never superseded in their role of long-range command vessels and fire support by aircraft carriers, ...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
Is it possible for underground bunkers on different continents to be connected?
In a scenario I'm thinking of, the Earth has been nuked bare and a few remnants of humanity are surviving in their underground bunkers. Let's say there is one in North America, one in Central American,...
25
votes
27answers
8k views
Is it possible to have battery technology that can't be duplicated?
I'm creating a near future world where one faction is using high energy density batteries that enable their vehicles to outperform gasoline based technology. Like cold and silent aircraft and ...
6
votes
1answer
88 views
Could a split cycle intercooled flamelicker have been a viable power source?
Flame lickers work by sucking hot air into a cylinder and then relying on the cooling of the air by the cylinder wall to create a partial vacuum to pull the piston back.
see video
In an alternate ...
14
votes
8answers
3k views
Medieval flying castle propulsion
One day, on the faraway world of not-medieval-Europe, someone discovered that a type of stone could be made to float. A decade or two later, there are flying castles, built out of and/or on a ...
3
votes
2answers
118 views
Handmade metallic cartridges [closed]
Could a group of survivors resupply metallic cartridges with hand-operated tools to be used on small arms in their shelter? What would those tools be and how usable are these handmade cartridges? ...
3
votes
2answers
135 views
Humans meet a distant alien species. How do they coordinate? - Computers [closed]
Part of a series addressing the challenges of a mutual first contact. Previous question here
Humans meet some distant alien species. They are mutual first contacts. After learning the languages of ...
7
votes
1answer
179 views
How much energy can I produce per kg of hydrogen using this process?
In the far future the posthuman successors of mankind have disassembled the stars and live on ultra slow and ultra efficient solar system sized computers, Matrioshka Brains. The last enemy of ...
5
votes
7answers
405 views
Feasibility of extraterrestrial metals?
In a sci-fi universe where man has the capability to leave our solar system would metals or alloys above and beyond our own be possible? Or at least within the bounds of reasonable possibility? As the ...
1
vote
1answer
90 views
A society built an airship. What else? [closed]
A steampunk society managed to develop functioning airships filled with helium, powered by a steam engine. They mine this helium from an underground reservoir along with other natural gas.
What else ...
1
vote
0answers
52 views
What would be day to day life like, for people during a renaissance like period in a world I'm building [closed]
Like I said, what would people eat, what would they drink, how'd they spend their time. I realise this isn't really a hypothetical question, rather a question that requires some information from an ...
3
votes
3answers
323 views
Ballistics of a 19.25mm revolver
A lead off from my last question, the actual ballistics of the round. I've learned from the last question and ran some numbers and come up with a basic idea for the ballistics of the revolver.
Lead ...
25
votes
7answers
7k views
Could a 19.25mm revolver actually exist?
I'm working on writing a story wherein there is a revolver inspired by Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy's samaritan. My question is; can such a gun, as described below, work? Or would it be a bone breaker ...
