Questions tagged [technology]
For questions about the creation, use, and application of all types of technology.
2,135
questions
8
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5answers
2k views
How could people hundreds of years ago have protected themselves from radiation?
In my world, there is a civilization with about 1800's-level technology. There is a nuclear accident in part of the world that they need to access. Is there a way for a civilization with this level of ...
0
votes
2answers
161 views
The most entropic-friendly way to wipe out Earth
I’m writing a short story where a species of aliens wipe out all life they encounter because they see life as a threat since it accelerates entropy. However, many of the methods used for destruction, ...
4
votes
2answers
103 views
Maximizing crop yields
Ladies and gentleman, today we were summoned by the Agro-nerd council with one unique mission: we must take a single acre of land and feed the largest amount of people possible. But this isn't your ...
3
votes
2answers
141 views
What kinds of technology would we be limited to if magic causes EMPs? [closed]
In an attempt to explain why things aren't as advanced as things could be with the help of both technology and magic I've made it so that each spell that is cast emits an EMP that is extremely ...
1
vote
1answer
63 views
How would you rebuild a time machine in the wilderness? [closed]
In my game the player travels to a parallel dimension and their time machine gets heavily damaged. So now they have to use the resources in the world to rebuild/repair it. We can assume that the ...
4
votes
2answers
92 views
What is the feasibility of a polar civilization using auroras for power?
Okay, so I’m working on making a setting for a TTRPG and am working on what to put on the North Pole area. I’m thinking a big ol’ Antartica-esc continent with a civilization of Nordic-like people that ...
32
votes
6answers
4k views
Can a NASER be used as a weapon?
Before I go to my question, let me refresh the basic principles of operation of a LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation): an active medium is brought in an excited state and, ...
-1
votes
5answers
280 views
Maintaining an advantage in a world of infinite acceleration capabilites
Technical
Suppose that someone showed up very few years ago and started selling out spaceships ships are capable of arbitrarily high acceleration, the drive is integral to the hull and moves the whole ...
3
votes
1answer
81 views
How to write character who was the ability to manipulate diamagnetism?
I am trying to adapt a character who has Diamagnetic Manipulation abilities (https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Diamagnetism_Manipulation) into my own universe. Although I know superpowers do not ...
40
votes
11answers
10k views
An engineering enigma: the useless "wings" behind giant robots. What is their TRUE purpose?
An engineering enigma: the useless "wings" behind giant robots.
"Bold design choice."
"What? I like anime."
"Worst-case scenario, we'll end up with the world's most ...
3
votes
7answers
1k views
Maintaining an advantage in a world of reactionless drives [closed]
Suppose, because I can't be bothered explaining the exact setting, that someone showed up tomorrow and started handing out spaceships with reactionless drives to anyone who asked for them. These ships ...
5
votes
7answers
2k views
How do I make a steam engine work - with next-to-zero hydrocarbons, or, for that matter, biomatter - to use as fuel?
Let's say that my colony ship crash-landed on an atmosphere-less planet. Sure, there might be sub-surface pockets that have evolved primitive life, but sulfur and phosphorous are at a premium in the ...
0
votes
5answers
187 views
Is it realistic and legal for someone who lives remotely in the UK to have a private mobile repeater?
Edit: Question has been edited due to confusion and details have been clarified on why they need a mobile signal.
I'm currently writing a short story and have the idea that someone that lives in a ...
14
votes
13answers
4k views
Can a tunnel be hidden from acoustic scanners?
There is an underground vault containing something very valuable. To prevent robbers from tunnelling to it, the security personnel regularly scans the ground with sound and geophysic sensors. Some ...
4
votes
2answers
146 views
Recreating planes at an industrial level in the 15th century
A portal has opened up in our world, leading to a world which is similar to the technological and cultural level of the the middle ages(15th Century).The Government has figured out how to send people ...
6
votes
2answers
178 views
How does a team operate in a situation of one-way communication?
So I had a lot of fun reading the short story "Into Darkness" written by Greg Egan (Axiomatic 2010). I want to play with a few of the concepts of that story. In particular, the general theme ...
3
votes
4answers
178 views
Sail Plan For A Flying Vessel
What precisely is the ideal sail placement for a ship that flies?
Anti-Ballast which is basically a rock that pulls up is the key technology here, allowing the construction of a framework (essentially ...
2
votes
2answers
84 views
How can heavy molecules slow down the rate of condensation? [closed]
Mana is the background energy by which witches use to create magical spells. The level of mana content within the environment rises and falls with the passage of the tides, and consolidates in certain ...
12
votes
14answers
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How would an inter-planetary [not inter-stellar] recycling/scavenging team know when ships have crashed?
In my world, there is a certain group of 'scavengers' — people who go around and pick out valuable (and salvageable, of course) objects from ships that have crashed [onto the surface of a moon/planet],...
19
votes
5answers
3k views
Making stillsuits less fantasy - how to dump the heat?
As we all know1, stillsuit as described in the books would cook the user. Water would carry heat away from the body, but then it would be caught again, and again with the heat.
Assuming energy is not ...
2
votes
2answers
160 views
Naval Gunfire Support with railgun equipped warships
Would vessels like battleships or cruisers, equppied with railguns instead of conventional guns, be able to offer fire support for ground troops?
Doing my research, I have been informed that railguns ...
15
votes
7answers
5k views
Would medieval people be able to build a wall to keep the rising sea levels from engulfing their continent?
Long story short the earth-like planet is being bombarded by ice comets crashing into the oceans and the sea levels are rising. I want there to be a huge wall(probably around 20 meters or so) that ...
9
votes
7answers
1k views
What materials would merfolk use to craft armor?
What materials in the environment could merpeople use to make armor? The merpeople live in the mediterranean sea and have contact and trade with humans who could provide resources and craft the armor ...
4
votes
4answers
199 views
Would it be possible to have a utopia with an impenetrable shield around it?
I would like to build a virtual world that has strict immigration policies with an impenetrable invisible shield around it. Sort of like Wakanda or like in that Wonder Woman movie.
Immigration is ...
2
votes
1answer
64 views
What would be the technological limitations of an advanced aquatic species? [duplicate]
My latest idea for worldbuilding involves a world in which the surface of the planet is 95% of the planet's surface covered in saltwater (there are still minerals and other collectible resources on ...
0
votes
2answers
103 views
Would a civilization without war develop spaceflight? [closed]
Could a peaceful extraterrestrial civilization (purely hypothetical) ever get to space?
I ask this because the vast majority of our technological milestones have come as the result of conflict:
...
2
votes
6answers
296 views
Is it possible to achieve space flight without having discovered crude oil?
Is it theoretically possible for a civilization to get into space without the capability of distilling crude?
I know that the Saturn V rocket was fueled with hydrogen from the splitting of ...
19
votes
12answers
4k views
Potential workings of a device that makes the area around it appear in greyscale?
Basically I'm thinking of a strategy game, something like starcraft, and you have a unit that emits a field that causes the area around it to appear in grayscale. Is there any kind of potential ...
-4
votes
7answers
213 views
Hard Sci-Fi hardlight-based "energy shield" [duplicate]
I'm making a fairly hard Sci-Fi story, and I was wondering what the most scientifically plausible Hardlight-based 'energy-shield' (for ships and stations) would be. My world tries to remain true to ...
10
votes
11answers
3k views
How Might an Army with Modern Technology Gear up for Seal Clubbing Technologically Backwards Enemies?
In my book series, the Ishga Empire has a monopoly on technology that we would say ranges from an industrial revolution to sci-fi level, although their military tech capabilities for the sake of this ...
1
vote
1answer
155 views
Concrete Warships vs Steel Warships
Humanity in my world has to deal with the invasion of inter-dimensional beings (Their tech level is around WW2 and in certain departments they're more advanced than we were around that period and in ...
6
votes
8answers
213 views
Possible Reason, why magic can't be recorded by modern technology
I am imagining a Harry-Potter-like magical scenario: A secret parallel society of magic wielders in our modern-day era, only known to those, who grew up in it or those, who got initiated.
I find it ...
13
votes
2answers
997 views
Clone consciousness using fake childhoods. Is it plausible?
I am working on a sci-fi story and need a way to clone a person, body and mind. I also want it to be done without "far future technology" where anything goes. I want it to be simple and ...
5
votes
3answers
147 views
How many calories can a cubic meter produce?
In my Generic Dystopian Setting™, space inside the nuclear shelters is at a premium, and so people have had to come up with creative means of growing food inside them. This often includes thinking ...
23
votes
30answers
7k views
Why would civilizations have no major technological development even after ten thousand years?
Basic Introduction (story background for anyone interested)
I have a character whose punishment for causing massive genocide was immortality for ten thousand years. To be more specific, after his ...
1
vote
1answer
333 views
Could a 3D film be displayed for a chameleon-sighted viewer?
In my world there are a relatively large and wealthy subset of the population who, instead of a humanoid pair of eyes, have independent eyes like a chameleon. These eyes have the unique lenses, ...
0
votes
4answers
102 views
Could plankton create civilisation? [closed]
Could a species of planktonic beings, with sufficient intelligence, creativity, and physical ability to manipulate objects, create a technological civilisation at the same level as humans? While being ...
2
votes
4answers
291 views
Could a space-based telescope 'sense' something extraneous?
If a fist-sized artefact was to attach itself to a space telescope (of near-term build, such as the Nancy Grace Roman) situated in L2 of a Lagrange point, would Ground Control be able to detect it?
5
votes
5answers
223 views
How big does a floating island have to be for the effects of motion sickness to be negated?
Assuming a floating island is built from plastic trash or barrels how big would it have to be for motion sickness to become irrelevant?
6
votes
5answers
1k views
What would boats look like on a planet with two moons?
For the purposes of this question, let us assume that one moon is similar in size to Earth's but slightly further away and the other is significantly smaller but approximately the same distance away ...
3
votes
2answers
98 views
Technology disparities between nations and internal organizations [closed]
I'm doing a series of world-building for an alternate world in a very low magic setting, basic premise is that 3000 years ago, in a dnd like a world, Wizards in order to prevent magical wars from ...
2
votes
2answers
111 views
Producing pink plasma [closed]
How to produce a pink coloured plasma (ionized state of matter )? what compounds must mixed that allows them to produce this coloured plasma
-4
votes
1answer
74 views
Tachyon reactor [closed]
My ship have a reactor core that accelerates tachyons within it, which lose energy as their velocity increases, generating energy.How my reactor core accelerates the tachyons and harness this energy ?
3
votes
4answers
249 views
Making A Cat World: How would a cat carry supplies on their person?
This is the first in what I plan to be a series of questions on how cats with a human level intelligence would be able to work things out.
I was inspired by an artist called Neytirix and the world she ...
2
votes
3answers
158 views
Consequences of all email accounts being suddenly and irretrievably deleted [closed]
What social impact could we expect from all email accounts in existence (or in a very large emailing service provider) being suddenly and irretrievably deleted? In this scenario, people can create new ...
2
votes
1answer
143 views
how much paper could you make with the early paper machines?
Paper in my world has always been made in an artisan way. More people have started to learn how to read now that my characters are providing an easy, reliable, and quick way to send letters. They want ...
7
votes
9answers
1k views
Increasing G force tolerance
How can I increase the G tolerance for a person who will be participating in intense side to side/lateral movement as well as some vertical high G maneuvers. Ideally the application should be able to ...
3
votes
15answers
4k views
What is an expedience of sci-fi gliders? these machines flying near the very ground
What is an expedience of sci-fi gliders? these machines flying near the very ground.
It doesn't matter what they call them there (in different way).
No matter what specific principle they fly - what ...
15
votes
15answers
5k views
How Do You Get Wood in a World Where Monsters Defend The Forests?
PROJEKT ' IRON SONG '
In the Empire of Tyvertsia, there are many strange and often hostile beasts—bears, mountain lions, sirin, bauk and the like—living among the wildlife of the thick Western forests,...
3
votes
2answers
92 views
Could sci-fi tech be created to track you by your microbiome cloud?
I have a sci-fi story set in the future and was thinking about search dogs and how they track you and then thought about having my character use technology that can see your unique microbiome cloud ...
