214
votes
Accepted
Why zero tolerance on nudity in space?
Housecleaning in Zero-G
Think through the amount of body hair and skin flakes a human sheds each week. On Earth, you take a vacuum cleaner or a mop. Still, fluff collects in hard-to-reach places. No ...
- 120k
168
votes
Accepted
Can I reduce the crime rate by penalizing criminals' children socially?
Well, there is at least one country operating that way (pp. 24, 27, 35 of the report). Perhaps it stops some crime, but that country is not a nice place to live.
Most criminals do not believe that ...
- 120k
141
votes
Can a casino system prove my (divine) luck as cheating?
For "clear" probabilistic games (like roulette, where the probability of victory are well known, and 1/37 on a single number) they can easily tell, on statistic base, if you are cheating or not.
For "...
- 301k
125
votes
Can I reduce the crime rate by penalizing criminals' children socially?
There is a flaw in what you expect.
In your scenario, you are assuming that only men can commit crime.The other side of this story is as follows:
Alice does not marry Bob. Bob finds Kate. Kate also ...
- 1,563
119
votes
Truth Stone: Effects on the justice system, and criminal world
Scenario 1:
The King declares:
"I have decided to use the Truth Stone to root out any and all corruption in my administration."
Stone vanishes from behind 5 supposedly locked and guarded ...
- 60.3k
97
votes
Can a casino system prove my (divine) luck as cheating?
Casinos don't need to find out that you are cheating. Or to be specific, how you are cheating.
For example card counting is not cheating, but when the casino discovers you are getting the upper hand ...
- 21.9k
97
votes
Accepted
What is a good reason for every spaceship to carry a weapon on board?
For the same reason some do in real life. Ship (or landing pod) landing isn't perfect so when they arrive back on earth the astronauts need to defend themselves against hostile animals or scavengers.
- 1,378
87
votes
Accepted
What questions should I ask myself when designing a legal system for a fantasy world?
Assuming you have a basic list of things not to do and penalties set up you may wish to start asking about the bureaucratic process:
Who can accuse people? Everyone, or only the elite?
Who can catch ...
- 17.8k
80
votes
Accepted
Punishment in pacifist society
The punished becomes a tree.
It is not punishment so much as sentence; a time away from his familiar world. The punished is not insensate during this time. He experiences the world as a tree - the ...
- 306k
77
votes
Accepted
A road system with no traffic rules - what sort of vehicle is best?
Horses
They are smart enough to not crash themselves on others, even if their riders are completely drunk.
- 1,540
72
votes
How would deafening as punishment be carried out?
There is historical record (although old and unreliable) that, in 1031 or 32, Vazul, the grand prince of Hungary, was blinded and deafened using molten lead to make him unsuitable as king. It was not ...
- 741
67
votes
Can a casino system prove my (divine) luck as cheating?
Here is what you should do.
Play progressive slots that can pay out hundreds of thousands on one win, and someone has to do it. This will not alert the casino in any way. You will also get a huge ...
- 5,042
64
votes
Lying is illegal. How to make joking not an offence?
It will be a crime for civil servants to misrepresent or present false
information with the deliberate intention of deceiving fellow
government officials or members of the public while acting out ...
- 20.4k
55
votes
Accepted
Why would Patent Terms be extended to centuries?
Time will do it.
There is continuous pressure from long lived corporations to extend the length of patents. The more power corporations have in your universe, the longer patents will end up.
There ...
- 20k
55
votes
Why zero tolerance on nudity in space?
1 - We're icky
There is a hygienic dimension to clothing. As mammals, especially placental mammals, we're always secreting and shedding something -- sweat, oil, hair, dead skin, and many other ...
- 1,280
55
votes
Accepted
Why would spaceships still practice venting precious air?
The same reason why some ships keep illegally washing their tanks in the open sea instead that in the certified facilities: because it's cheaper.
Keeping a working filtering and recycling system for ...
- 301k
54
votes
Truth Stone: Effects on the justice system, and criminal world
How about this?
The stone goes into a church/temple/palace. The accused in any trial has the right to demand a Trial by Stone instead of the usual legal process, but only before that process starts.
...
- 120k
54
votes
Why zero tolerance on nudity in space?
Spacesuits are compulsory
The human body is ill suited for leaving the confines of Earth. Spacesuits serve a variety of necessary functions in order for humans to operate in space like temperature ...
- 8,709
53
votes
Help! Our merchants keep turning into villains!
To the honoured Ebyssybl Mollassand,
Unfortunately my agency will be unable to assist until you are willing to take a holistic solution to this problem.
Your continued insistence on using freelance ...
- 118k
53
votes
A road system with no traffic rules - what sort of vehicle is best?
While the scenario painted may seem quite bizarre and downright deadly, the fact of the matter is, minimal traffic regulation does not necessarily mean you need to drive an Challenger 2 Tank just to ...
- 41.2k
48
votes
Truth Stone: Effects on the justice system, and criminal world
The real problem is that the stone does not actually force you to speak truth. So when you speak a half-truth or a misleading truth it will still identify it as a lie. A clever person could still ...
- 807
48
votes
Accepted
A Society Built Around Theft?
A similar system was used in the spartan agoge
Boys were intentionally underfed to encourage them to steal food for themselves; however, they were severely punished if caught.
This was part of the ...
- 301k
47
votes
How could a private corporation take over the British government
Technically, the United Kingdom is a Theocratic Dictatorship, ruled by the whim of HM the Queen, which is normally expressed through parliament. That means that any change of law, up to and including ...
- 15k
46
votes
Accepted
Why would a country persecute people with autism?
A fictitious (not fantasty) story is set in a third-world country sometime during the 70s or 80s. The country operates similarly to any semi-developed country in central or south America. The ...
- 17.7k
46
votes
Reason why dimensional travelling would be restricted
Universe B does not (yet) have magic mirrors.
Universe A magic mirrors do not connect with a corresponding Universe B magic mirror. Sort of like In Mary Poppins, Bert's sidewalk chalk painting does ...
- 306k
45
votes
A road system with no traffic rules - what sort of vehicle is best?
It has to be a motorbike...
Having just been to the Philippines (and I imagine many southeast Asian and over populated areas are also like this), Motor bikes are everywhere and small enough to slip ...
- 15.3k
45
votes
What is Santa's defense against an unlawful withholding of welfare charge?
Case dropped for two reasons. There is no law enforcing Santa to give anyone anything therefore anything of value is a gift that is given to anyone nice.
Second reason for dropping the case is that it'...
- 21.9k
43
votes
Why would a country persecute people with autism?
Eugenics + Poverty
It actually happened.
If you feel like hating humanity you can look up the practise of forced sterilization, which was quite widespread even 40 years ago. And you still see ...
- 82.7k
43
votes
How does a super-power salesman not get shut down for legal reasons?
Your boss has a real problem in this scenario since it’s technically illegal for a person to take the law into their own hands. He or she would face legal challenges regardless of whether they sell to ...
- 575
43
votes
How can the wealthy prevent the illegal propagation of their genetic code?
This is a legal problem rather than anything else. While today DNA is used to establish paternity/maternity, we already have legal exceptions. For example, several US states do not allow sperm donors (...
- 6,665
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible