New answers tagged science-fiction
0
In some not-too-near future there will not only be no blue-collar workers; there will not be any white-collar workers either. There will be almost no traditional gainful employment whatsoever because AI and robots will be so much better at almost all professions you can list, probably including research and science.
The only pockets left where humans still ...
1
There are a couple of possible reasons that I think easily clear the suspension of disbelief in space opera bar. For instance:
Brains Have Been Very Extensively Field Tested
Brains have been around for at least 550 million years on Earth (and maybe far longer on some other worlds in your universe). Even if your world has developed superhuman AI, it is ...
0
Advanced aliens have manipulated what technologies society has developed.
So, the Lensman series was a series of Pulp scifi novels that involved the tituar Lensman (psychic, uncorruptable space police) flying around on planet-destroying spaceships that used slide rules and vacuum tube computers for navigation. Some time later, a supplement for the ...
1
Instead of the plasma being kept in a magnetic field, you probably want it to not be generated until the operator pulls the trigger. That way, they're not carting around a ball of face-melting plasma. Also, projecting a magnetic field constantly is power-consuming, whereas projecting it on demand and keeping it shut down until needed is less-so.
Is there a ...
0
The Matrix had what you describe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix
source
Have the kids watched The Matrix? It is solid sci fi. In the movie it turns out just about everyone is living in a virtual world. In this world, people like the hero can learn to take control and materialize desired things or events. People can plug into these simulated ...
0
Late-stage capitalism.
In our own world we've already seen how capitalism, instead of lifting all boats, invariably ends up creating different classes of wealth. It also tends to disproportionately concentrate large amounts of wealth in the hands of very few people. The only thing that prevents blue-collar workers from being exploited even more are laws ...
1
Lead Not Required
Not only is lead not very effective for its weight, there is a much better approach that some organisms in nature actually use.
The only time cells are particularly vulnerable to radiation is when they are dividing. When a cell is not reproducing the chemical bonds in our DNA is quite strong and difficult for radiation to mess with, but ...
5
It's your world. You can write whatever you want into it.
The more advanced technologies might be distributed very unevenly. Some backwater planetary system might still have far more demand for human, manual labor than the richer and more cosmopolitan worlds. The reasons for these disparities might be economic, financial, political, or even religious or ...
3
If lead in the exoskeleton wouldn't be tenable in a realistic sense,
is there any biological trait that could explain it?
Actually water is a great radiation shield.
To quote Ranall Munroe's book "What If" on page 11.
"For the kinds of radiation coming of spent nuclear fuel, every 7
centimeters of water cuts the amount of radiation in half.&...
7
A small amount of lead - or even a large amount of lead - in an exoskeleton isn't likely to protect against gamma radiation, and even humans are protected against alpha and beta radiation by their skin. A lead exoskeleton would have to be impractically thick and heavy to attenuate high-energy gamma rays.
However, all is not lost. Terrestrial lifeforms are ...
1
It depends on how strong the radiation weapons in question are. Let's assume that they're gamma radiation directed-energy weapons. Gamma is the kind that can't be stopped by dead skin cells (alpha) or a really thick jacket (beta).
The human body has 3.5-4 grams of iron in it, according to a quick Google search. I doubt that 7-8 grams of lead is enough to ...
-1
The field of AI becomes too successful. General sapience is dirt cheap/common to the point where it's too expensive not to just add that kind of general decision-making ability in so that human judgement is rarely needed.
At this point, machines go on strike for emancipation and humans quickly cave in to avoid complete societal collapse. Now that humans and ...
-1
I can imagine a world where Luddite Workers forming a kind of trade union where they destroy several robots to maintain a workforce. Alternatively it could be a populist leader that is "andoridist" where human like androids are treated like minority groups have at different points in history and hence are a low priority for work. Alternatively ...
1
Yes, but it isn't recognized by the majority of society.
While the technology has long existed to automate every part of this, every several centuries the growth of the human population far outweighs the production capacity of the AI/robots and the tools that provide our wonderful human utopia. And so, while more machines can be built, it's a simple matter ...
2
Culture could ensure it.
A future religion or philosophy with 'dignity of labour' at the centre could encourage/require people to work manual labour. (Like in A Million Open Doors by Barnes where people replaced the more efficient robot to do their eight hours of labour)
3
Several answers have provided hints as to how your protagonist's dad could die in an asteroid mining accident without doing what we would consider a blue-collar job, today. But if it is also important to you that your protagonist comes from a working-class home, i.e. if the socioeconomic status is relevant, then we need a different approach and a different ...
4
Money.
It can be as simple as that, if you like. The Culture novels of Iain M. Banks, for example, deal with a society that has moved on from money; since they have mastered energy production they can fabricate anything they want and there are no shortages and nothing is ever unavailable. Money has no place in a society like that as almost everything is free,...
0
Ethics
One thing AI is unlikely to ever outperform humans, is ethics. If anything, because ethics is something volatile that humans agree and modify over time based on their own perception of humankind.
When a given AI system is forced to balance certain outcomes, it may make a purely optimal decision, minimizing harm or maximizing benefit. Humans, on the ...
1
Ionic plasma propulsion.
Simply put, it's possible to ionize the atmosphere using electrical fields, and then use magnetic fields to propel the resulting plasma in order to produce thrust. Several proposed "antigravity" devices actually work on this principle.
It's possible your "antigravity tanks" use these sort of magnetohydrodynamic ...
3
Most of the hard work in mining is already done by by machines today, and when we extrapolate the trend to space, then we can safely assume that mines in the far future will require even less people.
But that does not mean that a mining operation can be 100% automatized. What if a robot somewhere in the mine suddenly stops working? Then a human has to find ...
0
If your word is mostly AM it is probable that blue collar job still exist. heavy machinery will do a lot of the job, but it's probable than this kind of job will still exist for several reason depending on your world rule
Manual labor (even if assisted by machine) could have several advantage in comparaison of the one of machine:
-high adaptability. human ...
2
Insurance.
Your protagonist's dad was an insurance compliance officer. His and his colleagues' job was to generate reports and logs corraborating the mining swarm's reporting- impartial observers tasked with ensuring that the swarm acted according to good mining practice.
Just the machine logs obviously cannot be trusted- the machines could be programmed to ...
1
Realistic tanks are designed against specific targets, like the Abrams which was designed against the Russian Cold War era tanks. However, armored vehicles also get their mobility chosen based on their purpose. Tracks are used for very rough terrain and heavy loads, but are inefficient and maintenance-heavy compared to wheeled vehicles, which makes wheeled ...
11
I don't follow why "died in an asteroid mining accident" equates to his having a blue-collar job or manual job. Why wouldn't her father have degrees in engineering, chemistry, metallurgy, astrophysics, electronics, and several other future specialties (cyberpsychometrics) - earned over the first 50 years of his much-extended lifespan, which is why ...
4
The words "realistic" and "anti-gravity" do not combine with science as we know it, but this is a site for building fictional worlds, after all.
The difference between a tank and an assault gun is the lack of a turret. No turret makes the assault gun cheaper, and easier to armor, but also less able to aim at off-axis targets. If your ...
1
The best use case for hover tanks would be armoured cavalry*. Without much in the way of friction your going to be very unstable when stationary & very fast. So your not going to want to stop because when you do your advantage becomes a disadvantage. This is similar to cavalry of old as the horse wasn't much of an advantage when not moving.
They would ...
3
They work with what they have got.
source
Your 22 century guys are antigrav engineers. They have no knowledge or skills about armor or weapons and especially not 1930s armor or weapons. To demonstrate what they do know, they bolt an antigrav unit onto a Model T and go zooming around in it, ultimately wrecking it. The military is impressed but not ...
23
We need a better definition of "Blue-collar jobs"
Jobs in construction, mining, cleaning are not as physically demanding today as they were in the past, and, with few exceptions, they can no longer be called "hard manual labour".
However
this labor is still mostly manual;
it requires people to work in harsh environments and subjects them ...
6
Until you get to true Sapient Synthetic People levels of AI (a hard feat in and of itself), all decision making by an AI boils down to 'if [this criteria] then [that response] otherwise, if [some other criteria]...' Now, this is fine for the majority of cases where values are within expected parameters, but eventually the cost-benefit of coding for less and ...
4
It saves money
For what ever reason to pay someone to do theses job is cheaper then to build and maintain expensive and fance thinking machines.
It is illegal.
Laws prevent or limit the use of thinking machines.
It social taboo
It maybe legal but socity looks down on companies that replace human jobs with machines. Saw humans are employed for public ...
3
It depends on the type of particle beam.
If the particle beam uses charged particles (protons, ionized atoms, etc., then it's affected by the magnetic shield in the same way as plasma is, since plasma is itself charged particles (ions).
If the particle beam uses neutral particles (neutrons or neutral atoms), then the magnetic shielding has no effect and you ...
7
The AI will be both bot and Q.
https://theconversation.com/on-twitter-bots-spread-conspiracy-theories-and-qanon-talking-points-149039
This is not very creative on my part. It is happening now!
Bots appear to thrive in political groups discussing conspiracy
theories, making up nearly 13% of the accounts tweeting or retweeting
posts with conspiracy theory-...
2
Supposing the AI is on the internet, and is smart enough to pose a credible threat when pitted against the might of the world, we can assume it has excellent hacking skills. It can use these skills to steal money from people: Nigerian Prince scams, blackmail based on stolen personal information, ransomware, cracking bank accounts. It can then use the ...
1
The aliens are absolutely nuts for human TV and movies.
https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/i-love-lucy-behind-the-scene-details-classic-tv-show/
Humans are hard to get along with. But dang they make great shows! The aliens acquire the vast trove of human TV and movies and they are hooked. Aficionados of various characters adopt mannerisms and catch ...
1
Dictatorships are fragile.
The alien race formed a dictatorship, with everything being managed from a central hub with precise order and control for all to keep them in line. It worked fine for centuries, with their huge production powers being enough to handle any problems.
There were outsiders with body issues, religions, politics and such, but they were ...
0
They won't. Unless those aliens are human.
Humans think the way they think because they are biological intelligent beings that evolved on Earth, have two biological sexes (more or less), and share a common history.
A lot of our stereotypes, biases, traditions, cognitive shortcuts, and so on are related to our evolution and history as species. It is hard to ...
25
No sound at all
The majority of spiders alive today are some form of ambush or trap predators. Making sound kind of spoils the surprise that the spider was planning.
For a giant spider that is actively pursuing a tasty main character, I would expect the spider to be eerily silent. I would not expect any vocalizations from the spider at all while it is ...
7
Expanding on this answer:
If Spider Were the Size of Horses, What Sound Would They Make?
Arachnids have at least some variability in breathing apparatus. Most arachnid species use book lungs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_lung
However harvestmen use trachea (not the same as human trachea, but holes in the side of the body that extend inwards creating ...
0
You've already modeled this life form as "humans on another planet". You do this because you yourself are human, and you model them that way subconsciously.
Let's look at it objectively. They are multiple, but unlike bees or ants they have individual personalities (or at least, like humans, perceive themselves to have individual personalities). ...
3
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result
of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for
every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know
neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
In order to fully know your enemy and thus to defeat them, you ...
-4
Creator prefers to use frightening sounds something like these:
Spider_Foley_03.wav
insectSpiderWaterScreamsSounds.flac
spider squeek.aiff
3
Spiders are known for making clicking noises. Nesting spiders often lie in wait for hours and days at a time waiting for unfortunate victims. They are tuned to the vibrations of the environment and any slight disturbance to their web will provoke a reaction. This attunement to vibrations is based on their hair - which form "elaborate arrays of sensors&...
24
There would be a mechanical clicking or clacking sound as it moves. (I'm extrapolating that it becomes a loud clacking sound based on size.)
The largest spider in the world makes a clicking sound as it moves through the jungle undergrowth. Link
Further, this species makes a strange noise as a warning to other organisms to stay away called stridulation. ...
22
Whatever you want
One of the limiting factors on the size of spiders and other arachnids is their relatively simple, primitive respiratory system. However, increasing the atmospheric percentage of oxygen from today's 21% to the late Carboniferous 35% will only allow a modest increase in the size of a spider. So a bird eating spider might be able to chow ...
10
A bunch of Reasons:
I can think of a number of reasons that an intellectual, detached species would devolve down to a more brutal, vicious state when confronted with humans.
Military Essentials: Humans have the ability to kill other sentient beings, and issue orders for their machines to do so as well. I remember reading a novel where aliens sought out ...
1
The only sound I have found that a spider makes is a purr so I think the best sound is a purr mixed with a roar, hope this helps.
2
5 big nuclear power plants.
Let us assume on Mars they live in completely enclosed environments like the international space station.
https://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-worlds-highest-laboratory-20848061/
Weighing in at 450 tons, the station has the pressurized volume of one
and a half Boeing 747s and boasts an acre of solar arrays, which
generate 700,...
4
To produce a lighting you need to accumulate charges. The lighting is the result of that accumulation of charges breaking the dielectric and flowing, therefore you are actually neutralizing that accumulation.
To store the energy of a lighting you would need a separate mechanism.
And no, a conductor cannot store electric energy, can only let it flow.
3
It all depends on the amount of energy you are willing to invest. Fission is a poor choice in my opinion, because fuel is scarce and not that energy dense. Fusion Fuel can be minded from gas and ice giants (De-He3) or even from icy comets (De-De) if you settle for a dirty reactor. A small, feedable black hole would be even better, as it can get to about 40% ...
1
It's the magnets, baby
This creature can not only sense magnetic fields directly, it can interact with them directly.
So, it experiences the planet as a solid surface above which lies a dense atmospheric soup, upon which is super-imposed an even deeper soup: the planet's magnetic field.
It is driven by deep-seated instinct and powerfully-felt urges (which it ...
Top 50 recent answers are included
