45 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

Feasible Can I have a universe with X? Yes you can! If anyone tells you otherwise, tell them their argument fails because they are using the logic of this universe. Your other universe has different ...
Daron's user avatar
  • 66.2k
23 votes
Accepted

How would I pull off FTL travel in a universe where inter-universal travel is also widely used?

I am going to reference one of the coolest Aircraft ever - the SR71 blackbird for my answer. It was powered by two forms of Jet Engine - the first was the standard Jet engine the J58 engine - Here ...
TheDemonLord's user avatar
  • 24.7k
14 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

Thier Universe had a a Progenitor Race, Ours Did Not A progenitor race is a common trope in science fiction that a intelligent race existed before mankind. In your other universe, some intelligent ...
Nosajimiki's user avatar
  • 92.8k
13 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

Focusing only on how to increase the likelihood of life and not on how to overcome problems like FTL travel between star systems... As I mentioned in my comments, the basic chemistry leading to life ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 122k
12 votes

How to create three new chemical elements?

New elements are not scientifically plausible at all. There are no unfilled gaps in the periodic table, and almost no prospect of undiscovered stable elements above the current top end. So if you are ...
Mike Scott's user avatar
  • 20.2k
8 votes

How Much of the Universe Could Humanity Conquer?

This can't really be answered without knowing the FTL capabilities of the civilization, but here are a few non-FTL realities. Right now, at this very moment, if you started moving away from Earth at ...
Robert Rapplean's user avatar
7 votes

How would I pull off FTL travel in a universe where inter-universal travel is also widely used?

Broken symmetry of dimensions We're used to all three of our dimensions being interchangeable, but that isn't a given. If you posit a five dimensional universe it's possible for travel in the fourth ...
Robert Rapplean's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

The Great Filter isn't so great. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter This is more ammunition for your thinking than a real solution, because "the real solution" requires picking one ...
JamieB's user avatar
  • 7,652
5 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

I'm going to focus on "How could it come about?" When trying to understand the "special circumstances" that allow Earth to harbor life, the thing you hear over and over is that ...
Robert Rapplean's user avatar
4 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

Earlier life formation You could use a non-sentient progenitor race. Just say a 'small' amount of organisms (some bacteria?) came into existence very early into the universe's formation through some ...
vinzzz001's user avatar
  • 767
4 votes

How can I make the lowest plane of existence in my novel relevant and important?

The higher planes are everlasting only because of the lower planes Lower planes spawn in at time to time and materials isekai up to higher planes. This allows them to sustain themselves and keep on ...
Nepene Nep's user avatar
  • 38.8k
4 votes

How can I make the lowest plane of existence in my novel relevant and important?

Natural Resources People keep coming back to the lower planes, because the lower planes are full of raw materials that everyone wants. They have coal, oil, gems, ore, arable land, forests for lumber. ...
Daron's user avatar
  • 66.2k
3 votes

How to create three new chemical elements?

You cannot create chemical elements this way. But, this is not where it has to end. Maybe you could try exotic matter. That entails matter that has been specifically tailored to meet your needs, and ...
Jani Miettinen's user avatar
3 votes

Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth?

Water Is Magic In the void between stars, countless balls of rock drift. On them, H2O is a crystalline solid, inert and relatively nonreactive. Meanwhile, around stars, H20 can be a solid, but it can ...
ltmauve's user avatar
  • 5,417
3 votes

How would Mathematics and Sciences had developed in a strongly non-Euclidean universe?

The Same Science and Maths would have developed in the same manner. Experiments and reason, logic and imagination, used to suss out the way the universe works. Find something you expect to be true; ...
Daron's user avatar
  • 66.2k
3 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

There is theoretical life that was proposed to live in atmosphere of Venus, above the sulfuric acid clouds. There is theoretical life proposed to life in Martian soil and underground. Europa is ...
Reverent Lapwing's user avatar
2 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

This is something of a frame challenge, though only a very minor one and I hope it's helpful. We don't actually know what leads to the origin of life. Some people think it requires very specific ...
N. Virgo's user avatar
  • 5,362
2 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

Minor frame challenge: what if life is more common only in the solar system? Ie. don't worry about the whole universe. It would be easier to justify. Suppose humankind's technological development in ...
Jani Miettinen's user avatar
2 votes

Is there any general word for a space between universes?

A space between universes within multiverse is often considered not as a real space, but as a boundary of sorts. Consider the words: border edge ridge veil Also, since the space between worlds is ...
legolegs's user avatar
  • 151
2 votes

How Much of the Universe Could Humanity Conquer?

This is the premise behind Drake's equation. Suppose a civilisation felt required to expand into the rest of the universe, how far would it go before it met another one coming in the other direction. ...
Richard Kirk's user avatar
  • 8,618
2 votes
Accepted

Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth?

You want a scientific answer as to why magic is possible in Elidra and not in our universe. That, of course, is a fundamentally flawed premise, seeing as our current understanding of science doesn't ...
Abion47's user avatar
  • 594
2 votes

Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth?

There is no magic on either side As the title states Elidrian have no magic, though it looks that way. One thing that fantasy genre have developed/matured is the idea that the sequence of settings ...
Anketam's user avatar
  • 7,532
2 votes

Alternate universe where life is more common; is it feasible?

“Where life is more common; is that feasible?” Yes, in an alternate Universe, you have pretty much complete liberty as a writer. Your alternate universe could even have alternate physics. It’s ...
Kal Madda's user avatar
  • 1,851
2 votes

How would I pull off FTL travel in a universe where inter-universal travel is also widely used?

Think of it with flattened dimensions, if 2d represnts normal space and hight represents extra dimensions then this questions has a more obvious answer. A car is able to let you travel fast on land ...
aork 123's user avatar
2 votes

How would I pull off FTL travel in a universe where inter-universal travel is also widely used?

Maybe not make it impossible, but EXTREMELY dangerous to use the engines interchangeably? This would allow you more wiggle room for plot shenanigans. Consider The idea that Universal jump simply ...
Going Durden's user avatar
  • 2,217
1 vote

How would I pull off FTL travel in a universe where inter-universal travel is also widely used?

It's turtles Rift Drives all the way down... (Concept shamelessly lifted from John Scalzi's Old Man's War series; the books are excellent if you're looking for something to read.) Technically speaking,...
In Hoc Signo's user avatar
  • 10.5k
1 vote

How can I make the lowest plane of existence in my novel relevant and important?

School There is too much power in the other planes. Wise souls descend to learn where doing things is difficult. Once you master how to do where it's difficult, you can use it much more effectively ...
Mary's user avatar
  • 28.8k
1 vote

Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth?

Elidra is in a different universe. Just because that universe allows the existence of humans doesn't mean that the laws of physics are exactly the same. The laws of physics concerning chemistry would ...
Monty Wild's user avatar
  • 60.3k
1 vote

Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth?

Humans have had this forever. It's done by God, gods, demons, witches, warlocks & a myriad of other ways. Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality Because they ...
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 26.5k
1 vote

Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth?

Based on what we currently know about our universe, our laws of physics cannot generate magic. Ergo, if we co-exist in the same universe with some region where magic exists, the laws of the magical ...
Logan R. Kearsley's user avatar

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible