43
votes
Accepted
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
Take a page from Bitcoin
Lots of people think that the "crypto" in "cryptocurrency" means that you can keep your assets hidden from everybody else. In such a way you can stash a ...
- 137k
27
votes
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
The ability to move something into hyperspace is akin to fingerprints
Ignoring the value of gloves, when a human tries to take things, they leave fingerprints behind. At first law enforcement doesn't ...
- 117k
26
votes
Accepted
What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
Small-scale harvesting is more art than science.
Your flow of PhoNE is variable and difficult to predict. It changes constantly.
Large-scale operations just throw a huge "net" and sell ...
- 80k
23
votes
Defensive Middle Ages measures against magic-controlled "smart" arrows
1: Electron… magic warfare.
Like with smart munitions, you add magical nodes that can disrupt smart arrows, if not hijack them. Your arrows will veer off-course, you just lose control or the arrow ...
- 44.6k
21
votes
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
A possibility is a short-range hyperspace disrupter. The Hammerts must have quickly realized the problem and applied to such a solution.
Neither banish nor restore work within a short range of the ...
- 55k
20
votes
How might a science-fiction world's technology advance faster than our own?
Lack of wars
Contrary to an assertion in another answer, wars do not really advance technology. What really advances technology is money put into research. Now wars can justify nation-states putting ...
- 20.3k
18
votes
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
Mundane answer
Camera security around precious items, in stores, etc. Audio recording that picks up on the word "Banish" specifically, and triggers alerts. Voice recognition would be ...
- 14.4k
17
votes
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
The magical/Hyperspace system links with the Hammert's mind
If a Hammert tried to Banish something that they know isn't theirs, it won't allow them to.
However, you'll note I said 'Know' - if a ...
- 19k
15
votes
Defensive Middle Ages measures against magic-controlled "smart" arrows
Smart archers need to see the arrow in order to control it
Smoke screens and anything which prevents the mages from seeing the target will work pretty well as defense against them, making their ...
- 277k
15
votes
How might a science-fiction world's technology advance faster than our own?
Make technological progress a huge priority for your culture.
A big limitation for progress in human society has been the amount of resources devoted to research/engineering and its prerequisities (...
- 437
13
votes
Accepted
Avoiding time travel or causality stuff
TL;DR: Decide whether any part of your system needs actual FTL (and wormholes do not require this by themselves, if the mouths get moved at sublight speeds). If you do need FTL, handwave a preferred ...
- 72.9k
13
votes
How might a science-fiction world's technology advance faster than our own?
The Singularity
Many science fiction writers (and a number of other people) believe that we will reach a point where scientific progress accelerates exponentially, when computers (AI) are able to ...
- 10.5k
13
votes
Could Megaflora Sustain Permanent Settlements?
Your biggest problem is not nutritional value. It's that with big food items you need to eat them over time and it's hard to keep them edible.
I have a very large species of breadfruit, and my locale ...
- 24.1k
12
votes
Accepted
Defensive Middle Ages measures against magic-controlled "smart" arrows
First, let's look at the limits of your technology
Medieval war bows had tremendous draw weights. Estimates of 180 lbs are not uncommon. (I've drawn a 100 lbs. bow. It's a difficult draw if you're not ...
- 117k
11
votes
Could Megaflora Sustain Permanent Settlements?
In a certain way, we've done this with some plants in the real world.
Go into Google and look for images of "Alaska Pumpkin". Those can grow to weight up to a ton, sometimes more. And I ...
- 137k
10
votes
How might a science-fiction world's technology advance faster than our own?
War
Nothing advances technology like war. I’m not talking about little skirmishes or proxy wars. All out war that threatens your way of life that’s worth sending a generation off to die. Those wars ...
- 3,866
10
votes
What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
Space is dangerous, as we all know. And space around big stars, space that's full of the stellar wind that contains Phone, is extra dangerous.
So if you're a big corporation harvesting Phone with ...
- 36.9k
10
votes
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
You can make so that the Hammert have a strong code of honor which deeply despise theft, similarly to how samurai despised someone fleeing in battle or not cleaning their honor with their life after ...
- 277k
10
votes
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
It's noticeable
When a Hammert stores an item in hyperspace, it isn't moved there gently, it ceases to exist in our dimension almost instantaneously. This leaves behind a partial vacuum, which ...
- 2,362
9
votes
Could Megaflora Sustain Permanent Settlements?
Normal flora was already, in many historical cases, sustaining whole communities: potatoes and cereals are the most notable examples.
It's not far fetched to imagine that, instead of growing hundreds ...
- 277k
9
votes
What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
Social problems
Two social factors might do the trick:
persistent sabotage by political groups unhappy with the status quo
non-violent people who also want to live off-grid
If your fictional world ...
- 14.2k
8
votes
Defensive Middle Ages measures against magic-controlled "smart" arrows
Deception. (I.e., dummies)
Military deception has a longer history than the Wikipedia article might suggest. The obvious famous one being the so called Trojan Horse.
At 200 yards, no-one is going to ...
- 24.1k
8
votes
What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
First possibility: there's no difference between PhoNE and gold, today. Large corporations mine gold, but it's valuable enough that medium and small (even hobbyist) miners can make a living (even gain ...
- 117k
8
votes
Accepted
What causes my expedition RTG to produce way less power when deployed in a magic realm
Quantum Demons
Suppose there is a magic user, or a class of them, that is capable of using magic to drain energy from nearby quantum fields. This explains the energy loss observed by your expedition, ...
- 14.2k
8
votes
How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
Living animals and sapients cannot be stored in hyperspace
Living Glitter Bomb Animals
So hear me out. Since this is in the distant future people have genetically engineered sticker like creatures ...
- 7,452
7
votes
Could Megaflora Sustain Permanent Settlements?
There are numerous science fiction instances where a megaflora provides an entire ecology for a society. Kevin Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns has the Therons. The Integral Trees is an archetypical ...
- 14.5k
7
votes
Avoiding time travel or causality stuff
The universe may have an in-built mechanism for causality protection, preventing wormholes specifically from forming time machines.
Wormholes as we understand them don't always form time machines. ...
- 6,405
6
votes
Avoiding time travel or causality stuff
You could just say that time travel doesn't happen. No, really - this isn't a cop-put. Sometimes nature is just like that.
Suppose you are looking at the Andromeda nebula. If you have good sight and ...
- 7,068
6
votes
What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
Artisanship
What's the difference between a McDonalds, a local Fish and Chip takeaway and Gordon Ramsay?
All of these could be considered as real-word proxies for your PhoNE resource. All of them are ...
- 19k
6
votes
What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
It decays
Your PhoNE might display properties of a fissile material like having a half-life, in cells or outside, therefore even if it's not expended, you would lose the contents of your PhoNE battery ...
- 6,466
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