Questions tagged [time]

For questions about the standard passage of time on objects/people/civilisations etc. Also consider the [time-keeping], [spacetime-dimensions], [alternate-history], [universe], [time-travel], or [time-manipulation] tags.

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How can I penalize using accelerated time in Full Dive Virtual Reality?

Theoretically, if you engage in a so called Full Dive VR, you can — inside the simulation — experience things at an accelerated rate, meaning your subjective experience is many hours, while mere ...
Birth of Claritism's user avatar
21 votes
9 answers
4k views

What can be used as a galaxy-wide time reference?

Assuming... ...intelligent civilisations exist throughout the entirety of the Milkyway galaxy, and these civilisations wish for some kind of common time reference, a GTC — Galactic Time Coordinated — ...
MichaelK's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
156 views

What time units would a civilisation constantly travelling between planets and universes use? [duplicate]

While it's possible for an advanced enough civilisation to get some value from atoms and record it in a computer, how would a civilisation without that technology first develop some form of time ...
value1's user avatar
  • 111
16 votes
18 answers
4k views

Running out of time in a world where time has stopped, how to make it consistent?

When writing I always want the rules to be as consistent as possible for scenario’s that might be common or the reader might think about happening. But I’m not sure how to resolve some issues. The ...
Demigan's user avatar
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4 votes
7 answers
2k views

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 ...
user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
976 views

Is it reasonable to use the rate of radioactive decay as a new way of measuring time

The unit of measurement known as a Curie(after Pierre and Marie Curie) measures the rate of decay of Ra-226 in one second. It was originally measured at 3.7x10^10 decays per second. It has been more ...
Martamo's user avatar
  • 936
1 vote
1 answer
170 views

If Titan was suddenly raised to an earth-like temperature, how long before it melts?

After terraforming Mars, humans are now attempting to terraform Saturn’s moon Titan. Having removed much of its dense atmosphere, (reducing the pressure to just 0.7 bars) the colonists have now built ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
30 votes
11 answers
7k views

What parts of a spaceship would still work 100 million years later?

A spacecraft designed for interstellar travel is discovered 100 million years later. What pieces of it still work, what parts would be easily repairable, and what would still be even vaguely ...
Zags's user avatar
  • 2,717
4 votes
1 answer
133 views

Where, on a geological timescale, would human-worked materials end up?

One day, a race of hyper-advanced aliens are on a stag weekend to Earth, and for a joke they decide to 'tag' every atom of every material that humans have 'worked' through chemical processes (eg ...
Stephen's user avatar
  • 8,682
3 votes
2 answers
194 views

Fluctuating time between realms?

I'm going to try my best to describe what I'm looking for, but it's a bit hard to explain. I'm imagining a world with multiple realms and time fluctuates between them according to some sinusoidal wave ...
tstrickler's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
566 views

How long is a terraformed mars likely to remain habitable without plate tectonics?

Whilst considering the terraforming Mars in my science fiction project, I realised something rather important: Mars has no plate tectonics. That means that, assuming the humans in my project manage to ...
user98816's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
159 views

Melting Mars’ core with heliobeams

Humans are trying to terraform Mars. The first step is to restart the magnetosphere. To do this, (and any naysayers who think that a magnetic dipole satellite is better can kindly not say so) a swarm ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
0 votes
3 answers
188 views

Increasing venus’ rotation using radiation pressure

I know, I know; I said I was giving up on Venusian terraformation, but this is gonna haunt me for the rest of my days if I don’t come up with some way to render this planet habitable. So, back to the ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
1 vote
3 answers
154 views

Speeding up venus with rocks from mercury

I’ve decided that in terraforming venus, the time taken to speed up its rotation by venting the atmosphere is just too much. So, I’ve returned to the idea of bombarding the planet with something ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
1 vote
2 answers
137 views

How long would it take for the air to escape from a punctured dome habitat?

It’s the 26th century, and scientists on a barren planet have decided to make the Alpha Centauri Book of World Records by conducting the galaxy’s largest social experiment. These scientists construct ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
1 vote
1 answer
122 views

Time taken to spin venus with mass drivers

So, returning (once more) to the prospect of the terraformation of Venus, I have finally come up with a method of spinning this rock to something approaching 24 hours which (cross fingers) might work ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
8 votes
10 answers
2k views

When and how would clocks be invented on a cloud-enshrouded planet?

Suppose a habitable planet is perpetually enshrouded with clouds but still has enough light seeping through to make lit and unlit portions of a day, and has an intelligent tool-making species living ...
David Hammen's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
220 views

Suspending An Object in Time [closed]

I am curious about the real world physics of an object suspended in time for a short time. In video games like Legend of Zelda there is an ability the player can use which freezes an object in time. ...
PeanutNutter's user avatar
8 votes
7 answers
5k views

How can I deliver 4 x10^19 kg of hydrogen to a planet in 30 years?

So, in the early years of interstellar colonisation, a planet called Uwa Ohuru starts to be terraformed. Uwa Ohuru is a Venus-like planet with a thick co2 atmosphere, (though not so thick that this ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
3 votes
1 answer
181 views

Amount of fuel needed for a long-running fusion reactor

Let’s say people (humans) arrive on a planet. Oh no, it’s too hot! Okay, we live underground in lava tubes. Oh no, it’s too dark! Okay, so illuminate the tubes with self-repairing fusion-reactors that ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
3 votes
1 answer
132 views

How does Santa give his gifts anonymously to the Saturnians?

Christmas is nearing, and Santa has upgraded his sled to OP levels. His sled is now a gigantic truck pulled by robotic reindeer, and which can travel at 1c, or at 100% the speed of light (Hi ...
Alastor's user avatar
  • 3,402
2 votes
4 answers
182 views

Fastest way to give mars oceans [closed]

So, in light of my previous question: how long would it take to bring water to Mars?, assuming that humans have established a magnetic field and atmosphere thus far, what it the fastest way to then ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,573
30 votes
8 answers
10k views

Would a 4000-year-old booby trap still be poisonous?

I've got a group of characters exploring an ancient ruin who've just set off a classic "darts flying from the walls" booby trap. In theory, when the trap was first built these darts would ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
202 views

Theoretically, would anti-gravity have a temporal component and if so what would that be? [closed]

This is purely speculative since we don’t know if we can actually create anti-gravity. Gravity and Time are two of the biggest mysteries in our universe. We don’t know why gravity is so weak or where ...
Max's user avatar
  • 61
6 votes
2 answers
661 views

How would the edge of a time bubble interact with the world?

Someone has stopped all time. Dont worry, some people realized someone was tampering with time and they managed to create bubbles of time where they live, trying to build more equipment that lets them ...
Demigan's user avatar
  • 45.3k
9 votes
14 answers
3k views

Is it plausible for a world without an external universe to develop a year system?

I'm currently in the phase of planning a time system for my world and I am starting to run into logistical issues. My world essentially is an island in an endless ocean. No universe, no rotation of ...
violetorigin's user avatar
26 votes
22 answers
5k views

Ideas for a human convenient, long term date system spanning many trillions of years

I have reached the stage in my latest science fiction epic (in form if not quality!) whereby I need to start solidifying the date system and setting the history of the universe concretely. The date ...
user avatar
32 votes
32 answers
8k views

Is there any reason why The Chosen One should bother to do anything if their victory is prophesized? [closed]

Assume the prophecy says that The Chosen One will defeat the DARK OVERLORD. The spell of the prophecy is always accurate and has a 100% chance of being true. This has been mathematically proven and is ...
TheDyingOfLight's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
234 views

Would it make sense for an Interstellar government to use the half life of common radioactive elements as a measure of time? and to make calendars? [closed]

For example, can we use the half life of Polonium or Uranium to measure time and produce something similar to a calendar?
spaceamoeba1010's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
314 views

how would you call a star when referring to a "sunset" or "sunrise" [closed]

So, I've been developing a worldbuilding project, and I have an issue with this one planet's star, the planet it's called Xin Anhui, that means "new Anhui" a province in China, based on the ...
Tomatyde's user avatar
12 votes
11 answers
3k views

Measuring Time in a World Where the Sun Never Sets

First time here, so I don't know what to expect. I'm writing a dark sci fi mystery story that takes place on a hypothetical megastructure called an "Alderson Disk" (Example seen Below). ...
KliveMcToaster's user avatar
11 votes
8 answers
1k views

How can a country devote centuries of resources to building giant mechas without being stopped?

There is a world where giant monsters the size of mountains come every few hundred years and destroy huge amounts of the world and any organized civilization of humans. The only effective response ...
Nepene Nep's user avatar
  • 38.3k
12 votes
8 answers
3k views

How would an underground society measure time? [duplicate]

I have a very mind-boggling question about time reckoning. I have a race of Dwarves, that at the very beginning of their history lived only underground and were forbidden to reach the surface. They ...
Faegir Dariusson's user avatar
4 votes
7 answers
623 views

Creatures which can be mortal in one dimension and immortal in another dimension, How do I avoid time freezing forever?

These beings can live a normal life, except they switch dimensions, their body still remains in the same place. But almost as if time froze, they are transported in another world, an infinite ...
user avatar
12 votes
15 answers
3k views

How do Time Keepers log their diaries?

Set in distant future, a group of super advance civilization formed a special task force to observe and guard timelines, and they are called Time Keepers. The Time Keepers will scan for spacetime ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 47.8k
3 votes
2 answers
173 views

How can the number of inconsistencies within a universe increase with successive patches?

Gods are all powerful beings who are eternal and have existed within the past, present, and future of a universe's timeline. However, every god also had a beginning. These beings were once mortals who ...
Incognito's user avatar
  • 38.5k
2 votes
5 answers
180 views

A 24 hour day with less than 24 time zones

I'd like to have a world similar to earth in it's day cycle, meaning a 24 hour day measuring hours the way we currently do. However, due to the planet's size, I'd like there to be less than 24 time ...
Olandir's user avatar
  • 710
4 votes
5 answers
438 views

How can telepathic communication work across different time periods?

Gods inhabit a realm parallel to the mortal plane known as the warp. These beings are effectively made up of warp energy condensed into solidified form. They can enter the mortal plane through an ...
Incognito's user avatar
  • 38.5k
2 votes
1 answer
175 views

How Should I Make a Calendar for Trappist-1

Alright, so I have already asked a few questions about this system, but this is the most important one. Firstly, I am needing to see if I got a relatively simple math problem right, and then I need ...
skout's user avatar
  • 2,068
3 votes
4 answers
245 views

How could a time paradox caused by a manufactured deity fail to produce a full retcon of history?

The Leviathan https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Scarlet_King is an entity formed as the manifestation of the tension between the modern world and the pre-modern world and the rage it creates. ...
Incognito's user avatar
  • 38.5k
-2 votes
1 answer
123 views

Indicators of Ai Super Intelligence [closed]

Given the certain state of Ai, what indicators would show some level of ‘Super Intelligence’? Here are some of my ideas of 'Super Intelligence' this is subjective, of course. Able to operate on ...
Xammax's user avatar
  • 9
9 votes
2 answers
279 views

Reality Check: Controling time to produce velocity

Background I recently had some fun watching YouTube videos about redefining the nature of gravity based on the existence and flow or "velocity" of time. (Example) and it got me thinking of ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 122k
16 votes
11 answers
3k views

What would the scientific explanation be for an energy source that can last 130,000 years?

I am playing with the idea of an alien ship landing on earth 130,000 years ago. Over time it's covered up with water and sediments and is eventually discovered in modern day. It contains numerous ...
Luke Duffy's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
165 views

Small space of slow-down time

I am aware of this question: Speeding up time? My question is about the opposite effects. Specifically, I want to describe the results of using the time altering device create by the Great Race of ...
gruszczy's user avatar
  • 857
11 votes
12 answers
7k views

How can I store energy/data reliably for 300 million years?

Following this question: How can I implement time travel on a somewhat realistic way? Considering I have a way of getting energy into the past (as said on the previous question), I need a way of ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
104 views

It is possible to slow down time without a Black Hole? [closed]

Well, I saw a interesting question in other sites and it made me wondering. Since cryogenics and hibernation aren't exactly that easy, and colony ships that travel through the eons in space carrying ...
Fulano's user avatar
  • 209
2 votes
2 answers
357 views

Slowing time, slows gravity?

I'm designing a character that can slow time in an area around him/her. The living things in that area perceive time normally, so they see this character and the things out of that area moving very ...
raulmd13's user avatar
  • 129
15 votes
6 answers
4k views

How would people in Medieval times react to the clothes worn by a time traveler coming from the present day?

My heroine (accidentally) travels through time and finds herself in a medieval setting (a forest in e.g. 1100). The only things that time traveled with her, are her clothes. At first she gets lost in ...
KjVdB's user avatar
  • 403
1 vote
1 answer
126 views

Could a pebble-bed reactor provide sporadic power for millions of years?

The device needed is a monitoring system. Aliens leave a probe on Earth or orbiting Earth, which typically lies dormant, but it awakes every 1,000 years or so to check life's status on Earth. There's ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 171
1 vote
0 answers
66 views

Seeing the future [closed]

Is it possible to distort time without a black hole and see all, in one instant, see everything all at once, future, past and present? And if it was possible to see the future, how would it really ...
Nine Inch Nails's user avatar

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