New answers tagged science-fiction
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Provided technical knowledge is evenly spread:
It can't.
Given a need for equipment or personnel, it is always faster to build your own than to send off for it, given the time involved.
Or can it?
What can work is a steady stream of deliveries. If you receive an annual delivery of sufficient equipment to meet the years need, there is no reason to build ...
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Your empire's main constraint seems to be the large lag time. This is obviously problematic because it makes it very difficult for anyone to order anything for delivery since conditions may have changed significantly by the time the item is received (if the purchaser is still alive, which they likely won't be).
Your economic system, therefore, revolves ...
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What would happen first is that when the Earth crust and mantle are broken up it would create a little ring around the rest of the planet. You also say that only the crust and mantle are broken up, and this would mean all the other pieces will come crashing down to Earth. This is because Earth's core and mantle are like 70 to 80 percent of Earth's mass so it ...
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The industry probably was able to transport materials because they already started the journey ten years before to make up for the time delay. The industry could also try selling the things it needs to sell to places closer than were they want to sell to make additional profit in the short term too. Also maybe time dilation probably made 10 years seem like a ...
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I am shocked an amazed that nobody already mentioned anaerobic respiration--the actual usage of oxidizers-that-are-worse-than-oxygen by actual real organisms on Earth!
Fluorine is not a weaker oxidizer than oxygen, so that's out.
Chlorine is, and the remaining halogens but it's hard to imagine a situation where there would be enough free chlorine in the ...
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THIS IS OF COURSE NOT LEGAL ADVICE I AM NOT A LAWYER I AM JUST A GUY CONSIDERING THIS ON THE INTERNET
In my story, my MC ends up hosting a known (and common) alien life form within their head to keep it alive by joining with another sentient being; as a result, both host and alien life form's personality is infused while it's still inside her. This was ...
4
Nothing good
Let's have a look at a few data points along the way to the impossible humanoid:
343 m/s (approx.) supersonic flyby of F/A-18 Hornet in Mythbusters episode to test if sonic boom will break glass. Glass was broken in a pass at 200 feet (60 m) above a test shed.
1200 m/s was the muzzle velocity of the British Ordnance QF 17-pounder, which fired ...
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FTL Alcubierre is No Longer Possible; This May Fix the Time Travel Problem
The Alcubierre drive works by applying a Lorentz contraction ahead of the ship and a similar expansion behind it.
This would move the whole bubble at the speed of gravity, which was not known until very recently, and many hoped might be much higher than the speed of light.
...
1
A major function of taxation is to encourage or discourage certain activities. For instance, if the state wants to encourage saving, they can increase interest rates and raise various sales taxes; or vice versa, if they want to encourage spending, they can cut taxes, increase benefits, which amps up inflation, which encourages people to spend now before the ...
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When you're dealing with antimatter, there are 3 C's of challenges to overcome: cost, creation, and containment. The OP states that creating large quantities of antimatter is now feasible, and, I assume, cost-effective, so we'll treat the first and second challenges as solved. That leaves containment.
Containing antimatter is very hard, but, I'd argue, not ...
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As others have pointed out, Antimatter is difficult to both produce and contain.
The most well known property of antimatter is that, for each matter particle, there exists an oppositely charged but otherwise identical "anti" particle. The complete picture is a little more complicated as other quantum properties are also reversed. For instance, anti-neutrons ...
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Things to be used as a weapon require that you have a dedicated "arming" mechanism. It's good if the arming mechanism is redundant to the normal node of activation. It's also good if the mechanism is passive. For production of weapons its good if you have passive precursors and store only a small quantity of the unstable stuff.
By definition in an armed ...
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Taxation might still have a place in a post-scarcity economic system, depending on what goals the government is trying to achieve. I find Modern Monetary Theory is enlightening when looking at the relationships between governments, money, and taxation, and one of the things it teaches us is that governments don't tax you because they need your money -- they ...
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Radiation hazards.
When a particle more complex than an electron annihilates with its antiparticle, the result is a mess of weird gluons whose ultimate child particles depends on what else they run into. Unless you're very careful to annihilate isolated particles, the way people do in physics experiments, you can end up with products like high-energy ...
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It is so hard to keep the matter out and the antimatter in.
Antimatter makes wet dynamite look like Wonder bread. Stale Wonder bread. If you look at antimatter wrong it will blow up.
To contain antimatter you must meticulously keep away any particle of matter. This means the antimatter must be under total vacuum. I am not sure how one would generate a ...
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Storage:
Antimatter cannot be stored easily or safely.
How do you contain it?
The risk to other matter such as equipment and personnel seems quite large. Larger than, say, using a thermonuclear device.
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Complex life is known from the Precambrian. The Ediacaran biota from the very end of the Precambrian and includes a number of complex life forms, including the meter-long Dickinsonia, the triradial Tribrachidium, and the sea pen-like rangeomorphs. Other animals are thought to represent early bilaterians. Complex algae are known from over a billion years ago.
...
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In a post scarcity world, you could actually argue that taxation is abstracted. In effect, you pay the state a behavioral tax and in exchange you get sustenance, relative safety, and enough arbitrary credits to amuse yourself.
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I think, at least the way I understand the US legal system, they would be held accountable. If you look at cases of defenses for DID (formerly MPD Multiple Personality Disorder) claiming that an alternate state of consciousness (another "personality") committed a crime doesn't hold up in a court and the person still goes to jail. Especially if the fact ...
4
Yes. Required service to the state can strengthen a society.
You want to /make this society function/. A society is an assembly of humans. The best way to unite humans is to have them strive towards a common goal and share that experience together. In your future society (and in our current societies!) there is a real risk of individuals becoming ...
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My gut instinct is, legally, while perhaps not identical, it would closely parallel an insanity plea.
I'm not a lawyer so I don't know the details of how this would play out, but in the United States there's a variety of criteria depending on the state.
One common element among states, emphasis mine, is:
In states that allow the insanity defense, ...
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Let's start with your question :
So would taxes still be required to make this society function now that all money and produce are controlled by the state, can be 'freely' created, and [money] serves moreso a moral goal rather than to pay for things?
Tax what ?
The state gives the money in the first place (why it uses money is another question, as money ...
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No - if the State owns everything there is no place for tax. The post-scarcity society you describe would be a far more extreme form of communism than has ever actually existed - even in the USSR it was official labour that was effectively 'communised' rather than all possessions.
The only purpose might be a form of 'claw back' in a society that placed an ...
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No. What you are describing is a post-scarcity economy and as the individual citizens no longer have to work to provide for their basic sustenance, so also, the government does not have to tax its citizens to pay for its needs. Everything it needs to operate would come out of the same pool of automatically manufactured goods as provides for the citizens. ...
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Diminished responsibility is probably the mitigation that your MC will use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminished_responsibility
The MC will stand trial based on the criminal actions that were committed (blowing up the ship), they may attempt to convince a court that lesser charges apply (e.g. war crime->manslaughter), which the court may or may not ...
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I would consider researching criminal charges where someone has a split personality.
https://gould.usc.edu/why/students/orgs/ilj/assets/docs/10-2%20Saks_Article.pdf
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02238859
How does your community view alien/human mind-melds?
Is this like an illicit drug? Your MC should have known better, so is criminally ...
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It takes a lot of energy to change the altitude of an object's orbit (or to tilt the plane of its orbit). So, if the original explosion wasn't powerful enough to send the fragments flying into space immediately, then all the fragments will still be in pretty much the same orbit the Earth was, no matter how much later you return.
That doesn't mean, however, ...
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Yes, it would probably stay close by unless the explosion was very powerful.
The gravitational binding energy of earth is pretty high. Some chunks might acquire enough energy to escape, but the planet in general would still be gravitationally bound, and the chunks would be a moon, a ring, or collide back into the Earth.
If you want something really weird ...
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In order to be held accountable, all elements of the crime must be satisfied. As you've not defined the crime the character has been accused or convicted of, it's difficult to provide a precise answer, but the principle consideration is 'mens rea', or intent.
The law is quite clear that where a person lacks intent, they cannot be held liable, except for ...
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The answer cannot be black or white.
Several factors have to be taken into account, and it also depends on the legislation.
Factors to be taken into account:
is the existence of the life form acknowledged by the mass? If in my real world I say that I stole a car because the purple jeejuice living in my garden told me, I would at most declared insane.
is ...
answered May 29 at 7:00
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
1. Magnetic / Electric effects
Dialysis is a slow process. It would be critical to neutralise the prooxcyte quickly.
Under a magnetic field, tiny particles can clump together:
Under electric current, chemical reactions can occur (like during electrolysis or the charging of a car battery.) This happens in addition to the obvious stimulation of nerves and ...
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
Some times you can't eliminate a chemical from the body: you have to let the body eliminate it, usually through the liver (that's what the liver does: it modifies many substances into forms that are usable elsewhere, including the kidneys where their metabolites can be excreted).
If that's the case, and it's fairly common, you just need to treat the ...
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
If you have people with telekinetic powers, get one of them to locate and extract the material from her body that way.
TBH, if you're going to throw in things like 'unknown radiation' then science isn't really an issue.
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
"removed [or neutralized]" - 'Push Narcan!'
Commonly heard on medical drama TV shows when the patient is overdosing on opioids, which is its real world use. You'll have to invent whatever neutralizes 'midichlorians'.
Shortness of breath is usually at the highest level of concern during triage.
In Singapore it's a Priority Level 1 (P1). In the UK it's ...
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
There's three main ways we remove things from blood.
1) Supportive care so the body's natural systems can handle it. So, proper hydration and electrolyte balance, cardiopulmonary support if necessary to make sure the kidneys and liver get enough oxygen, and in some cases there are medicines that target specific contaminants.
2) Dialysis. The same thing ...
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
Bloodletting and transfusion
Hopefully, it won't even get to that. It's what the liver is for, after all. In general, any foreign contaminant to your blood is removed by either the kidneys or the liver, though mostly it's the liver. Any kind of poison inserted into someone's blood will eventually be processed by the liver. If the subject isn't in immediate ...
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With as much scientific accuracy as possible, how would chemicals injected in one's body be removed?
If the chemical is carried by blood, a dialysis machine is a simple but effective possibility, assuming the chemical can be filtered.
dialysis, usually refers to hemodialysis: A medical procedure to remove fluid and waste products from the blood and to correct electrolyte imbalances. This is accomplished using a machine and a dialyzer, also referred to ...
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Adding to L.Dutch's answer. I think this situation is worse than a Cold War-esque arms race. I think you are looking at inevitable total war. You will see hegemonies form, analogous to NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Then, someone on Side A will use a banned weapon. Maybe it's an accident, maybe it's on purpose, it doesn't matter. Side B will decide it was ...
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The edict is enforced by a mysterious group.
The Watchers date back to the late 23d century - a group which took possession of all remaining weapons and which dedicates itself to preventing their future use. The Watchers themselves are enigmatic - it is not clear where new recruits to their numbers come from, or if there are new recruits. Some Watchers ...
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I see an issue.
A prescription is enforceable if the sanction for not observing it is deemed realistically executable.
When you prescribe
exotic weapons may be utilized in the purge
You are basically stating "having exotic weapons is forbidden, and if you do, I will use my exotic weapons to punish you". This is a logical shortcircuit, because every ...
answered May 23 at 15:04
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It could be in a bush reserve. For example, Kepa bush reserve is right next to a shopping centre, but has very steep and uneven ground; you generally wouldn't want to leave the path. The portal might not be visible from the path, and being covered by vegetation barely visible right next to it. A portal might not be lost until some children decided to play ...
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you could create matter out of nothing near a black hole, you just need to wait till spontaneous creation of a particle/antiparticle pair and for one of them to be sucked into the black hole. Boom you have a free particle. multiply times gazillion, profit!
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Not quite sure if this is what you are looking for, but, in theory, you could increase the characters “maximum rate of temporal information processing in the visual system.” You can look at this website here -
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/166694-small-animals-see-the-world-in-slow-motion-or-why-your-puppy-is-so-hyperactive
Just replace "small ...
1
Yes, or - not really.
Yes, since hey, that's your story. You don't even need to explain it too much. For example in the Safehold series, the main character is almost in the position you describe, and they has "governors" embedded in their body so that it can mimic normal human reflexes. What these governors are, or how they might work (do they queue pseudo-...
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Kurzgesagt has a nice video about black holes in which they introduce 2 methods to harvest energy from a black hole. One is the Penrose process as mentioned in a previous answer (you drop a thing into the black hole while going around it for a boost) and the other is building a mirror array around the hole and shooting EM waves through a hole in the array (...
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To maximize the energy output of a black hole, you want it to be relatively small as the smaller it is the more hawking radiation it outputs. But you also have to keep feeding it matter so it doesn't completely evaporate.
I suggest you look into the idea of Kugelblitz drives for starships, as you you'll likely find answers to a lot of the questions you have ...
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One wave of the hands.
Your people traveled through dimensional doorways that you invented for the story. Since the transdimensional
doorways
are already invented (and no-one can complain about their physics!)
, use those. Stuff from that original dimension continues to stream through them in energetic, coruscating streams. It is not great for our ...
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Sagittarius A is orbited by a number of stars. Here is the current list. Most of them are way more massive than the Sun, and thus give off more energy.
You could harvest a lot of energy from the star system with regular solar panels, or multiple Dyson spheres. You can then beam the energy to the base planet.
Removing energy from the black hole directly ...
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The Penrose Process
This is a way to extract energy from a spinning black hole. It is similar to the classic sci-fi trope where you slingshot a spacecraft around a rotating body. In both cases you launch something near a heavy rotating body so that what emerges afterwards has greater energy that what went in, and the body is rotating slightly slower.
You ...
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A black hole, if it has an accretion disk, will cause said disk to radiate X rays, due to the dissipation of the momentum carried by the matter falling in it.
Just harvest those X rays and convert them to usable energy, more or less like we do with our solar panels.
answered May 20 at 16:49
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