Questions tagged [technology]
For questions about the creation, use, and application of all types of technology.
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Keeping tech at 1890s levels without fossil fuels [duplicate]
How can I explain the technological stagnation at a level roughly equivalent to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The world is Earth-like and has the following characteristics:
Absence of ...
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Artificially-created diamond 'windows' for spacecraft
In the past I've entertained the notion of space stations and spaceships having window panes or transparent viewing surfaces made from laboratory-created diamonds, but a recent answer to a different ...
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Would direct matter to energy conversion be hazardous?
A simple question...
In a setting I am working on, I want most advanced civilizations to use a form of Cymatics to facilitate matter to energy conversion.
They have the technological acumen to "...
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Optimal Organ Preservation in a Steampunk World?
In a steampunk world where multiple more-or-less humanoid species (with varying levels of intelligence) coexist, organ hunting is prevalent and authorized (outside of cities).
The harvested organs are ...
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Are there any good alternatives to firearms for 1920s aircrafts?
Short and simple are there any actually effective alternatives to firearms as the main alternative for WW1-1920s era aircraft including biplanes and airships?
Rules:
1: The weapon must be able to be ...
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Horses or ATVS? [closed]
Writing a setting where people have access to modern technology from the greater world, but the people of this land haven't really developed yet; there isn't a rail or road network connecting the ...
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Horse Exoskeletons?
Working on a society a society that was never centralized or peaceful enough to invest in rail and road networks, even as the rest of the world developed. They've imported camels, donkeys, and horses ...
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Could you achieve a crude bessemer converter with late medieval technology
Planning to write a story. I was wondering if it was plausible that (with a decent understanding of how the thing works), if you could build a crude Bessemer converter using only technology available ...
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Piezoelectric Horseshoes?
New here, so forgive me if I commit a faux pas or two
So I wrote a society that, never being wealthy or organized enough to invest in rail and road networks, stuck with beasts of burden, even as the ...
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Engines capable of surviving a highly destructive space battle
Context: It is set 50 000 years from "now" in no-FTL interstellar setting. The idea is that active defences and armor of spacecrafts have obscenely advanced to the point that any projectile ...
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An industrial revolution without overt, visible pollution/alternatives to coal?
BACKGROUND
Fantasy setting, highly rural/pastoral. Social landscape is significantly more egalitarian (but far from idyllic) with no serfdom tying a peasant class to the land. Magic exists, but ...
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how early can people build a giant clock?
Can a clock that measures hours and minutes be created using primitive technology? so at most gears carved out of wood/bone/stone or crude non smitthed copper and when? I tought that maybe a primitive ...
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How can my weapons kill enemy soldiers but leave civilians/noncombatants unharmed?
In my RPG, an engineer is working on an energy weapon that kills enemy soldiers but leaves civilians and noncombatants untouched.
During the game, he takes the weapon designs and goes on the run, out ...
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Detectability of a Type III Civilization with a specific set of conditions
Conditions:
The civilization is in a galaxy which is not the Milky Way. For the purposes of this question, assume the target galaxy is 0.5 Mpc away.
The civilization has elected, for whatever reason ...
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Practicality of engine-mediated magic
In another universe in which humans may exist but did not evolve, the laws of physics allow phenomena that we in this universe would call magical, where matter and energy may be moved, transformed and ...
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How would perpetual motion technology (and "free" energy) affect poverty?
I'm writing a near-future story in which a form of teleportation has been invented. It's only been around for few decades, and is still very complicated (and expensive) to build, so it's only used for ...
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Not-so-precious metals: tools with only precious metals are available
Imagine a world where only precious metals are available. They are as common and plentiful as iron or aluminum are in our world. Any metal that is not precious does not exist outside of biological ...
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Could three-dimensional beings engineer a multi-dimensional structure?
Consider the bigger-on-the-inside concept of sci-fi staples like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. A generally accepted explanation for how a space’s interior could be larger than its exterior shape and “...
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Is there a physical/structural upper-speed-limit to steam locomotives?
In my world (essentially playing in the late 1920's to early 30's, though with a bit of hand-waved technological and political progress), a rail line exists that spans Eurasia from Lisbon to Bangkok.
...
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Would it be possible for someone to have his prosthetics that were made from steampunk materials back in the 1930s?
Edit #1: As I was asked to define the steampunk materials, I should’ve clarify that by this term, I mean materials that consist of metallic elements in general, such as gold, might as well have bronze,...
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Why would a highly advanced society still engage in extensive agriculture?
What are some plausible reasons why an advanced, futuristic society would still have a sizable agricultural/rural component, and a significant rural population? This hypothetical civilization is ...
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Would super soldiers be necessary/viable in this environment? [closed]
Well then this is a hard science fiction story, i.e. nothing that is not physically, technologically or biologically possible, no magical energy sources, no unexplained super powers, just the genetic ...
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What would naval warfare look like if Dreadnoughts never came to be?
I sadly couldn't find any answers to this question, probably because it's quite niche, so i'm posting this as my first question here!
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906) was ...
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Is it possible for a group/clan of 10k people to start their own civilization away from other people in 2050? Like the Amish but with more technology?
They are a group of fed up people in a third world country who somehow acquire/buy land in a remote place near the Himalayas.
Ignore the powers like China trying to conquer them.
Is this possible in ...
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Is there a material lightning does not strike?
I was imagining the possibilities of creating a ship mast which could not get struck by lightning. Is there a material it could be made of that would never get struck by lightning?
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How would a 4-armed, blind species,use firearms?
My blind, intelligent species has advanced technologically to the stage of space exploration through the usage of FTL travel. The reason for their blindness is evolving underground, after the surface ...
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Could a race with 20th century computer technology plausibly develop general-purpose AI?
I have a race of aliens whose technology roughly corresponds to humanity’s in the early 1970s. Wireless communications via microwaves have been developed, but are only available to important groups ...
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Can technology that prompts or inhibits neuron firing be able to add/alter brain pathways and behavior?
Imagine I had a bunch of little molecules or electrodes or chips or something of the sort, which were outfitted with the ability to attach to brain cells, receive specific electric signal/field ...
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Sci-Fi Science: Ramifications of Photon-to-Axion Conversion
I'm considering what consequences would come from the development of hypothetical devices that could convert photons to axions at cost and power requirements accessible to governments, large ...
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Would it be possible for a civilization to create machines before wheels?
I know wheels have been a pivotal part of every invention and machinery for hunmankind. But currently I'm making an alien civilization with access to floating rocks due to superconductivity. Thanks to ...
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How could submarines be put underneath very thick glaciers with (relatively) low technology?
So in this scenario, some people need to put (large) submarines under very thick glacial ice, thicker than Antarctica, ~4km on average & in thicker areas it get get to 6-8km, the thinnest areas ...
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Power grid on the Moon
Actually this is not an idea for a book, I thought about it after reading this article. The power grid they propose for the moon would require a lot of electric cables and robots that bring power ...
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How could I justify switching phone numbers from decimal to hexadecimal?
A very common media technique is to replace area or exchange codes of phone numbers with 555 to prevent people from dialing real numbers and harassing people by accident. However, I find this a bit ...
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What medical problems would doctors in a far future setting, plausibly have trouble dealing with?
This is based on another thread in regards to how you can avoid having sci fi technology be a deus ex machina.
So when it comes to writing inorganic technology, IE spaceships and laser guns, the laws ...
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How Would a Spacefaring Civilization Using No Electricity Communicate?
I'm working on a civilization who was born out of a century-long interstellar war with an AI. So they had previously developed electrical and digital technology but now they're avoiding using any of ...
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Reasons for low-tech in sci-fi [closed]
My sci-fi world is stuck in a low-tech state. What would be the underlying reasons?
In Dune, it's the recent Jihad against machines.
In the 40k setting, it's religion.
In MechWarrior, it's an ...
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What would a Medieval-Tech "super-metal" look like?
Edit: I am not looking for a specifically scientifically supportable answer. Rather, I am curious as to what characteristics of weapon metal lead to making them harder, and better at penetrating/...
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How would the development of computers be altered if it took longer to find out a practical way to synthesise silicon crystals for transistors?
How would the development of computers be altered by the time of the 1960s & 1970s if we only figured out a practical way to synthesise silicon crystals usable for silicon transistors after that ...
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Fastest possible space faring civilization from cavemen [closed]
Let's say I have an Environment, called eden
Abundant amounts of any resources needed to become a space faring civilization, as long as they are non-synthetic or man made resources
filled with ...
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An earth-like society with popular submarine travel [closed]
So I have recently been reading the new issue of "Just like us" from Feb 2245, the one that features the plane Aurora on its frontpage. I know that we've made a contact with these guys a ...
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Is there any way to justify very different levels of technological development within a few thousand miles?
Imagine a continent the size of Africa.
At the coasts are sophisticated cities, where people use digital technology, electric cars, and whatnot.
Travel inland, across a mountain range or through a ...
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How to use and abuse a transformable metal [closed]
My dm has given my character a metal that can:
"Be as flexible as linen or more rigid than tungsten. Properties that can be adjusted: tensile strength, torque strength, rigidity, density."
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Would it be possible to create a technology that allows telekinesis? [closed]
im writing a story with the purpose of trying to stay within the bounds of realism (in a way), and telekinesis is one of my issues...
Basically, I am trying to figure out if there is any way possible ...
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What would be the fastest way to generate heat energy for damage?
For a suit of armour to deal damage via the hands/palms/claws primarily as an antihero/vigilante gimmick. Now thinking around ~2000°C (3632°F) (Containment is another question) but I need it hot ...
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Super broad gauge railway vs double wide/multi track railway
So here's the scenario, a mad scientist has just managed to take over the continent on his campaign for world domination (which continent I will leave to your imagination but for simplicity lets say ...
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Appearance of sky in space habitat with low (50 m) ceiling, using mirrors and blinders
Background
I have considered rotating space habitats of various forms for my worldbuilding projects (i.e. cylinders, rings/torii, spheres) and recently discovered this intriguing design by physicist ...
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How might a race of humanoids with haplodiploid sex determination reproduce artificially? [closed]
I'd like to have unique fantasy type 'races' in a world which appears as a typical fantasy world, but is in fact set far in the future after an apocalyptic event.
I'd like one of these races to be '...
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Hycean world space travel [closed]
Hycean worlds are planets which bridge the gap between rocky and gas giant planets. They have atmospheres high in hydrogen and vast oceans with perhaps no dry land at all. How could the local sentient ...
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What would a society do with negative refractive index glass? [closed]
In the late 18th century, a chemist somewhere in the West discovers a cheap and easy process that can be used to produce glass with a negative refractive index. What use would society have for this ...
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How to make a signal difficult to find?
There is a construction fleet that has turned up on earth, to prepare it for extraterrestrial visitors (it's the new galactic place to be).
In order to assist the locals (us) in understanding what is ...
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