120
votes
Accepted
How to prevent superluminal traveling idiots from wrecking half of the universe?
But in most stories, FTL doesn't actually follow Newton's 1st law; everybody knows that once your hyperdrive fails, you're dead in the water. Otherwise, the Enterprise could hit warp 9.9 and easily ...
- 3,559
116
votes
Why might the government keep the gold at Fort Knox, even though super-villains steal it all the time?
Supervillains are going to commit huge crimes somewhere. It's what they do. The trick is to predict them, and the easiest way to do that it to bait them.
Ft. Knox is well-known and (in theory) highly ...
- 38.8k
101
votes
Accepted
Why might the government keep the gold at Fort Knox, even though super-villains steal it all the time?
Tour Ft. Knox, the world's second-biggest distraction (just behind Area-51)
You bet there's gold in Ft. Knox! Everybody knows that. Little Johnny down the street knows that! Tibetan monks in ...
- 132k
100
votes
Accepted
Security measures that could plausibly last 150+ years?
I know you want proper booby traps, but I doubt they would be the biggest dangers or challenges of invading a military base. Security measures would have a far larger impact.
Firstly a 1 meter thick ...
- 15.3k
85
votes
Accepted
How could intelligent animals defend against humans?
First thought would be "make an army of lions, bears, tigers, wolves or whatever top predator you have". But that would be wrong. All of them are easily spottable from a distance, and are good targets ...
- 301k
78
votes
How to prevent superluminal traveling idiots from wrecking half of the universe?
1. Space is mostly empty
If you pull the trigger on this, you're ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime
Well, not necessarily. There's so much empty space between anything interesting in the ...
- 3,667
74
votes
Accepted
How do I keep my slimes from escaping their pens?
Bundt cake pen.
Frisky slimes gotta move! If it hits a dead end it will start looking for cracks or go up the wall. But if there is a path of least resistance the slime will take it. It will head ...
- 306k
69
votes
Why might the government keep the gold at Fort Knox, even though super-villains steal it all the time?
Plausible deniability for ransom
Between abut 800 AD and 1066 AD, Viking raiders terrorized Europe.
The raids reached such a pitch that local kings would pay ransom to Viking bands to leave them ...
- 2,451
63
votes
Accepted
Creating a uncopyable physical key
As any good locksmith will tell you, any lock anywhere can be fooled. Not all of them can be picked with a bump set, but they can be accessed, one way or another.
There's nothing that it would be ...
- 32.1k
63
votes
How could intelligent animals defend against humans?
Animals hire the mercenaries.
There is nothing better at fighting humans than other humans. Mercenaries are fighters for hire. Appoint a spokesanimal. This talking crow will visit the mercenaries ...
- 306k
60
votes
Designing a time thief proof safe
Just track it
Since:
Nothing other than foreverium is forever
You're a time traveller
There's no real reason to worry about this ring, whoever has it right now is as ephemeral as any security system....
- 118k
56
votes
Security measures that could plausibly last 150+ years?
I'm thinking in an entirely different direction. In one of the Indiana Jones movies he met this cult that was dedicated to protecting a relic and keeping unworthy people from getting it. Suppose that, ...
- 9,601
55
votes
Creating a uncopyable physical key
Two-Factor Authentication! Can you broaden your acceptable answer to allow the key to be combined with something else? For example:
The lock requires the physical key plus exactly one drop of blood ...
- 1,674
53
votes
How do I keep my slimes from escaping their pens?
Glass jugs
Make them big enough to accommodate your slimes; the slime should fill the bottom few inches and most of the jug should be empty space to prevent escapes.
A slime that climbs up the wall ...
- 85.8k
53
votes
Accepted
Designing a time thief proof safe
The correct answer is to just join the crowd of time travelers getting their own foreverium ring at Evaporation Point.
Think about how you've described your foreverium ring for a second. It's ...
- 1,558
50
votes
How could intelligent animals defend against humans?
Honestly, the humans don't stand a chance.
Go the Viet Cong route, various types of pit traps and deadfalls. With a plethora of burrowing and gnawing animals these will be very easy for the forest ...
- 82.7k
47
votes
Where can I transform without being noticed?
It's not villains you need fear, it's your own government. And in the modern world you're screwed.
There are more cameras watching us than ever before. Heck, if a spy agency realizes where your ...
- 34.7k
46
votes
Creating a uncopyable physical key
Too many answers with "uncopyable key is impossible" advises, so I have to stand up.
There is no need to jump directly to quantum magic to argue and show that to replicate a quantum system one has to ...
- 6,499
43
votes
What measures to put in place to reduce airlock being used for murder?
A couple ideas:
If there's vacuum on the outside of the airlock, then the outer door can only be activated from within the airlock itself. There's also an override within the airlock to prevent the ...
- 8,340
42
votes
What measures to put in place to reduce airlock being used for murder?
Space Navy Code D.E.E.P/6 para 4
I think you're possibly looking at this from the wrong direction. You're proposing a scenario where the death penalty is a legitimate punishment. You say the air lock ...
- 41.3k
41
votes
Accepted
How to secure a 16th century warehouse?
Guards - The well-paid guards rotate randomly, so they never know which part of the warehouse they will guard when they will be working, or with whom they will work. This prevents a potential thief ...
- 4,222
41
votes
What transfer of goods would require a large military escort these days?
Spent nuclear fuel.
From here:
Spent fuel needs to go from where it was used to where it will be stored. These are convoys with military escorts.
Transportation Security
The NRC and the ...
- 306k
41
votes
What would prevent growing minions as cannon fodder from being a viable alternative to hiring henchmen?
Your Accountant
"I'm sorry, Count de Bloochump, but you just don't have enough money to build a secret cloning/zoomwomb/indoctrination base under Mount Rushmore. Let alone the monumental bribes ...
- 28.9k
40
votes
Protecting Seals from Forgery
Not sure why you'd want to do that in the same room, but a low barrier with glass or a wire mesh should keep the seals away from the forge.
(See reference picture ↓)
...wait, all the other answers ...
- 2,349
38
votes
Castle Moat Full of Zombies
The zombies will NEVER get over the walls.
Why?
Physics. Zombies are basically human bodies that are still moving despite being in varying stages of decomposition. Human bodies are mostly water. ...
- 9,649
36
votes
Accepted
How do we destroy data permanently in a world where time travel is easily done?
Go back in time, and prevent the data from being created in the first place. If it never existed, it cannot be retrieved.
If you wanted to make sure you have a private copy without creating a paradox, ...
- 34.8k
35
votes
Encryption - How to claim authorship anonymously?
The tech you're looking for is Digital Signing. You use public/private key encryption. With this kind of encryption, anything encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key. ...
- 26.1k
34
votes
Protecting Seals from Forgery
Make the seal a signature
Specifically, a cryptographic signature.
The mathematics of an asymmetric cipher like RSA would be accessible to the Victorians, although they might not fully understand ...
- 9,222
31
votes
How would a secret tunnel be kept entirely secret?
The other answers cover how to stop someone just randomly turning up, but not how to stop a dedicated search team that tracks her down.
There's an alternative. The protagonist's family made an ...
- 41.6k
29
votes
Why might the government keep the gold at Fort Knox, even though super-villains steal it all the time?
TL;DR: Ft. Knox is the best place to put it.
Secure.
Super villains break it about every year. That's costly. Still better than Joe random breaking it every month!
At least, in Ft. Knox, ONLY super ...
- 3,383
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible