Questions tagged [technology]
For questions about the creation, use, and application of all types of technology.
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What modern technology would be most revolutionary to ancient Greeks?
In Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" a nineteenth century character finds himself in medieval England and shortly manages to build all the "modern" inventions: from steam ...
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Is a steampunk style Clockwork robot possible?
Could you make a steampunk style robot powered by steam power and Clockwork mechanics (In such a way that it would practical)?
Assume no magic is involved, just Engineering
Assume the brain is a ...
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How do I create a secret steampunk navigation scheme?
I need a hidden outpost to have signs that only a certain real-world technology can see and comprehend. These are basically road markers, or navigation aids, that won't be understandable by normal ...
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Could my Anti-Regeneration spear technology work against this creature?
My story (set in the far future) has a bear-sized monster with a tough shell. The human settlers fighting it realize their ballistic firearms are not effective in killing it; though they may pierce ...
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How "advanced" can a stone age society get?
I'm working on a world where, with very few exceptions, metalwork is not possible/unwanted, and I'm trying to figure out what major differences one might see in daily life, and what would be necessary ...
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End-user experience and prominent use cases of robust interplanetary internet
Having recently learned about the Interplanetary Internet in development by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 2312, I began to wonder about the actual ...
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A variable-ammo post-apocalyptic projectile-weapon
Needlessly long names aside, how would this weapon work?
Made from scratch with junk scavenged from a 21st century world, post nuclear apocalypse. Assume nothing was specifically preserved, only the ...
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What person/group can be trusted to secure and freely distribute extensive amount of future knowledge in the 1990s?
This is another attempt at helping my previously mentioned time traveler to distribute a significant amount of 2020 knowledge in 1990. This time we're assuming 2-3 loops have happened and he can ...
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How do you solve the copied consciousness conundrum without killing anyone?
What do digital immortality, teleportation, the show Doctor Who, and a horror game released in 2015 have in common?
The idea of copied consciousness.
Each of these examples relies on copying the ...
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Psychic/Telepathic Piloting System
Comic artist. I'm looking to mess around with the 'floating islands' trope to see just how 'hard' a magic system I can make it. The idea is to finally explain "what keeps the islands up" and ...
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Durability of analog vs. electronic robots?
The setting is just like earth.
If we could build a fully functioning humanoid robot out of either a fictional analog material, or an electronic/digital processor and material, which would be more ...
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What would need to change to make living comfortable in a world with limited cars?
My world is a futuristic soft sci fi with humans but not set on Earth (though planet is earthlike). In it, the world has been ravaged by a monster driven apocalypse multiple times. It has been 400 ...
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What would it have taken for the world to skip fossil fuels?
I'm looking for a plausible way that humanity could have discovered, developed and then adopted renewable energy + storage instead of fossil fuels as the catalyst for industrialisation.
To be clear ...
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Are vactrains a good choice for cargo?
It seems like all the discussion of vactrains is about transporting people.
But what about a smaller-diameter vactrain that could shuttle cargo around the world at thousands of mph? You could have a ...
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What is the consequence of having a tech that capable of producing early manual repeating rifles?
In my fantasy world, the manual repeating rifle (revolver action, falling block action, lever action, pump action, bolt action) is already a common weapon within human society.
If possible, I don't ...
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How much binary data could reliably be stored on a wax phonographic cylinder?
Wax cylinders were used at the dawn of the phonograph to store audio recordings. This was long before the codec or compression, and they only had space for approximately two minutes of sound.
I'm ...
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Ideas from the future changing the past [closed]
There is a thesis that I rather support, claiming that most inventions where done when done not because of lack of creativity, but because the technology or society were not ready for them. But I ...
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Exploration of a 50 mile high mountain
My friends and I are building a world with a 50 mile high volcano on it. The mountain is the result of some bored god deciding to play a joke on everyone. Or, some other god got angry and decided to ...
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Can free-space holograms exist?
Holograms are a real thing. But what science-fiction TV shows and movies call holograms are something different entirely.
From a classical geometric optics standpoint, in order to create the illusion ...
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Is it necessary for spaceships to include reverse thrusters for deceleration in space?
Set in the not so distant future, space travel becomes commonplace but is limited within the heliosphere. I'm thinking since it is fuel efficient and more economical to use gravity assist to slow down ...
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Playing cards in zero-g
Suppose there is a wandering starship that travels between the stars, bringing blackjack and hookers to every wormhole it crosses. This casino is like any other on a planet or station, except it ...
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How to defeat a pyrokinesis user using tech and science
The user can manipulate fire in many ways, and to a certain extent, he can also manipulate electricity. The fire he uses is special and can reach temperatures above sun, but the average temperature ...
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Is there any reason that justify or make seem more optimal to make sky observations for astronomical purposes on equinox and solstice?
In the setting I'm working on a giant mechanism opens on every equinox and solstice to record the sky and use the data for calculations that are required for the story plot.
For astronomical reasons, ...
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Why might physical media remain in use in a highly networked society?
I'm writing a story set in our own future1, where networked devices are even more ubiquitous -- and more capable -- than smartphones today. Part of the story, however, hinges on the main character ...
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How would early and unlimited access to gunpowder change bronze age warfare and technology?
Assume a world that's much like ours, but in which there is a naturally occurring resource with the properties of gunpowder. This "gunpowder" is only found in one small area, measuring about 1000 ...
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Why would Mermaids develop ships?
The Context
My mermaids are amphibians that have legs that allow them to walk on land. They live in a lagoon similar to the barrier reef. The reef is roughly 1,000 square miles, and its average depth ...
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What sort of explosive detonators could be made without modern technology?
This is a very society in the style of the 1730's Europe long before the advent of modern electronics.
While I expect wick-style fuses to still easily be made (as they were then), could anything like ...
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How Big Can An Ancient Bird Powered Glider Get?
What are the practical limitations of a glider made of bronze age materials and pulled by well trained birds?
Due to psychics able to control animals, and a cultural fixation with domestication, ...
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Power Crystals for a more primitive time
A recent coment on my Bloodless Sword question got me thinking: Could you make a "power crystal" out of radioactive particles suspended in crystal formations?
In counless Sci-Fi sieres, like ...
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What Bronze Age Jobs Couldn't be Replaced by Extremely Well Trained Animals?
In this setting magpies and mammoths have been domesticated for hundreds of millennia, allowing them to become far more diligent and trainable than dogs by a wide margin.
The mammoths come in full ...
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Would A Gravity Blade Be Possible To Create?
I am wanting to use gravity based weaponry in my plot. One of my ideas was to have some sort of blade that could focus extreme gravitational forces at the edge of the blade to slice through matter (...
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Is it Possible to Manage a Police State Prior to the Invention of Widespread and Reliable Communication Technology?
By “Police State” I mean a despotic sort of government in which the state is actively trying to spy on its citizens for political ends. Something like the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) or ...
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Must magic be tied to medieval tech?
Most settings with a magical component, whether this means wizards, magical races, or something similar, seem to be parked at a medieval level of development in terms of technology and society. Is ...
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How quickly can a world industrialize?
I'm working on a project right now, and in this world I was hoping for a rapid industrialization and technological development. In the span of 70-80 years I plan to have this world go from the (...
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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 ...
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How could a shrink ray work?
I'm working on a novel, which involves a shrink ray. Kind of like the one in Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and involves a small Laser-esque (or Laser) beam that shrinks the thing it hits.
Problem is, it ...
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What could feyfolk use for lighting?
In my setting diminutive races like fairies, gnomes, and gremlins exist and to handle of the cooler climates such as in Europe and protect themselves for their many predators many of them live ...
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In the late 1940’s to early 1950’s what technology was available that could melt a LOT of ice?
In my story I’ve devised lore where Greenland becomes a US territory, and they begin populating the region. It initially just served as the hub for numerous military bases and airbases, but eventually ...
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How can enormous giants hide their existence in a modern city?
Meet the Artarons, a group of giants of unknown origin. This troop consists of 15 humongous human-like giants, they have been living isolated in the woods to keep themselves secluded from the modern ...
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Could ectotherms keep warm in winter?
While ectotherms are generally able to operate at a wide array of temperatures, there are still limits
This would present a problem to any ectotherms wishing to visit (or even live in) colder regions. ...
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data crystal ready, please insert the crystal inside your brain to continue. Wait! but where?
How to get smarter? easy! poke 2 holes in your brain and build a computer around the holes, the computer reads data from some usbs and sends the information to your brain, remove the usb and you also ...
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How many workers are required for a medieval civilization to have metals?
The setting of my story is a medieval refugee community that has found a protected place to settle. They end up remaining in isolation for a few hundred years. The protection is a boost for life, in ...
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Why can humanoid robots designed solely for social purposes lift a 30 ton fire truck?
Set in the near future after there is a breakthrough in A.I. research, these robots are able to engage in a conversation with us and even provide consultation in many different areas ranging from ...
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metal/alloy based lifeforms? how would they function?
I've been working on an alien race for a while, and the look of them have changed a lot In the design process, but right now, I've stuck with metallic lifeforms..
essentially living machines, made ...
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Feasibility of cylindrical rasterization? (Alien GPUs)
Background / Rationale
Many fictional worlds feature sapient herbivores, but rarely spend much time considering how their tools and technology would differ. In the course of writing my story, however, ...
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Transit for an advanced aquatic species?
I'm designing an aquatic, fish-like species for a sci-fi setting and I've had trouble deciding on methods of transit, particularly mass transit, that would be viable for them. I've considered a few ...
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Solar harvesting with cycles of star lifting
I was wondering if it would be possible to take an O type star and lift material from it reducing its mass in cycles near the time the star reaches the end of its main-sequence age for each reducing ...
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How to power and animate origami soldiers?
Set in near future, a sheet of metal can fold itself into a soldier with the height of a full grown men and can pick up ranged weapon. This is inspired by the folding of solar sail technology of ...
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How can siphoning power from a god fail to increase Mana reserves?
Through magical rituals, entities can be summoned into our worlds and placed into avatars, humanoid shells serving as a container for their souls. A corporation has used this method to summon a god in ...
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Making the Marauder's Map: Can I make a map that changes?
Those familiar with the Harry Potter series may be familiar with the Marauder's Map, a map that allows the holder to see where people are at any given time. It displays a person as a set of footprints ...
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